Antarctic Circle Crossing Ceremony

Excerpts from Anne Mills' journal that describe the rite of passage.

Today was the Antarctic Circle crossing ceremony, which meant that all us pollywogs were in for some serious abuse at the hands of King Neptune and our veteran cruisers. Last week, we had been notified that Neptune might perhaps be appeased by a well-devised skit, so for the past few days we'd been struggling to throw something passable together. When the appointed hour rolled around, we all scrambled into our costumes and met in the galley to perform our skits for the outlandishly dressed King and Queen Neptune and their unsmiling court.

Perhaps the highlight of our show was the "2004 Antarctic Issue Gear Fashion Show," which, despite their initial protests, some of the guys on board got frighteningly enthusiastic about... there were definitely a few wearing little more than tool belts, hard hats, and boxers.

2004 Antarctic Issue Gear Fashion Show

In addition to the fashion show, our lab performed a song making fun of the birders in which Jen (dressed as a birder) tackled Shana (dressed as a penguin) and pretended to induce vomiting. The krill team definitely took the cake, however, with their rap group "Convicted Krillers" singing a song about trawling to the tune of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby."

Impressive though are skits were, I doubt that even a Spielberg production would have kept King Neptune at bay... we were all called to trial anyway, and were individually read our charges. Alleged offenses included excessive consumption of food at mid-rats, wanton sampling of sea invertebrates, pillaging of penguin colonies, and dancing with too many Scottish men at Rothera (I, for one, have no idea who would dream of committing such a crime). After being proclaimed "guilty" of our crimes by the court, we were ordered to don our warmest clothing and then herded into a sweltering, pitch black room to make balloon hats and wait for our individual tortures to begin.

Unfortunately, I cannot reveal the details of the ordeal as I would hate to spoil the ceremony for anyone who will make the journey in coming years, but I can tell you that the rumors about head-shaving, forced consumption of sea invertebrates, and showers in rotten food are only the tip of the iceberg. When all was said and done, however, we were all too willing to accept these abuses in exchange for the experiences we've had. After the ceremony was over, Hugh gave us all certificates proclaiming us members of the small and fortunate group of explorers who have crossed the circle.

For photos from the rite of passage, visit the Circle Crossing Portrait Gallery.
Read more of Anne's journals.