Day 22

86 miles for 2428 at 00 52S 133 01W

We were sailing along and this long white line appeared in front of us. It took a few minutes to realize that it was the equator! On all the maps and globes I have seen, it is a blue line, not white. It threw me for a minute.

Hello from "Down Under"!!!! We are no longer polly-wogs!! We are now officially shell-backs. We crossed the equator at about 2PM local time.

Because it is so up hill the last mile or so to the equator, the boat kept slowing down. Finally we had to motor the last 2 miles! And now it is down hill all the way to the Marquesas!

We had a little celebration. First we photographed the GPS showing us at the equator. Then we took some pictures in our party hats. Trinda wanted to swim at the equator, so we all did at 2376 miles from Mexico and 725 from the Marquesas. Next we drank a toast to King Neptune and asked for fair winds and following seas, with a PS. that they appear on days that we need them. Our best libation aboard turned out to be a bottle of White Zinfendell from a winery in Baha California. Neptune got a whole
glass. Then a few more photos and since the wind was completely gone, started the motor and motored for 7 more hours.

In preparation for the big event, we spent a couple hours making crowns and a scepter to wear during the festivities. All of our tablets no longer have that nice thick cardboard backing! But we did have a crown each. You'll have to just imagine what they look like for a few weeks til we can get to a high speed internet.

The wind speed instrument display came loose from the bulkhead so we had to re-mount it.

We tried one of Donnie's "MREs", meal-ready to eat. It was scrambled eggs with bacon bits. You mix with water and then scramble in pan, just like normal. They worked just fine and were even purty good. We had corned beef and cabbage for supper. I burned the corned beef and the cabbage was under-done, so on average, as Donnie said, it was OK.

No fish, I think we need to be going faster than we usually are for the dorados to chase lures in the water.