The last day in the Northern Hemisphere

This has been our last day in the Northern Hemisphere on our way down to Buenos Aires. We expected to cross the equator in the early morning hours of the next day. But it is not possible to cross this important line without any permission of His Royal Highness King Neptune. All passengers, some of the crew and all workers, we have on board at the moment, did never cross this line before. That meant we had a lot of so called “Land Crabs” with us and the permission for the crossing depended on King Neptune´s kindness. So our Captain Arild Hårvik had to prepare a telegram to King Neptune to ask for permission.

In the afternoon we all met on Deck 7 outside in the aft to make sure that the telegram was sent in the right way via “Deep Sea Ocean Mail”. We sent Neptune the list with the name of all “Land Crabs”, we sent him a picture of our ship and of course the Captain´s letter of inquiry.

Just before midnight we got via “Deep Sea Ocean Mail” King Neptune´s permission. But and there is always a but, he wrote that it would be a must, that all “Land Crabs” have to be baptized the next day and he promised to come himself.