Good evening from onboard the WTP
***Life on board***
8:15pm- Today was a great day of sailing with a big wind shift all day which allowed us to make a lot of progress south. We are however, now motoring (i know i know) but we want to arrive in the morning and since the wind died about two hours ago we decided to motor and push on rather than sit all night and arrive late tomorrow.
Today marked one of the biggest milestones of the Eye of The World Journey, our first crossing of the EQUATOR!! What a great accomplishment. In naval tradition, the crossing of the equator is a right of passage for seafarers. Before one has crossed the equator at sea he or she is known as a "pollywog" and afterward is known as a "shellback". Today we all became "shellbacks" horay! We decided that it would be fitting to hold our very own equator crossing ceremony in true EYE fashion...
Accordingly, we decided that a bit of humility would do well to please the unseen but always present forces of the sea and graciously allow our humble vessel to safely continue its passage of her vast ocean waters. In order to show our humility to the sea we each gave up something of ourselves and in this case it was to be...our HAIR. At around 2:30pm we began the process of cutting off all of our hair. I volunteered to go first and Trevor (who has experience cutting hair, namely mine which he cut in Jamaica) equipped himself with the buzz clippers and went to town. "As short as you can", I said and he did. Afterward, since I figured there could not be a better time than now, I decided to go all out and my head was shaved smooth as a baby's bottom. Alan is bald as bald can be. Adam was next and elected to self-cut his hair to a fuzzy and very short buzzed length. Will (with the longest hair of the group by far) went under the buzzers next with Adam as the barber. First trying on a fabulous mullet and admiring it in the mirror for a few minutes, he had the rest gone soon after. Will, seeing my bold/bald statement, decided to step up to the bald plate also and we both now sport looks that would make a cue ball jealous. Trevor couldn't stand all the hair we were depositing into the sea without him. Though initially only planning to shave his beard for the ceremony, he couldn't in good conscience, make such a minor contribution and handed me the clippers telling me to, "do it fast before I regret it" which i did to a well suited 1/2 inch buzz. Excited over our new looks and with Will and I having already applied copious amounts of sunscreen to our newly exposed melons, I counted down the minutes to the equator crossing as Will and Trevor worked on grilling up some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.
At 3:15pm the moment came. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (we counted down the seconds on our latitude) ZERO! we had arrived at the equator. We backed the headsail and put the boat into a stall to "park" her on the zero'th line of latitude. We decided that a swim around the boat full circle would be quite fitting and in pairs we flipped, jumped, or dove into the crystal clear and unimaginably deep pacific blue. We swam the circumference of the boat to complete the ceremony. We relaxed for a bit and continued jumping in for fun, cooling off and taking the opportunity to get clean as well. After we were satisfied that we had succeeded in an appropriate ceremony we got back underway.
We made some progress after that but soon the wind died down and Will made a great dinner of rice and, sadly but thankfully, the last bit of the enormous fish we had caught nearly 4 days ago. Afterward, with just 90 miles to go, and realizing that we would not make it to the anchorage until late tomorrow at this rate, we decided to save tomorrow and star the motor. What a successful wind driven crossing we have had so far. We were not at all reluctant to give a last little push especially since we had planned to motor so much more.
Trevor is at the helm now, and we motor along at about 6 knots in very light wind gazing at the stars. THE STARS!! They are the brightest and most amazing stars I have ever seen. Like the blackest of black dark rooms with pinholes punched into it letting light in the sky is littered with stars, nebulas, and the most milky and incredibly milky way. We watched Venus and Mercury set into the western sky just after sunset and then picked out Saturn, Sirius, Taurus, Orion, the big dipper, the southern cross, and with the help of a star chart a few new ones.
Life is good aboard the WTP. Cannot wait go see the Galapagos.
***The Boat***
Nothing to report here. All is well. The engine charges our batteries without complaint and we are running radars, and laptops, and lights, oh my!
***Communication***
We checked back in with "Gemini" this evening and told them that we were motoring and hoped to make the anchorage by tomorrow. They indicated that they would be on a little later probably not until Wednesday. We also are looking forward to meeting our German radio friends.
***Weather***
The sky is as clear as clear can be. The wind is light from the southeast. It is chilly on deck after sunset and coats will be needed tonight.
Position (8:30am):
00 deg 09' SOUTH!!!!
88 deg 39' West
"Cue ball" and the Crew