Across the equator...at night

The first day or two out of Fortaleza was rather bumpy as we were
getting the swell on the beam or from the side in non-nauitical terms
,and fairly big swell it was.Every now and then a wave would smash
against the side and spray it's load over us.Now and then a wave would
"ankle tap" us causing an uneasy motion on the boat but from experience
I knew that this won't last long.As soon as we were back into the deeper
waters things would improve dramatically.But not before poor Bernhard
left his hatch open and had a wave crashing in.I did tell him when we
left to close his hatch and the next morning he opened it again.But our
beloved ocean is like this,all looks fine but just that one wave will
sit and wait for an opportunity like this to teach us.No damage was
incurred.On a previous trip to India my one crewmember was sitting in
his cabin working on his laptop and his hatch just slightly open when a
wave came over and wiped out his cellphone and laptop...ouch.It does get
hot out here at times and the temtation to open your hatch is great,but
even greater care is required to know when it is save to open
it.Yesterday the heat soared to 33*C and the humidity sitting at
87%.Fortunately the waves are fairly flat and we can open our hatches to
get some breeze ventilating through.

On Saturday night at 20h15 we crossed the equator.Whenever one crosses
the equator on a yacht for the first time you are initiated into the
small group of people that have done this.There are different ways of
being initiated and I normally give first timers a choice.You can go
through the whole dirty ritual of eggs,flour,syrup etc and even old
engine oil and grease in some cases,or you can swim across.I prefer the
latter for various reasons,mostly being more real to me.In a way this is
our way of saying thanks to Neptune for the protection so far and ask
for his favour in the Northern hemisphere as well.The crew also has to
make their choice a few days before the time,and one never knows exactly
at what time you will cross the equator.During the day it is not so
scary,at night it is a different kettle of fish altogether.The new
moon/dark moon makes it even more scary ,and one's imagination can play
all kinds of tricks on you ,if you let it.We also switch off all the
lights on the boat as we do not want to attract any unwanted attention
from the denizens of the deep.If you have any fear of darkness and/or
deep water this is the perfect opportunity to face those fears and
overcome them ,which is exactly what our crewmembers did.Very well done
to both of them.We tied two mooring lines to the back of the boat and at
the given moment they jumped into the water and swam across the equator
holding on to the mooring lines.both were understandably eleated
afterwards.

Currently we are right across the mouth of the Amazon river mouth,about
200nm offshore.Within the next two or three days the purpleblue water
will turn light brown as the river spews it's water into the ocean and
the current will eventually pick it up.For the last two days we have
hooked soliudly into the current and averaging 10nm per hour at the same
rpm's as previously.We expect to arrive in tthe Caribbean on Friday and
should reach our final destination Tortola by Tuesday next week,hand the
boat over on Wednesday and fly to out on Thursday morning.All aboard is
well and the delivery is hurrying to an end.

We wish you a splendid day or till we meet again.

Paul