It’s not always bad to cross the line

Monday October 13^th was an exciting day for us at sea. This is the day we crossed the equator.

(photo of me in control room as we officially cross the equator) 0° 00.12’ N

After a restless nights sleep, I woke up at 01:30 am to continue my normal early-morning routine before the big “Crossing the Line” ceremony at noon. Most of my daily routine included picking out hundreds of ~8 different copepod species (microscopic shrimp-like insects of the sea) into cryogenic tubes until breakfast. After about 21 days at sea collecting samples, Erica Goetze and I had individually isolated over 10,000 copepods, and at this point we still had three weeks of daily sampling to go.

That morning, I received an ‘anonymous tip’ from one of the police (a double agent?) recommending that as inductees we plan effective defenses, since it would be more fun for everyone, so I made the last minute decision to save a portion of our stinky morning tow plankton goop for my defenses against King Neptune’s police force! This turned out to be quite useful when all of us not-yet-inducted line crossers got together before lunch to prepare our weapons: condom-water balloons!

(Photo of my weapons to fight King Neptune’s police force)

Why condoms? I would chalk it up to MacGyver-esque resourcefulness. The doctor had a large stock of condoms she did not mind sharing, since she too was crossing the line that day!   Condoms work quite well as water balloons. We also decided to include extra special “treats” in the balloons… purple dye, fabric softener for strong scent, and my favorite, the stinky plankton water. We then chose our hiding places, and I chose a location with two other line crossers, Ryan and Rafael.

At the strike of 13:00 the announcement came “King Neptune has arrived on the ship, and any non-shellbacks (those who have previously crossed the equator) are to be put on trial for their crimes against his subjects!” That was our cue to quickly get to our hiding places and be ready to defend ourselves against the police. Seasoned veterans of the ceremony were chosen as the police force, so we knew who to expect.

(Photo of us in our hiding location, on the defensive against one of the King’s police)

We were found within minutes. There have been many line crossings on this ship, the RRS James Clark Ross, so there are not many hiding locations left that the police don’t know about.

Once we were caught, trial and punishment were simple: sit before King Neptune and his lovely wife Aphrodite (i.e. John and Colin) and be put on trial. Guilt of a charge meant you received some volume of old, cabbage ridden, vinegary kitchen slop over your head, down your shirt, in your face… etc. Then before we were deemed an official “Shellback”, we had to kneel before the king and kiss a dead fish!

As you can see, not even I (sweet and harmless Michelle) was safe from the wrath of King Neptune! You might be wondering, what were my “charges”? In all I received 8 charges, here are a few of them:

• Forcing my study subjects through a tiny mesh thus causing a slow and painful death
• Pronouncing tomato incorrectly (according to the British dominating the science team)
• Distracting the bridge with my day-glo t-shirts
• Wearing a ridiculous fireman’s helmet
• Spending all day tanning at the CTD while I say I am working (I have to sit there for hours concentrating animals from the water!)

My hair exuded the scent of vinegar for at least three days afterward, and I am still finding remnants of our ‘water balloons’ on the deck of the ship despite an attempt to clean them up that evening. In the end, it’s all in good fun, and will be one of the most fun and memorable days of this shellback’s life.