American Spirit II - Day 40; Crossing the Equator; Wednesday, February 12, 2014

At 3:45 AM this morning, during Darlene's 3:00 AM - 6:00 AM watch, we came upon some fishermen who had laid miles of nets almost in front of us. A fishing skiff, one of 6 that the 'mother ship' had been pulling behind her(we'd seen them earlier in the day whey they crossed under our stern), rushed us and the crew members on board starting shouting at us in Spanish. They drove their boat toward us and 'herded' us away from their nets. Fifteen minutes later we we near a flashing light, which was the corner or end of their net. This flashing light was a buoy that they had placed to mark the southeast corner of their nets. Once there, they stopped escorting us and we got back on course toward Galapagos. We only lost 15 minutes in the diversion. Another boat, Trillium, we found out later, took 6 hours to get clear of the nets. They, also, were 'herded' around for that entire period. In retrospect, we were very lucky.

At 1:00 PM we crossed the equator. Our latitude read 00.00.00S on our chart plotter. We made a toast consisting of rum and coke, and toasted Neptune. Per common practice, we made a cubre libre for Neptune himself, and poured it into the sea in recognition. Failing to do so could bring the wrath of the oceans against us. At least, that's what ancient mariners thought. The rum itself was a special bottle given to us by Oscar and Cheryl Westerfield from Tampa during our going away party. Ron Tapaca Contenaria. Good stuff!

At 10:15 PM land was sighted, with the north coast, east end of San Cristobal coming into view. The obligatory 'Land Ho!' was called out by me. (Joel had made landfall in the San Blas Islands, so it was my turn to sight land first. At least that's what I thought). The terrain looked very mountainous thru the passing rain squalls, highlighted with a near full moon, with no lights visible on the land itself. That was very unusual. No lights on the land. Still quite visible was the Southern Cross. Due to the uncertainty of our electronic and paper charts, we were also using radar to help guide us in to the port located at the very northwestern end of the island. Prior to sighting land, both Joel and I were a little tired. Once land was sighted, we toasted the landfall (rum and coke, of course!) and got our second wind. Darlene was asleep in the forward V Berth cabin. Or maybe she was reading.

Details of our passing Roca Pateador (a really, really big rock), entering the port and anchoring will be covered in the next log. Stay tuned, as its a doozy!There is nothing more dangerous than a night time landfall in a place you've never been before.

Brian Fox