At 11.47 am on 8th February, we crossed the equator into the southern hemisphere, moving from Winter to Summer.

It was Queen Elizabeth's first time to cross the equator and had to follow the folly of King Neptune in order to permit safe crossing, this involved the "pollywogs", the folks that have never crossed before, being presented in sacrifice to King Neptune!

The historical tradition dates back to the 14th century when it was decided that the world was round and not flat, the Spanish and Portugese explorers sailed south and west withouth fear of falling off the edge and the sailing into the southern part of the world became a special event for every ship.

King Neptune, his Queen and the Seaweed court, came on board to meet the captain and give their permission for Queen Elizabeth to cross the line, followed by the "pollywogs" kissing a fish and getting coated and dunked in the sea (actually the pool) as part of the initiations. Fortunately we had passed the line before, albeit with Virgin Atlantic on the way to South Africa so we escaped the dunking!

Everyone onboard was there to see it, with much cheering and much slop. we passed the line and didn't fall off the earch, instead our course taking us towards Apia. I think we'll give the pool a miss today!