MID-OCEAN DRILL AND KING NEPTUNE
Someone somewhere, in a very cushy seat of power, has decreed that to abide by the law, cruise ships must now hold an emergency drill for the passengers every two weeks. It used to be that everyone would congregate in their muster stations on the day of embarkation, before the ship sets sail, to be shown how to don a life-jacket, be told how not to abandon ship, and then form a conga line up to the lifeboat deck to acquaint themselves with the vessel that will save their lives should the ship spring a leak. It’s a bit of a drag, particularly for seasoned cruisers, but everyone accepts its importance, in the knowledge that, except in a dire emergency of course, they’re not going to have to do it again.
Today, our first 14 days were up, so this morning, we held a repeat of the drill. In 14 days time, we’re going to have to do it all again.
All I can say is that I’m pleased it wasn’t my day to have classes. The creative writing instructor had to split her class up into two, and the whole momentum of the daily routine at sea felt rather disrupted. I’m sure it’s all for the best, but it does feel slightly bonkers.
After yesterdays underwhelming wildlife showing, today has been a veritable feast of natural entertainment.
We’ve been followed much of the day by sea birds galore; Masked Boobees and Red-footed Boobees swooping and feeding on flying fish.
This afternoon, the entertainments team ritually baptised those of the crew who have never crossed the equator before by having King Neptune decree that they must ‘kiss the fish’ or be annointed with eggs, and then be thrown into the pool. It’s a ceremony that we’ve seen several times over the years, and is generally an entertaining event. Right in the middle of the ceremony, unbeknown to many of the passengers who were concentrating on the antics around the pool, a massive pod of what seemed like hundreds of dolphins came by, jumping out of the water and generally doing what dolphins do… a spectacular display.
Finally, there were two large, and quite magnificent-looking, frigate birds hovering over the rear deck of the Marco Polo, as if summoned by King Neptune himself. Tracey refers to them as the pirates of the sea bird kingdom, due to their rather unsociable tactics of chasing other seabirds and harassing and bullying them until they hand over (or even regurgitate) their catch of fish. It just isn’t cricket, but that’s the frigate bird for you.
A bumper day for wildlife, indeed.
Later in the afternoon, our resident magician, Davy gave a fantastic seminar to a packed-out crowd in Scotts Bar, on how pickpockets, scam artists and dodgy mediums work, and how best to avoid them. It’s his last day on the Marco Polo; we’ll be sad to see him go. He’s an absolute top-notch entertainer, but also a very charismatic bloke too; he had the everyone in Scotts Bar totally entralled by his stories and demonstrations… had them in the palm of his hand, in fact. It was a bit of a shame, then, that his talk was concluded so abruptly after only half an hour by the arrival of one of the entertainments team, who was there to conduct the afternoon quiz.
