Author: Pete

Location: 00º 00.000’N   88º 11.209’W

 

Tayrona is crossing the equator!

 

Felt like New Year’s Eve as a little kid today, waiting, counting down to the moment when we crossed the center stripe of the planet! The evening found us motoring in glassy conditions with only 5 knots of cool air flowing over our bow from our forward motion. Now wind of any kind.

In preparation for the event we baked a batch of Ghirardelli chocolate brownies, dug out of the recesses of the hold. Stayed up after dinner past our 8:30 bed time routine and played games in the cockpit with an eye on the GPS, something like watching the ball drop.

At 00º 00.035’N we poured five shots of Polish Krupnik, squirreled away in the bilges for a special occasion, grabbed towels, and gathered around the GPS. At 00º 00.005’N we put the engines in neutral and coasted into the netherworld between the northern and southern hemisphere. The EQUATOR!

We toasted with our libations and poured one over the railing for Poseidon, per sailor custom.

Then we stripped down to our birthday suits and jumped in the black ocean! It was something of a scary feat. Glowing, glittering life forms floated on the surface and in the depths. As we hit the water, green exploded around our flailing limbs and lit us like fire. We bravely jumped out of the dark water as quick as possible and sat guffawing on the transom.

After a freshwater rinse we sat on the trampoline in the bow and watched the bio luminescence go by. With a touch of haze in the air it was hard to tell where sea and sky met. No horizon could be discerned in the distance and the stars cast the same twinkly glow as the floating creatures in the sea, reflections mixing in the water. Tubular green blobs bobbed under the boat. I felt stoned. As we sat at the bow a huge, swimming form, maybe 10 foot across, body deep but lit up in green glided under the boat then disappeared. Maybe a manta ray. Maybe not. Who knows. It was an otherworldly night.

And now we’re in the southern hemisphere! Huzzah! We motor on over the flawless flat sea. I think we’re really in the trip now.