DAY-29: Cruise Bonus Day #3 - St. Patrick's Day
DAY-29: Cruise Bonus Day #3 - St. Patrick's Day
Day – 29: Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Interim Location: Equator at Sea Between the Galapagos Islands and the Ecuadorian Mainland
Ending Location: At Sea Aboard the M.S. Marina - Northern Latitudes
For starters as usual we had breakfast, today it would be eggs, bacon, sausage and pastries as I wanted to get my day off to a good start; Sheila had a fruit plate and muffin.
Today I had a Helium call at 9 AM primarily discussing protocols and procedures for COVID-19 risk avoidance and minimization.
With our equatorial crossing this morning, all the Pollywogs (Wogs) amongst us were called forward at about 10 AM to the pool deck for the traditional rite of passage and ceremony which culminates in their designation as True & Trusted Shellbacks.
Pollywog Sheila having not crossed the equator on a ship was front and center with her Wog mates awaiting their call before King Neptune.
The ceremony was entitled "Crossing The Equator Fish Sanitation Ceremony". Those of us having previously been initiated into the realm of King Neptune as Shellbacks stood watch over and took pictures of the ceremony; we also enjoyed viewing the suffering of the pollywogs amongst us.
The royal parade was led by none other than King Neptune and Queen Amphitrite accompanied by the Royal Court and Guard.
One by one the Wogs were called forth to plead for mercy and forgiveness of their wrongdoings.
As penance for being Wogs Sheila and the others were ordered to sanitize the Royal Fish with of course the Royal Fish Sanitizer.
In historic times the ceremony would have required kissing the fish or perhaps something more disgusting such as kissing the greased up belly of the "Royal Baby".
For today after performing the sanitization ritual the Wogs were anointed with Royal Sea Water (Ice Cold Sea Water).
Sheila successfully passed the test, was properly anointed and passed into the realm of shellbacks. We both received certificates for use as future evidence of being True & Trusted Shellbacks.
Following the "crossing ceremony" and after a trip to the stateroom for a change of clothing for Sheila, we attended another enrichment lecture by Dr. Kus. Today's topic was " A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama".
It has to be the longest palindromic phrase I've ever seen.
Dr. Kus started with the reasons for needing a canal, moved on to the French failed effort, the U.S. project and subsequent operations of the Canal Zone, turnover of the canal to Panama and most recently the expansion including the PanaMax addition for ships too large for the original lock system.
Here's an computer image of the ship traffic in and around the canal. Our ship the M/S Marina is located within the red box, lower center of the image.
For his noon report the Captain advised that we would continue toward Balboa where the ship would enter the anchorage on Wednesday morning. We would then await a transit reservation. As we did not have a pre-scheduled reservation we are basically on the stand-by list to enter the canal.
And the BIG NEWS, the Captain confirmed that as of today we will be heading to Miami with an arrival date and time dependent upon our canal transit schedule. For us this is great news as we will simply rent a car in Miami and drive home without having to deal with airports and airlines. The confirmation of our destination has put many passengers into overdrive scrambling to find airline seats to the wide variety of destinations represented including Australia, the Far East, Europe and of course Canada and the U.S.
The wine team put together one more tasting. Today the tasting was entitled "The Cork & The Bottle". The wines were from California, Spain and France. Sheila focused on the Chardonnay while I focused on the others.
With the tasting over we were next scheduled for dinner in Chez Jacques, perfect for St. Patrick's Day, a nice French restaurant. But before we were out of the tasting room Chef Farid chatted with us about the wine and food experience and suggested that we go for the traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner in the Terrace Grill. He called and cancelled our dinner reservation and we were off to enjoy the corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots.
After dinner, though we had good intentions, we were not up for a Jameson's to close-out the day. We would save that celebration for another day.
Ending Location: At Sea Aboard the M.S. Marina - Northern Latitudes
For starters as usual we had breakfast, today it would be eggs, bacon, sausage and pastries as I wanted to get my day off to a good start; Sheila had a fruit plate and muffin.
Today I had a Helium call at 9 AM primarily discussing protocols and procedures for COVID-19 risk avoidance and minimization.
With our equatorial crossing this morning, all the Pollywogs (Wogs) amongst us were called forward at about 10 AM to the pool deck for the traditional rite of passage and ceremony which culminates in their designation as True & Trusted Shellbacks.
Pollywog Sheila having not crossed the equator on a ship was front and center with her Wog mates awaiting their call before King Neptune.
One by one the Wogs were called forth to plead for mercy and forgiveness of their wrongdoings.
Sheila successfully passed the test, was properly anointed and passed into the realm of shellbacks. We both received certificates for use as future evidence of being True & Trusted Shellbacks.Following the "crossing ceremony" and after a trip to the stateroom for a change of clothing for Sheila, we attended another enrichment lecture by Dr. Kus. Today's topic was " A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama".
Dr. Kus started with the reasons for needing a canal, moved on to the French failed effort, the U.S. project and subsequent operations of the Canal Zone, turnover of the canal to Panama and most recently the expansion including the PanaMax addition for ships too large for the original lock system.
Here's an computer image of the ship traffic in and around the canal. Our ship the M/S Marina is located within the red box, lower center of the image.
For his noon report the Captain advised that we would continue toward Balboa where the ship would enter the anchorage on Wednesday morning. We would then await a transit reservation. As we did not have a pre-scheduled reservation we are basically on the stand-by list to enter the canal.
And the BIG NEWS, the Captain confirmed that as of today we will be heading to Miami with an arrival date and time dependent upon our canal transit schedule. For us this is great news as we will simply rent a car in Miami and drive home without having to deal with airports and airlines. The confirmation of our destination has put many passengers into overdrive scrambling to find airline seats to the wide variety of destinations represented including Australia, the Far East, Europe and of course Canada and the U.S.
The wine team put together one more tasting. Today the tasting was entitled "The Cork & The Bottle". The wines were from California, Spain and France. Sheila focused on the Chardonnay while I focused on the others.
With the tasting over we were next scheduled for dinner in Chez Jacques, perfect for St. Patrick's Day, a nice French restaurant. But before we were out of the tasting room Chef Farid chatted with us about the wine and food experience and suggested that we go for the traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner in the Terrace Grill. He called and cancelled our dinner reservation and we were off to enjoy the corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots.
After dinner, though we had good intentions, we were not up for a Jameson's to close-out the day. We would save that celebration for another day.
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