February 6. At Sea – Sunny/Cloudy/Light Rain – 76F

Breakfast in the Windows Café – terrific as usual. All accompanied by an amazing view from the Sunset Veranda.

I had a quick lunch in the Windows Cafe as my talk, “Forensic Detectives: Identifying the Famous and Infamous” is scheduled for 1 PM in the theater.  My voice is a bit iffy and I am on cough drops and tea.  The turnout was great – over 80 percent occupied – and the audience was incredibly interactive especially recognizing an inadvertent pun (after Richard III was killed, his feet were removed – “defeat” de feet).  The audience just roared at that one – the first time that has happened. I also had a very nice exchange about books and DNA with another guest.  My voice held out for the whole talk, which ran 52 minutes.

Most of the afternoon was spent in the Living Room.

Azamara Onward had crossed the equator early this morning at 2 AM and that meant the "Crossing Ceremony", which was held on the pool deck at 4 PM.  

We have gone through this is in the past on a trip to South America. Persons who have not crossed the Equator previously are called "polywogs" and must be initiated by King Neptune (played by Astrid) and Queen Salacious (played by Roy) aided by a band of pirates (played by Henry, Jonathan, and the rest of the Singers and Dancers).

Since a lot of the command staff were making their first trip down the coast of South America, there were a lot of polywogs to initiate.  The process is simple: a) Each polywog must kiss a real fish while everyone chants "Kiss the Fish"; b) The polywog is then slathered with multicolored goop of unknown composition (non-toxic) by a woman dressed in surgical scrubs (for effect, I guess); and c) the polywog must fall backwards into the pool.  This makes for an unbelievable mess, but the passengers seemed to like it. Here are the pictures of Captain Carl and CD Martin getting the treatment.

There were probably three or four other crew initiated as well.  Later, all passengers received a certificate of crossing that makes it all official.

We had a crazy dinner in the Discoveries Restaurant. We ordered “Crispy Mushroom on Artisan Bread” from the Vegan menu and the dish that came was actually Beyond Meat kishke, which wasn’t all that great.  The Hariri Soup, although tasty, was too spicy for me and the main course, Eggplant Parmesan, was just not that tasty.  A Cesar Salad might have sufficed for dinner.  Very disappointing.

We passed on Senor Valle and his guitar.

We went up the Window Café for some dessert and coffee and tea and take in the fresh air.  My nose was running so badly, and the sneezing was non-stop that we headed for the room.  This has all the earmarks of a sinus infection, so I started a course of Augmentin.  Hopefully, that will take care of infection.