Day 18: Swam across the Equator and three shellbacks are born!

All three of us pollywogs swam across the equator tethered to the boat with spinnaker sheets! At 11am (17:00 zulu) we jumped into the pacific ocean at position 00*00N 131*01W. The water was amazing, blue blue blue.. Couldn’t see the bottom, probably because it was 5 miles deep!

After the crossing all three lousy stinky pollywogs were initiated as Shellbacks in a equator crossing ceremony.. Thanks to Russ and Kaersten from S/V Liberty who put together an absolutely amazing equator crossing kit for us that included Royal Baby, Neptune and Davy Jones costumes, champagne, snacks, boat bottle kit etc.. and a framed custom made Equator crossing certificate!! Russ and Kaersten we love you! You made our equator crossing so much more special and memorable!

The three pollywogs on S/V Sudden Stops Necessary were:
Royal baby Glenda
French fisherman Cyrille
Polynesian babe Chet

Each pollywog was called to the court of Neptune and told to answer for their heinous crimes..

Trial 1: Royal Baby Glenda
Holding court was Chet dressed as Neptune and Cyrille as Davy Jones who listed out the following heinous crimes:
– Demonstrating her seawomanship skills and courage, proving she is as good as the rest of the sexist crew
– Except she didn’t join in the crews stupid tequila drinking habit
– Not liking perfectly good mexican powdered mash potatoes that contains at least 10% real potato
– Making your crewmate lick the deck
– Bringing good fishing luck so that crew has to eat fresh fish all the time.
Pleaded: Guilty
Punishment: A shot of tequila

Trial 2: French Fisherman
Holding court was Chet dressed as Neptune and Glenda as Davy Jones who listed out the following heinous crimes:
– Making us contemplate eating all of Neptune’s children instead of eating our delicious canned food
– Making us stuff down powdered mash potatoes down our throats
– Throwing dirty dishwater on a higher ranked ship’s officer
– Being French on a British/American sailing vessel
– Being too cheery at all times when a bad mood is more appropriate
Pleaded: Guilty
Punishment: A shot of tequila

Trial 3: Polynesian babe Chet
Holding court was Glenda dressed as Neptune and Cyrille as Davy Jones who listed out the following heinous crimes:
– Continuously trimming the sails for the fastest passage
– Teaching your crew how to sail safely so that one day they may commit more crimes and realize their dream of sailing their own boat
– Giving the crew tequila shots to convince them to cross the pacific to paradise
– Waking up calm and ready for action even in the middle of the night with a squall coming
– Making the crew go up the mast twice a day to clean the british flag!
Pleaded: Guilty
Punishment: Sucking used oil out of the engine with a pipe (overfilled engine oil) and a shot of tequila

We finally give Neptune a shot of the best tequila in the ships stores. Hopefully he will give us wind. We are currently becalmed south of the equator…

All is well and enjoying the windless pacific as newly minted shellbacks!

[Post by HF radio email]