Race 2 - Day 17
Crew Diary - Race 2 Day 17
01 October

Crossing the Equator

We crossed the equator in the early hours of yesterday morning, gently slipping from the northern to the southern hemisphere. It was a beautiful clear night, with the nearly full moon directly above us. We were sailing gently, keeping a steady speed, the boat felt balanced in the water, and it was nice to hear the ocean splashing against the hull compared to the constant hum of the engine that we had experienced while motoring through the Doldrums Corridor. Luckily, I was on watch, which meant I was on deck while we crossed the line; up towards the bow about to help with a sail change, when we heard the excited murmurs from further down the deck. It was quite a peaceful moment- no crazy rituals or dressing up... that would come later… and it was nice to take a moment to myself to appreciate how far I have come in my sailing journey and appreciate all the sights I have seen and people I have met. Many of the crew had asked to be woken up for the crossing, and it was nice to experience it with them; with the other 21 people I have been living and working with for the last 3 weeks. Max and Katie in the nav station expertly took screenshots of the numbers zeroing both north and south so we could have a memento of the occasion, and afterward, I was given the honours of plotting on the chart the position that we crossed the line.

At midday, we had our equator-crossing ceremony. As the only member of the crew to have crossed the equator before it fell onto Tom aka ‘King Neptune’ to manage proceedings. All the crew was on deck when King Neptune emerged from the companionway declaring that we must confess our sins before transforming from Polywogs to Shellbacks. We had to transcend from the pit of chaos under the traveller, before declaring our sins to Neptune; a huge range was declared from chatting too much at the helm, poor poetry, and leaving smelly socks under their bunk. After which, he dished out our punishments, couscous (one of the crew's less favourite meals), and an assortment of other things were thrown at us before he declared us Shellbacks. It felt very special to have this shared experience amongst the whole crew, taking part in hundreds of years old sailing tradition (with Tom’s interpretation) together, including the skipper, as this was also his first equator crossing. It was a fun moment and one that I won't forget quickly.