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Libeccio - The equator!



Well, at 6:00pm tonight we crossed the magical "00 degrees 00.000 minutes" into the Southern Hemisphere. It capped a rather pleasant day- unfortunately the wind gods were taking a break, but, so were the wave wizards and so we had an increasingly smooth ride through the day.

Neptune put on quite the show through the day as we were treated with large pod of whales enjoying themselves broaching and tail slapping. This was followed by a huge school of dolphins that were also inspired to give us an aerial show. Just before sunset, there was a school of fish, we are not sure which, that also spent more time in the air than they did in the water. What a treat.

We used the calmness to make Libeccio a little more shipshape as we expect to arrive on San Cristobal at about 8:00 am on Thursday morning. Following our arrival, we will have up to 9-10 officials join us on the boat to take care of the clearing in process. One element of the process that we are a bit nervous about is the inspection of the hull for marine life. If the SCUBA divers detect marine life on the hull we can be asked to return 50nm offshore and clean the hull. We did clean the hull in the Las Perlas Islands, but, hopefully didn't miss any. If the seas remain calm, we may well pause before to proceeding to the anchorage.

It is traditional that an offering is made to Neptune at the time of one's first crossing of the equator. In days of old, the traditions of passage were not all that pleasant. On Libeccio, however, we feel that Neptune is a sophisticated individual and so our offering was a measure of champagne. Being aware that quite a few WARC boats are crossing today, we didn't offer too much as we didn't want Neptune to be adversely impacted. Instead, Jane, Laurie, Paul and I shared in the bubbles with a little snack on the trampoline as we crossed over the equator. The timing was perfect as we got to enjoy the sunset and the calmness of the ocean. We are very excited to be taking these next steps in this adventure.

We will have two weeks to explore the Galapagos and plan on visiting 3 islands and enjoy the hiking, snorkeling and SCUBA diving. Hopefully, we will find some decent wifi so we can add a few photos to these blogs.

Best wishes.


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