It is customary on ships to celebrate crossing the equator. The celebration includes initiating those who have never crossed the equator by sea before (pollywogs) and helping them become shellbacks. We had the chance to become emerald shellbacks, as we were crossing the equator at the prime meridian!
Everyone was woken up at 8am by the crew parading though the hallways in costumes, blowing whistles and banging on drums. We gathered on the 7th deck for the festivities. Basically, in order to become a shellback you have to get "fish guts" poured on your head (they used to actually be guts, but they don't do that on the M/V Explorer anymore), you jump in the pool, get out and kiss a fish, kiss the rings of King Neptune (our captain) and Queen Minerva (the dean of students in drag), then kneel down to be knighted a shellback. The last, optional, step is to shave your head. We had a great time doing this celebration with all the students, staff/faculty, and crew, and are proud to be emerald shellbacks!!
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| Waiting for their kisses. |
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| King Neptune and Queen Minerva arrive |
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| It wasn't actually fish guts, but it did smell TERRIBLE. |
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| The crew parades in. |
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| The beginnings of the process |
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| We go in the pool |
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| Hanging out near 0 latitude, 0 longitude. |
Jason did decide to take the optional step of shaving his head. We were pretty nervous about how it would come out!
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| Just getting started |
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| Almost there |
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| Bald! |
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| Can you see the equator behind me? |
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| Bald head + equator = recipe for sunburn |
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