• Position and Time: S 00-26 by W 136-26 at 1935 UTC May 15, 2271 miles from San Diego
• Average Speed and Course: 5.1 knots, 204 degrees true, 1600rpm
• Wind: 12 knots at 270 degrees relative
• Waves: 3-4 foot swells at 10 seconds, 2-3 foot wind waves.

We crossed the equator! Yipee! The exciting event occurred at 5:52 am this morning, local time (one hour later than PST). It was still dark outside. It was a rare, clear night with the stars brilliantly shining. The stars are amazing out here. Our wake was sparkling and glowing with specks of bio-luminescence, which is stunning. It was a spectacular setting for our huge milestone. We gathered in the pilot house, watching the countdown on the GPS, then celebrated bydrinking Christi’s favorite champagne (despite the hour) and standing outside to enjoy the setting until the dawn began to break. Perhaps if it was daytime we would have done some more of a hazing ritual, but we really just enjoyed the peaceful moment.

We have two chart plotters screens running. One is set to short range (12 miles), and one to longer range, usually to the nearest land. Of course, for most of the journey, the long range view has shown nothing but water. Yesterday, we finally had gotten far enough to recognize the pattern of Marquesas island group. A good sign!

In other news”¦ apparently, we made a big mistake by posting last blog. It seems as if by complaining about the refrigerator, we angered the refrigerator god and he decided to get even. Yes, only hours after we emailed the update to our liaison to post for us, Richard had the refrigerator door open a moment too long and wasn’t fast enough on the catch. Most of the contents of the fridge landed on the floor. Luckily, we only had a container of yogurt and a bottle of beer break, so the food loss was minimal and clean up quick. We had been meaning to vacuum for over a week now, but it seemed too much effort with all the rocking. So, the bright side is we were suddenly motivated to vacuum and the carpet is nice and clean in the living room and kitchen. Thank goodness for the wet dry vacuum! 🙂 Also, in the last post Eric used some boat speak that was not translated “We are in a convection zone near the equator” means: in the northern hemisphere winds and current dependably move one way and in the southern hemisphere they dependably move another. Near the equator weather is less dependable because you can get caught between the two weather patterns.

And, to answer a question in the blog comments”¦ none of us feel any anxiety or nervousness. We have a solid, well equipped boat and we are confident in our ability to run it. We all enjoy being on the water and the “free” feeling that comes from having the whole ocean to yourself, with no one or nothing around. None of us get bored. There is plenty to keep one occupied. We have alluded in past blogs about the things that have taken adjusting to. Going from a frantic fast paced life to the slowest of slow speed life takes adjustment. Learning to function in the rocking seas is an adjustment. And, with the rocking of the seas, life becomes very sedentary, so that takes adjustment if you are not sedentary by nature. But, you do adjust. Some days are better than others in terms of how well adjusted to sea life you are feeling.

We have been running the active fin stabilizers in “MAX” mode. We tried the other settings and MAX seems to give the best ride and boat speed does not seem to change much from the settings. The speed setting on the fins have the most impact. Higher speed setting less fin movement, and less roll control. We have adjusted it between 15 and 20.

The ride on the seas can be a lot about perspective. Christi thinks the rocking of the boat is rough, and Richard views the waves as “moderate” since he has been in much larger waves. We are not in 20 foot seas, or those vicious 7 foot at 7 second seas, which can be even worse. We can still walk around on two feet and carry things in a free hand. And if we have patience with waiting on good weather windows to travel in, we should never get into anything really bad.