March 21, 2017
We are now between Indonesia and Malaysia and will arrive in Kuching, Borneo tomorrow. An unusual event happened today – a very rare happening! We experienced three seasons in one 24 hour period. That is because we crossed the equator into the northern hemisphere on the date of the equinox. So we experienced spring, summer and fall all in one day.
There was another crossing the equator celebration today. We had the first one when we crossed into the southern hemisphere on January 11. We will be in the northern hemisphere for the rest of our trip.
Ray Carr is our new cruise director so we wanted to see how he conducts the equator ceremony. And boy did he do a fun job! We also have a totally new entertainment team on board and none of them had ever crossed the equator before. He had them come in with the band and King Neptune and they were tied together with ropes. One by one, they had to kiss the fish and then he doused them with raw egg, spaghetti, flour and oatmeal, then they had ice water poured over their heads! One of the new singers is 18 years old and just out of high school – wonder what she wrote home to her parents after that.
Leslie only used the ice water after people kissed the fish, so that team got off easy back then! Both times the passengers only kissed the fish and were doused with the ice water.
These are the wahoo fish that the polywogs need to kiss!
Ray Carr, our cruise director
Kat, our 18 year old singer, is second in line. But they are all pretty young!
Tricia, ATW hostess, is the wench!
Yucky!
And, we no longer feel like millionaires… in Indonesia, one US dollar is worth 13,342 Indonesian Rupiah, so a million is about $75 US. It was so strange to look at the price of a pedicure as 125,000!
Lovely calm seas, sunny skies and I won the blackjack tournament today! 12 players. I had the lowest chip count in the first round and wasn’t even sure I would make the finals, but I did and ended up winning.
I am now working on a quilt square for Komodo Island – will take the picture when it is finished. I think we need about 72 squares for the whole quilt and we have just over 50. Many people are working on squares so we will have enough for sure. It is really something special!
Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures 
sounded like alot of fun,, the equator thng., I am
sure you will share your quit with us when its done,,what a unique thing to do,
also experiencing three seasons in one day,, neat too,
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