'Crossing the Line'

Friday 13 May.

 

The Sinfonia crossed the equator this morning and there was to be King Neptune's ceremony for those crossing 'the line' for the first time. Although I had crossed it previously I didn't go through the ceremony and decided to do it this time. The ship entered the northern hemisphere at 8:30 am but the activities were to start later at 11:00 am. This gave plenty of time to do other things before it began especially with an extra hour from the clock change.

 

I got up at 6:00 am my time but it was now officially 5:00 am and went up top to get coffee. The decks were awash with water, I thought at first it was from hosing the desks they do before most people get up but there was far to much water underfoot but there was rain in the air, there must have been a downpour earlier. I was wearing my slippers and they got a bit wet wading through the water. After getting the drinks I took the lift down to our floor and walked along the carpeted corridor rather than the wet open upper deck.

 

When we finished out coffee it was out for our walk. The track was a bit wet and I was careful in case it was slippery when we walked fast. Fortunately it seemed to be a non-slip surface and we were able to get up to our normal fast pace. There weren't many people out this morning, either they had changed their watches and it was too early or the wet conditions had put them off. It put me off after having completed 2 laps, it began to rain heavily again. I decided to stop and go to the gym but Moira continued for her half hour then another 30 minutes in the pool.

 

I had a good long session in the gym to make up for missing it yesterday. I concentrated on my upper body, arms and legs, finishing off with some crunches on the mat to strengthen my abs and a bit of stretching. After my workout I went up to the track again and found the rain had gone off. I decided to run a few lengths to finish off. I did 5 at a fast pace walking the ends to prevent straining my achilles. I completed the session with a lap of walking to cool down. After showering back at the cabin and I put on my swim suit for Neptune's party, remembering last time they covered you in a variety of creams and sauces before ending up in the pool.

 

We walked along the corridor and up the stairs at the stern to the buffet. It was luck that we did it was now raining very heavily outside. It was up to the disco lounge after breakfast, this was where they painted your face and body in preparation for King Neptune's parade down to the pool. Moira was reading the paper and I started a new book, this one was called 'Without Hot Air' by David Mackay, and was looking into the actual figures relating to 'climate change' and calculations showing energy consumption and generation form different sources. So far it is very interesting and he puts actual figures to wild statements and assumptions made by politicians and environmentalists. I downloaded it from the internet, it was free. While we were relaxing there was announcement about the 'crossing the line' activities; they had been cancelled due to the rain and would take place tomorrow. I don't know how they can do this; it takes place when you cross the equator or not at all, not 24 hours later!

 

There wasn't any dance class on this morning due to the other activities so it was nice and peaceful. The lounge is kept very cold by the air conditioning and Moira had to go down for a cardigan to put on; going outside was like leaving a fridge and entering an oven. At 11:00 am as Neptune wasn't performing we went to a film in the theatre. It was 'The Story of Sugar', I thought is was to be the history of sugar from cane to refining but it was about the new fear of its effects on health and obesity. They had a guy under test who changed his diet to eat lots of foods containing loads of sugar. It was similar to all these types of programmes, dubious research techniques, scaremongering and dumbed down science. One part, showing the effect of sugar on your teeth, had a guy with all his teeth rotted and black - 'due to drinking dozens of cans of sugary cool drinks each day'. The odd thing was that he was skin and bone so all that sugar wasn't making him obese. One amusing thing was the number of fatties in the audience that got up and walked out. But there was one definitely obese woman in front of us who stayed, we wondered what was going through her mind! The film was still going at 12:30 pm and there wasn't anything new just repeating the same scary 'mantras', we decided we had had enough and went for lunch, careful to avoid anything containing a lot of sugar.

 

We returned again after lunch to the disco lounge but the peaceful atmosphere was disturbed by a group at a table near us that had to shout instead of talking quietly to some one sitting just at the other end of the table. We moved round to the other side of the lounge, it was quieter but we could still hear these people even from there.

After about an hour Moira said she wasn't feeling very good and went to the cabin to lie down. I stayed and read my book but after some time I began to fell down. It was either the cold or the air conditioned air itself that was causing the problem. I returned to the cabin and found that Moira was feeling a bit better. I stretched out on the bed but was feeling cold so I got under the covers. I was soon sleeping and woke up when Moira was preparing to go for dinner. I wasn't hungry and decided to give the evening show a miss as well. I dozed on and off until Moira got back. She brought me a cup of tea and an apple but all I had was a sip of the tea before I was sound asleep again. I slept quite soundly the only times I wakened was to go to the loo. Moira was also sleeping when I got up the first time at about 10:00 pm.

 

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