Travel with Indigo

It is a moment we have all anticipated eagerly for some time now, and at approximately 8:30pm on June 20, 2006 it happens: we cross the equator. The crew and I are on the bridge, and Grant snaps a photo of the GPS screen at the instant of crossing thus commemorating on digital memory what we have experienced in real life. In the maritime world, this is a significant event that has been done for so many centuries that a ritual has built up around it, a rite involving King Neptune and assorted good-humored tom foolery. Due to somewhat rough seas, we decide to postpone the event until we can lie at anchor out at sea but behind the protection of a reef the next morning.

At the appointed time, the crew and I appear on the aft deck dressed in the costume of our choice ready for a fine breakfast prepared by the chef, Geraldine. Invariably in these situations, everybody cross dresses, though just why this should be I can’t say. Toby, as captain and a celebrant of many crossings, is Eric, the brother of King Neptune and the only non-cross dresser. It is his duty to preside over the welcoming into the fraternity of the first timers, called pollywogs, something like fraternity pledges, and he does so in fine style dressed in toga and white beard. Pollywogs have been instructed in their formal invitations to appear dressed in a theme beginning in the letter E. Geraldine totes a machine gun dressed in camo, a version of GI Jane, and calls herself Explosive. Kat, the stew, has a beard and frazzled white hair something on the order of Einstein. Grant, dressed in a manner reminiscent of Carmen Miranda, is Eve, she of the Adam association. Roddy, covered over in black shoe polish, with black long johns and a black plastic wig twisted into rasta braids, is Edith, the Ethnic Exotic Dancer. Yours truly is stunning, if I may say so myself, in a red, slinky clingy, low cut dress with matching bra supporting, more or less, enormous boobs. Hooker red lipstick, cheezy diamond earrings, and a full head of rasta dreads complete the ensemble for E.Z. Duzit of Duzit Escort Services, DO IT ON THE EQUATOR our memorable advert line. I couldn’t resist asking whether anybody thought the dress made my butt look too big.

Following introductions, we all report to the sun deck where Eric conducts the ceremony with appropriate sonorous speech and grave demeanor. Each in turn is first blindfolded and then becomes the object of various assaults upon his or her dignity, such as being washed down by a hose, sprinkled with flour and having a raw egg cracked over the head. At the ceremony’s conclusion, we are issued official proclamations declaring us members of King Neptune’s Kingdom, and thus no longer pollywogs. All of this strenuous activity works up an appetite stanched by a huge breakfast that Geraldine has prepared and we all eat together on the aft deck. The day is sunny, temperate and the seas calm behind the reef.