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Lat: 0.0 N Long:147.30 W

We sailed with the same wind for two days. It was blowing out of the southeast from 14 to 18 knots and as we worked farther south the wind slowly back till it was more east then south. The swells are 4-6 feet and the occasional wave will break just right against the hull and rain a shower against the dodger. You first hear and feel the whap against the hull, then a second or two the sound of throwing a bucket of water against the dodger. Then a light spray fans through the cockpit. If you are not secure under the aft edge the dodger you reflexively duck and attempt to make your body as small as possible. Occasionally you’ll be standing with your head just above the dodger, looking out into the sea and a wave will sneak up and jump over the side of the boat and into your face. The stinging salt water in your eyes is a sublime reminder of where you are and this is not a “Virtual” anything.

We sailed all day in building anticipation of crossing the equator. It seems as if all the rough seas and wind are behind us. Each one of is preparing in our way for this occasion. I have been preparing certificates for the crossing: The Secret Order of Shellbacks.

Membership in this society requires that one sails across the equator and perform certain rituals. The rituals of course are hallowed and handed down from generation to generation of skippers. This of course in hogwash, since I will be making you the rituals as we go. However since they are secret I can’t tell you what they are, however I can tell you that rum and tattoos are part of the rite. K2 has been preparing dinner, marinated New York strips, sautéed potatoes and onions and a cool sweet corn salad. Lowry is on watch and will be the grill chief while preparations go on down below.

We crossed the equator a longitude 147.47 at September 10, 4:44 pm HST.  I programmed one of the cockpit instrument displays to show the current Latitude. We sit in the cockpit in anticipation of this event, with objects and accoutrements of the ceremony at hand.  At about 3 miles out the festivities were underway. Yeah, I know that I wrote that would net tell but I changed my mind. We brought out three shot glass from the galley, a virgin bottle of rum – Hana Bay – Hawaii’s best for a start. First we toast Sea God, Neptune – we thanked him for showing us our humility in the past week – and we grant that he is King of the sea and we were allowed to trespass only on his wishing. We thanked him for allowing us to cross the equator and we thanked him in advance for benevolent winds and currents. Next we toasted the “Tot’s” standard Friday toast, “To a willing foe and sea room” – in this case the foe was the equatorial currents. The current added 20 degrees to our heading, making the approach to the equator a difficult and challenging experience. Then we toasted each other for coming together as a team. At 1-nm we applied ritualistic tattoos – they were instant and temporary and symbolize the challenges that we faced getting here. Lowry took a sunburst image on his right arm. K2 applied a ring of dolphins to her right angle, and took on a pair of dolphins on my left arm.  At 4:44 HST the Latitude display read 0.00 and we cheered and toasted the equator.  The final rite was presentation of the lifetime membership in the “Secret Order of the Shellbacks” showing the time and place that they crossed the equator signed by the skipper and one witness.

With the festivities over we set about cooking dinner. We eased our sailing heading and slowed the boat down from 8 knots to 6 knots. This keeps the boat more level as well as reduces the apparent wind that the grill has to deal with. Lowry fired up the grill, a Dickinson “Sea-B-Que”, the small model made from stainless steel with rail mounting and permanent connection to the house propane system. K2 sauté’s potatoes and onions on the galley stove, and the corn salad is all ready prepared. In 20 minutes all is quiet as we sit in the cockpit with the fading daylight and wolfing down steaks, potatoes and corn. We are having an equatorial high seas picnic.