Days 21 to 25: Equator Crossing

---

Day 21: Nearing the Southern Hemisphere

10 April 2003 - We're slowly getting there... All on board are getting anxious to cross the equator. How fun! It will be everyone's first time to sail across this imaginary line. Eric's first time ever in the Southern Hemisphere!

We're all working on costumes for our Equator Crossing Party. We've decided that if we cross at night, we're going to dress up and celebrate the next day - after, of course, a brief "WAHOO!" and hugs on the line! :)

So far, the only ones with finished costumes are the crab & lamb. Crab's going for the King Neptune look (His aluminum foil triton, while only 3" high, is still pretty impressive! He always has been power hungry!) and our little lamb is going to be a starfish (with a LITTLE help from Ang & some scraps of fleece we had on board!). We have only on cool "Equator-crossing glasses" from Waking Dream (Ang's are pink w/ rhinestone hearts on them & Eric's a retro green). Need to work on the rest... SOON! We're thinking mermaid & pirate. Guess who will be which? :)

A sunset SW of us, likely over the equator

We should cross early in the morning tomorrow if all goes well. We'll cross our fingers and tend the sails! In the afternoon, the wind moved around a bit to the SSE and later even a true, though light, SE! We're getting there.

After the Pacific Seafarers Net (14313 USB), Lisa from the sailboat Hoonah called us on the radio. They have been in Hiva Oa in the Marquesas for 5 days now. She said that it was spectacular! There were 7 boats in the anchorage in about 16 feet of water with great holding and a comfortable swell. She said the Gendarme check-in process was pretty straight forward and that these officials spoke both French and English. The people on the island only speak French & Polynesian - so we better start working harder on our French! Their passage, while fast, she said was not very enjoyable. It was fast due to stronger winds and therefore bigger, lumpier seas. Even though she claimed to not enjoy the trip at all, she said it was worth every minute of it... quintessential South Pacific sailing grounds! We can't wait!!!

10 April @ 16:00 GMT
01^o13' N  130^o18' W
wind S 5 kts / seas 2 ft
112 nm today (4.7 kt avg.)
2144 nm total - 72% of the way there!

Day 22: EQUATOR CROSSING!

We did it! Even the GPS agrees! We've crossed the equator!

11 April 2003 -

Having fun at our Equator Crossing Party!

Our little starfish & King Neptune help celebration with our zero cake & champagne

Wahoo! We've crossed the equator! We're officially shellbacks! All hands (BOTH of us!) were on deck EARLY this morning to celebrate! We crossed at 130^o54.70' N at 12:29:43 GMT. This is the first time in its history that our GPS has ever displayed a position in the Southern Hemisphere!

We are now only about 800 nautical miles from our waypoint in the Marquesas.

In the morning, we woke up and had our Equator Crossing party for real! We all dressed up. We brought out our King Neptune crab and starfish lamb. Eric dressed up as a pirate with his eye patch and Ang as a mermaid - or as close to this as we both could get given the items we could find on the boat (The lamb & crab certainly outshined us!)

It was sure fun to write down a latitude with SOUTH at the end of it! Several people called out their congrats during our radio check-ins. That was pretty fun!

With an old wine bottle and the champagne bottle from our celebration today, we composed a "message in a bottle" and sent two off from our location near our equator crossing. We hope that someone somewhere someday finds them. It would be so cool to get a note back and see where they ended up!!! :)

11 April @ 16:00 GMT
00^o15' S  131^o04' W
wind SE 10 kts / seas 2 ft
100 nm today (4.2 kt avg.)
2244 nm total - 75% of the way there!

Day 23:

12 April 2003 - We have had the BEST day of sailing our entire trip! We have been averaging above 7 knots since last night! Yesterdays was slow, so today's daily log doesn't completely rock, but is still fine by us (138 nm). Tomorrow's should be better! :)

For our evening check-in with the Pacific Seafarers Net (14313 USB), we clocked in with a 24-hour run of 168 miles! That's an average of 7 knots for the entire day. Very cool!

It's fast, but it has also been a smooth ride. Low swell & steady consistent winds. We will take this for as LONG as the ocean will let us!!! :)

12 April @ 16:00 GMT
02^o05' S  132^o33' W
wind SE 17 kts / seas 4 ft
138 nm today (5.8 kt avg.)
2382 nm total - 80% of the way there!

Day 24:

13 April 2003 - We are LOVING this! The weather could not be cooperating better - it has been perfect sailing weather! We have decided that we love the SE Trades! We are moving along quickly and comfortably and in the right direction with very little heel. Yesterday's trend of 7+ knot speeds continued throughout the morning. This afternoon the winds slowed down a bit and so did we, but we are still moving along at 6+ knots. We have no complaints! :)

We're looking forward to landfall, but we are also enjoying life on the boat. We had a great afternoon relaxing, reading, playing mancala and just enjoying time together.

The weather is a bit warm (only 250 miles from equator!), but still bearable. AND, we are now moving AWAY from the equator - so this just keeps getting better!!!

We are hoping to keep up an average of around 5.5 knots until landfall. If we can, our ETA will be sometime in the afternoon of Wednesday, April 16th. Wow! That is totally tangible and not very far away! If we keep those speeds, we would only have 3 more nights at sea! It almost doesn't seem possible! We were impressed when we were close enough for an actual ETA to register on the GPS! This is even crazier! :)

13 April @ 16:00 GMT
04^o13' S  134^o12' W
wind SE 13 kts / seas 3 ft
163 nm today (6.8 kt avg.)
2545 nm total - 85% of the way there!

Day 25:

14 April 2003 - It's been yet another great day of sailing!

This morning, we noticed some gooseneck barnacles on our hull and wind vane. These barnacles live out in the open sea and set up camp on moving objects. They eat as the boat's (or other object's) movement brings nutrients by them. It's amazing that they can get a foothold onto the boat, considering that it is always moving. [Of course, this would not have been at all challenging while we were becalmed off of Mexico for days and days on end! :) ]

This afternoon convinced Eric that it was worth the hassle and battery consumption of having a refrigerator on board. [I (Ang) have always been assured of this fact! And this, of course, is the reason we have one!] It was a beautiful but warm afternoon. Out of our fridge, after 26 days at sea, Eric pulled an ice-cold beer. He just loved it! He normally doesn't freak out about beer, but this apparently hit the spot because he certainly did today!

We saw a frigate bird in the sky this afternoon just before sunset. This proves that we are getting closer to land!!! We have been out in the realms of the solo Albatross for so long now that it was great to see a land-based bird. AND, it wasn't a boobie bird! EVEN BETTER!

We're still hoping to make landfall in 2 days on Wednesday the 16th - probably in the late afternoon. Tomorrow we should know for sure if we will have to wait offshore one night in order to make landfall during the day. We've been moving right along, but some boats south of us have reported light winds from the ENE, which would slow us down. We've got our fingers crossed!!! (And toes!)

14 April @ 16:00 GMT
06^o19' S  135^o48' W
wind SE 12 kts / seas 3 ft
159 nm today (6.6 kt avg.)
2704 nm total - 91% of the way there!

< Days 16 to 20 : Days 21 to 25 : Days 26 to 27 >