Day Fourteen

Position at time of writing:
01 14 SOUTH!
129 25W
Heading 225T
Speed 7 knots
Wind 10 – 12 knots from SE

Day Thirteen was obviously a pretty special day. We celebrated Ben and Katy’s exciting news in style with a bottle of champagne, popped on the foredeck, as the sun shone through the sails creating a perfect light. The seas were calm and Hydroquest was sailing herself, so it was a ideal opportunity to relax and revel in the news.

Our iridium satellite phone got more action than every before with calls to both sets of parents. I loved Katy’s phone calls: “I’m at equator and I’m engaged!!”. Who gets to say that?!

We opened up the big plastic bag marked ‘Crossing the equator’. Hello costumes (thanks J & K), candy, special decadent popcorn (thanks Fran & Mur), chocolate (thanks Joanie & Fred), and other toys. We took some pretty hilarious photos and toasted Kind Neptune, thanking him for the great crossing so far. We feasted on candy and pineapple upside-down cake (thanks Betty Crocker) which put us all into sugar commas.

Then a massive squall hit. Will hand steered in the downpour for forty-five minutes. Maybe King Neptune wanted more rum?

Needless to say, today has been a quieter day. The rain is back so we’ve all been dozing down below, reading, watching movies, snacking on leftover cake. Will and I have done a fair amount of reminiscing; crossing the equator is a major milestone for us. We keep astounding ourselves as we talk through what it has taken over the past few years to get here. The dream, the plan, and actually doing it. We are very proud of our accomplishment.