Neptune Day

I've known March 15 as the Ides of March, but at sea it's Neptune Day. Without being totally clear on all the details, Neptune Day involves crossing the equator and an elaborate ceremony to graduate pollywogs into shellbacks. Or something like that. Mostly, it involves the crew getting sweet revenge on us passengers by marching through the halls at 7am with drums and cymbals as a wake-up call and then driving everyone up to the top deck for a ceremony with King Neptune, Queen Minerva, and a fish.

Sunset on the evening of March 14. Talent show followed soon after.

Our wake-up call this morning.

It's also a little ironic that right before Neptune Day, I got my Mac wet and it conked out. Oswin, the IT crew member, disassembled it and dried it out under a heat lamp for 36 hours. I'm back in business. I'm overdue on a paper and have emails to catch up on, but at least I've got a readable computer rather than one with wavy screen.

Ceremonial procession for Neptune Day. The pool was clean at that point but is being drained and refilled after the slime, waterfights, haircuts, etc.

Ellen and I discuss shaving. At this point, we've become shellbacks after dunking in the pool and kissing the fish and the captain's–er–Neptune's ring.

Oh, and some people opt to shave for Neptune Day. I guess I'm easily swayed. Jasper was not having it, so he's got all his hair. Me, I've got a little less.

 Professor Ed Sobey and I grimace, Does it feel breezy in here?

Ellen and Chenxi.

Things are exciting on the ship right now as we're in transit; we've got a short 12-hour fueling stop scheduled in two days for Mauritius followed by a long stretch to South Africa. Neptune Day was today, and last night was a talent show by the crew. I figured I'd get there good and early a half-hour ahead of time, but it was already packed at that point with almost all the students, so I crammed into a small plot of floor space. We saw dances, songs (Gangnam Style, Bollywood, etc.), bands (Sweet Child O' Mine, Too Late to Apologize), and one big screaming audience. Coming up soon is Sea Olympics day, and the staff and families are coalesced one sea against the residence halls who are named after worldwide seas. We're the Gray Sea–I'm not really sure that's actually a sea but more a comment on our hair–against the Adriatic, etc.