Sunday 16th February

That’s it then! we are now officially on the other side of the world; well, in the southern hemisphere and round the back so to speak, not quite twelve hours behind but tomorrow night clocks go back another hour and we will be eleven hours behind. Sailing along on a tranquil South Pacific sea not a ship to be seen in any direction, we could be miles from anywhere. Come to think of it, we are miles from anywhere. This morning I watched a talk by the military historian Aldon Ferguson on the formation of the American Eagle Squadrons from US volunteers defying their own government to become one of the highest scoring units of the period prior to the USA joining WWII. This was followed by 50 years of manned space flight, Carol went to another cooking demonstration.

Later we had the official crossing the line ceremony where a number of unfortunates before king Neptune’s court were tried, found guilty and rolled in spaghetti and other nasty looking gunge before being doused in the swimming pool. Carol went out to see what the fuss was about, I stayed inside and had a pint or two as the temperature was about 30°C. And I’ve seen what can happen to those who stray too close to the celebrations, best to stay well away.

Ended the day watching the sunset from the balcony with a couple of drinks before going down for dinner.