neptune day

okay, let's go back a couple of days to tuesday...officially neptune
day on the mv explorer. let me tell you how my day began.

i woke up to the sound of a parade outside of my cabin. when i
opened the door, i saw about ten crew members dressed in white toga
like outfits and tin foil hats. they were banging on drums and
blowing on whistles. they had red paint on their faces. i threw on
some clothes (clothes that i knew would be easy to wash, and i
wouldn't care if they were ruined for good...why? cause the rumors i
heard about what happened to us pollywogs on neptune day warned me to
dress appropriately.

after getting dressed, i ventured down to the dining room to enjoy
some breakfast and await the day's activities. when i walked in, the
first person i saw was archbishop desmond tutu. he was sitting with
his wife and some students. very surreal.

after breakfast, the real fun began. the parade came up to the
seventh deck by the pool, and they were followed by all of the staff
who have crossed the equator before, called shellbacks. everyone was
dressed in white with crazy amounts of make up and hats. the best of
all was the captain, who was painted completely green, was wearing a
wig and a straw skirt. nothing like a naval officer dressed as king
neptune. this was the beginning of the ceremony. we chanted our
pledge to the sea and got in line to have fish guts poured over our
head. let me tell you folks, it was disgusting. the fish gut
concoction definitely smelled like vomit, so badly, in fact, that i
couldn't stop myself from dry heaving. i didn't think i was going to
make it. once the fish guts were poured over my head, i jumped in to
the pool. as i was getting out of the pool, i was made to kiss a
fish on the lips and then kiss the ring on the captain's finger.
after a quick photo shoot with some of the staff, i ran directly to
my shower, in which i got undressed and tried to wash my body and my
clothes at the same time. it took three shampoos of my hair to get
all of the grossness out.

the rest of the morning was spent watching people getting their heads
shaved (i passed on this portion of the tradition). it was amazing
to see some of the women react to having their hair cut off. one
woman had tears coming down her face. i'm not sure what inspired her
to shave her head, but it was clearly a big challenge for herself,
and afterward she was very pleased with herself.

so neptune day was a great experience. i definitely will need to
sail again so i can put my shellback status to good use.