Day 14: 20231006 Friday, October 6, 2023- At Sea, Crossing the Equator
We had a fitful night because the air conditioning was not working properly. No technician ever showed up but we eventually fell asleep from exhaustion. The temperature had dropped a little during the night after 2am. In the morning we asked our room steward to have maintenance check our air conditioning, and stopped at the passenger services desk to complain firmly that it would not be acceptable to have to sweat through every night for the rest of the cruise because the air conditioning was not working. Unfortunately, because the ship is close to or at capacity, it is unlikely there are any empty comparable staterooms with better air conditioning. By 8am, it was already 78˚F in the room. A technician did show up who checked a few things including the temperature of the air coming out of our ventilation grill. He said it was 68˚F and that the air conditioning is working fine. Well it’s not, so he basically told us sorry, but it’s as good as it’s going to get. If the air conditioning was truly working properly, with the thermostat set at maximum cooling, the cold air should be less than 50˚F. But we were able to get an electric fan for our room from our room steward, who said there were only 3 such fans available. We were lucky to get one.
We were a bit cranky because of the lack of sleep, but cheered up a bit to see our progressive trivia team was starting out tied with one other team for first place. However, the first question immediately threw all that asunder because it was worth 5 points and we missed all of them. It was How many children did Neptune have? One bonus point for the name of each child. It sounded like one team in the room got that. Everyone else was flabbergasted. Good to have a Roman mythology professor on that team.
We did wander up to the pool deck to see the polly wogs get initiated into shellbacks on the pool deck. The sun was out and there was a cooling breeze, so it wasn’t uncomfortable at all. There was a big turnout. After the usual ceremonial niceties of asking Neptune’s permission and his tossing representatives of the ship’s staff into the pool, all the passenger volunteers got baptized by kissing a salmon and then being on the receiving end of a very colorful and chaotic food fight. It was going to take a long time for most of those passengers to wash all that colorful food out of their hair and clothes.
The second show by the comedian Darryl Joyce was just as funny as his first. Then followed a new vocalist Lashonda Reese, who turned out to be a real powerhouse singer who could belt out tunes just like Ella Fitzgerald, Arethra Franklin and Whitney Houston could. She put on a great show and is one of the best vocalists we have seen on a cruise ship.
There was a star watch activity tonight which seemed like a special opportunity because we are practically on the Equator and able to glimpse into both the northern and southern hemisphere. They had an audio guide program, but only about 40 headsets. Probably 150 people turned up, so we didn’t get to try the audio program. But after the captain turned off the lights at the back of the ship, it was possible to see some stars. The only one that was easy to spot was Jupiter, which was by far the brightest thing in the sky. The two primary reference constellations, the Big Dipper leading to Polaris and the Southern Cross, happened to be just below the horizon directly off the stern and bow of the ship, so neither was visible. Ben used some Star Map apps to look around a bit, but we’ll probably have a much better opportunity to observe the southern night constellations when we overnight at Uluru during our cruise tour segment of our Australian exploits.
We have another deluxe balcony breakfast scheduled for tomorrow morning when we were originally scheduled to make a call on Moorea. Hopefully the winds and sea conditions will allow us to try doing it on the balcony before it gets too hot.
