The Southern Hemisphere

Hello from the other side of the globe! At around 4am boat time (also PDT) Flyer and her crew of 5 crossed the equator. Muchos muchos gracias again to King Neptune for delivering us a safe and enjoyable passage to this point, now zero degrees and 42 minutes into the southern hemisphere.

Kristen was on watch at the time, and woke me to begin the festivities. I greeted the boys and Pelle with beads and my Neptune trident (thank you Kevin!) and we assembled in the cockpit with some chilled San Pellegrino and a leftover bottle of Kirkland Prosecco from Preston’s birthday party back in Bahia de los Muertos.

On deck, the scene was spectacular. We had the remnants of the big dipper behind us, and the southern cross dead ahead. And about 30 degrees above the horizon on our windward or port side was half-moon lighting the ocean.

It’s a long held seafaring tradition to commemorate the equatorial crossing with some antics. And in our family, no major event or experience happens without some sort of commemoration involving Pelle. So the ship’s cat was again feted, this time with beads and a couple of her favorite treats- the aptly named ‘squeeze-ups.’ We poured a good half-bottle of prosecco overboard for our protector, said a few important words, and marveled at the chart plotter when it went from reading our latitude from North to South.

Unfortunately given the hour, poor lighting conditions, and overall sluggishness of the crew, we didn’t get many pictures, so those below will have to serve as proof of the festivities.

Admittedly, as a sailor I’ve not really thought nor cared much about an equatorial crossing. It’s just a line on the globe, and it’s the other intangible experiences and elements of life on the ocean that mean more, right?
But life at sea is a funny thing, and when you’ve been out of sight of land for as long as we have (eighteen days as of today), milestones like this make a big impression.

Now having experienced it, I feel I better understand the hoopla behind crossing the equator on a boat. My brain has been eyeing that line on the chart for a while, knowing it’s both an important marker of our progress and a significant celestial and seasonal boundary for our life on earth. We went from spring to fall in the blink of an eye! Our days are now getting shorter by the day just when they were getting longer! The weather systems swirl in the other direction! It really does feel like we are on the other side of a major milestone.

And so we find ourselves today very blessed to have favorable winds here at this point of the globe. We currently have a solid 12-15kn easterly breeze, very welcome to this crew after the light and unsettled conditions we experienced for several degrees north of here. While we’re bummed to miss out on swimming in the equatorial doldrums while becalmed, I , for one, am thrilled to be moving forward at a good pace instead!