Oh dear...I'm about to get covered in fish guts.

The crew and scientists are all of a twitter today. Last night, at the hallowed hour of 21.00, we crossed the equator. I am officially in the Southern hemisphere today which is rather exciting!  And of course that means, for those of us who have not crossed the line before, the Ceremony of Neptune. The Ceremony will be performed at 14.30 today, when the trusty shellbacks of King Neptune will chase the pollywogs from their hiding places (I swear, I am not making a word of this up) and to the court of King Neptune where they will receive judgement for the charges laid against them. The interesting thing is that the charges box sits in the bar and anyone can add to it. Which has led to an intriguingly witch hunt-y atmosphere as people advise you not to do or say certain things because “you’ve got enough charges against you anyway!” As I was told (in confidence) by one of the trusty shell backs that if they don’t have enough charges against you they just make them up...I sort of felt that there wasn’t really much point in behaving. I might as well be punished for the things that I have done! So I’ve taken great delight in calling the ship a boat (apparently this is BAD and WRONG) and referring to the pointy and the blunt ends. I’m pretty sure that one of the crew members is now twitching nervously whenever he sees me and I haven’t even mentioned slinging the ship into reverse yet!

So I will provide a longer post later on about the ins and outs of the Ceremony. Who got caked with what, the list of charges against individuals, how the judge looked when he pronounced the sentence, what Neptune’s queen was wearing... the whole lot. See you later!