Woke up this morning feeling slightly worse for wear – I wonder why?! 😀 Decided that today was going to be a booze-free day. While Trevor went to the Palms Café for breakfast, I decided I would give it a miss, and instead make use of the tea and coffee facilities in the cabin. Trevor said he would fetch me back an orange juice and muffin, as the malaria tablets we were taking needed to be taken with food. 🙂
When he came back from the restaurant he had his GPS with him, and it showed that we were actually crossing the Equator at that moment, heading north again. We were due back in the open sea tonight, where we would spend another three days at sea before arriving back in Barbados.
We didn’t really do much today apart from pass the time pleasantly on our balcony, or wander around the decks. At 11.30am the Braemar put on a “Crossing the Line” ceremony. We went up to the pool deck in good time to bag a decent view. “King Neptune” and his entourage “boarded the vessel” where there were a couple of thrones laid out for the king and his queen. Some of them were dressed as mermaids, as well as a mad doctor, a sullen deck cleaner, and other characters, a lot of them men in drag! Cruise Director Ricky was the clerk of the court, reading out the charges.
Certain members of staff had to kneel before King Neptune to answer why they were daring to venture into his realm by crossing the Equator. It was a “trial” and invariably each person was found guilty. For punishment, they had to be soaked in ice and “seaweed” (in reality, green crepe paper which stained the water a lovely emerald colour) then thrown into the swimming pool in all their clothes! It was very funny, especially when they all grabbed Ricky himself and threw him in! All good fun. 😀
Later that night we found we’d received a Crossing the Line certificate. We’ve also got them for crossing the Arctic Circle (in 1999 and 2008) and the International Date Line (2009) so this was another one to add to our collection.
After dinner that evening we went along to the Neptune Lounge for the show. As it was Valentine’s Day, they put on a rendition of “Mr & Mrs” and asked for three couples. We didn’t volunteer this time, as we’d already won it on our previous cruise, so we thought we’d let someone else have a go. 🙂
The cabaret this time featured Andrew Green the magician for the first half, then Jamie Michael Stewart the singer for the second half. Not the best show you’ll ever see, but decent enough.
The quiz tonight was Valentine themed. Once again we didn’t win! 🙂
As we were now in the open sea and no longer at the mouth of the Amazon (and therefore bug-free), we were able to prop open our balcony door overnight once more. 🙂