I was up uncharacteristically early AGAIN today in order to have breakfast before catching Patrick Goodness’ 9:00 a.m. lecture.

It appears that the advice our cabin stewards have been giving me for years actually works: if I can get something “substantial” into my stomach first thing, the rolling of the seas affects me less. It’s completely counterintuitive to me, but seems to work.

---

Patrick’s lectures are so interesting and educational, and his presenting style so dynamic, that even when they’re scheduled early in the day I’d rather attend them in person than watch them later on television.

Today’s big takeaway was that “God exists in the gaps we cannot explain”. We see the world, and our God, not as how they are, but as a reflection of who we are.

Today’s challenge was to look beyond the obvious differences between the ancient Polynesian religions and Christianity, and find the similarities. We were shown how the basic elements of Polynesian faith are also very similar to Greek myths.

One of Patrick’s “wow” moments was the sharing of the idea that Yahweh, the god of all creation, had a father. That’s a belief that was part of the Canaanite religion, which preceded Judaism, held. Children often ask “who made God?” The Canaanites had an answer!

Another version has El Elyon and Yahweh being the same god, changing characteristics as new religions were formed by people, place, and time (the 3 factors that keep being reiterated as being what “create” different religions).

---

When we think about multiple creation stories in “pagan” religions, Patrick encouraged us to look at the two different creation stories in Genesis.

---

After all of that thought-provoking information, it was time for something lighter: the Equator Crossing Ceremony.

According to U.S.Naval History and Command “Although crossing the equator may seem like a routine event for any modern-day naval vessel, navies have celebrated the time-honored tradition for centuries. Back in the days of wooden ships, Crossing the Line ceremonies were designed to test young Sailors on their first cruise out in the open sea.

The rich tradition of the Crossing the Line ceremonies often involved varied events throughout which pollywogs, the term given to those who have not crossed the equator before, were put through a series of initiation rites involving harrowing and often embarrassing tasks, gags, obstacles, physical hardships, and generally good-humored mischief. After the ceremony, the Sailors were inducted into the “Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep” meaning that King Neptune had accepted them as one of his trusty shellbacks. With the pollywog to shellback transition complete, a certificate was often awarded to the new shellback as a rite of passage.

When the ceremonies were first conducted, they were physically challenging and could even be painful or embarrassing to the Sailors. Today, the event is voluntary and is conducted more for entertainment purposes and morale boosting than anything else.” Crossing the Line

We’ve witnessed it 3 times before, all while on Viking cruises, with our most memorable ceremony featuring a Jack Sparrow-ish Davy Jones character leading the ceremonies.Episode 179

How silly the ceremony is depends largely on each ship’s individual crew, and their willingness to get into character, so we were anxious to see just who lived up to the high standards prior crews have set. Unfortunately, we were told that Viking at the corporate level have mandated that the event be much more sedate, hence there will be no pirates, mermaids, costumed gods on gilt thrones, or coloured meringue decorating the initiates. In my opinion, that’s a disappointing decision, and will become part of our end-of-cruise feedback.

This is Ted’s and my fourth crossing. I’d remembered that as making us eligible to wear a hoop in EACH ear and put BOTH feet up on the table when eating, but fellow world travelling friend Garry Kolb reminded me that those privileges are not tied to the equator crossing, but to rounding of the capes. Since Ted and I have only rounded Cape Horn so far, it’s still just one earring and one foot for us. After we round the Cape of Good Hope (the horn of Africa) in April we’ll get those extra privileges.

The venue was prepared for the ceremony, which began at exactly 11:00 a.m.

---

The fish was unveiled.

---

After Matt boomed out Neptune’s speech, the god of the sea’s “judges” were brought in and seated (L to R) Hotel GM Ronald, Captain Markus, and Chief Engineer Gerry.

---

Next any crew members for whom this was their first crossing were brought in, accused of any crimes they may have committed, “sentenced”, and tossed into the “ocean” so as not to curse our voyage. Luckily, all were rescued from the deep and pardoned.

---

One of our Engineering crew was accused of drinking the ship’s oil; bar staff accused of serving shots of water instead of vodka; café servers accused of lying to passengers that the desserts were calorie-free; and – most hilariously – maintenance crew accused of painting parts of the ship with Holland America blue!!

---

The ship’s senior officers then jumped in to provide an example to the passenger pollywogs lined upon the deck of exactly how to cross the line.

First, salute the fish that represents Neptune’s kingdom. Bow down, bow down!

---

Second, jump in and “cross the line” to the other side.

---

Last, down a shot of Aquavit that has itself aged by crossing the equator.

---

To our surprise, there were well over 100 brave passengers who had never crossed the Equator and who took the plunge.

Cruise Director Matt and Assistant CD Tara also gamely took part, although neither of them are pollywogs.

---

We will actually not cross the equator until around 11:00 p.m. tonight, so today’s ceremony was 12 hours early. Hopefully it still assuaged Neptune.

If we want to assign bad news to the gods, though, as Patrick’s lectures suggest many cultures do, perhaps Neptune was not satisfied – at noon the Captain announced that due to a medical emergency on board our itinerary will have to be changed. Instead of heading to Bora Bora, we are cruising at full speed to Papeete, Tahiti, which is the nearest land-based medical facility. We’re out in the middle of the Pacific right now, so a helicopter transfer is not possible.

We’ll reach Papeete on January 18th by 5 a.m. and stay there until 11:00 p.m. Overnight on the 18th/19th we’ll sail to Mo’orea, arriving by 7:00 a.m on the 19th and staying in port until 5:30 p.m., after which we’ll return to Papeete, and resume our original itinerary on January 20th.

If we learned anything at all on the 21/22 World Cruise, it is to be flexible.

After a quick lunch and a wonderful chat about nomadic-style travel with new friends (hopefully) Lance and Darrel, I headed for a quiet spot on deck 1 to read for a while, chat with Hotel GM Ronald, and listen to Enrico’s enchanting pre-dinner grand piano set while sipping a cold glass of Riesling.

Dinner tonight was with Al, Karin, Kathy and Mike, with whom we’ll be touring Singapore. We have lots of opportunities to foster new friendships, with dinners being especially good ones.

After dinner, we were treated to a cabaret in the theatre by Kyle McKechnie, one of the Viking Vocalists. While we often get to see them perform as a quartet of talented singers/dancers, it’s always special to get to know them better individually. (Plus, Kyle – who hails from the west coast of Scotland – really rocks a kilt!) His finale, a rendition of Anthem from the musical Chess, was masterful.

---

---

There’s music everywhere on this ship. Tonight we headed to the Explorers Bar to listen to Paolo’s guitar stylings, thinking it would be a quieter spot than with the band in Torshavn, but apparently everyone had the same idea, so it was actually louder. That’s a big change from previous cruises, and evidence of more social connections being made faster. That’s a good thing, even though it means our chill late-night spot is a bit less “chill”.