After two weeks of uncomfortable conditions, we had finally entered the doldrums and were motoring our way through the notorious windless dead patch that borders the equator. With less wind came calmer conditions which were very much welcome. Not the totally flat seas I was hoping for, but a great improvement from the conditions we had experienced thus far. Since we were no longer bobbing back and forth, we could finally start making more desalinated water now that the intake for the water maker wasn’t continuously submerged. We also needed to take this time to tackle a looming project that we had been dreading since Day 2, but conditions wouldn’t allow. That is, trouble shoot and fix the toilet.
Eitan and I had noticed the toilet seemed to be draining a little slower than normal. It was still draining, which was great, but failure seemed imminent and we were hoping it would hang on until we got some calmer conditions to investigate. Eitan began taking apart the different hoses and found that the hose from the toilet to the holding tank seemed to be almost completely blocked by some calcified buildup. We removed the hose and Eitan modified the toilet to discharge directly to the ocean using the sink waste through hull. The only problem with this bypass was that we needed to keep the sink plugged or else shit would literally come flying out whenever you flushed the toilet!
For a one-inch diameter hose, there was about a quarter-inch or more of deposits around the inner diameter, significantly reducing the capacity. I sat on the back of the boat with our mini drain snake and did whatever I could to dislodge the mineral buildup from inside the hose. I bent it back and forth, I jammed the snake into it, and I hit the hose against the transom, doing my best not to get poop particles all over myself and the boat. After an hour, the pipe was cleared and we reinstalled it. Once everything was connected, the toilet was flushing faster than ever! Problem solved and crisis averted!
As we headed south, we continued to watch the GPS numbers dwindle as we got closer and closer to 0°- 00.000’ latitude. By Day 18, we were getting close and determined we would be crossing the equator on my watch. It was one of the nicest days we’d had thus far with calm seas, clear skies and an excited energy onboard as we were about to achieve the greatest milestone of the crossing. In some ways, it felt like the equator was our actual destination. Eitan worked on the equator crossing ceremony downstairs as I lounged in the cockpit with Simone and Martin. About an hour before the crossing, we heard the jingle of Christmas bells meaning we had a fish on the hand line!
Martin grabbed for the line and, hand over hand, brought the fish to the boat and pulled it onboard. It seemed we caught a big eye tuna! At around 20 inches long or so, it was a bit small, but since the other boats weren’t having any luck fishing, I correctly assumed this would be the only fish we would catch during the entire passage. Also, the timing of it felt like a blessing from King Neptune. Martin, had never caught a fish before so Eitan and I instructed him on how to bleed and fillet it. We had poke bowls for dinner later that night, courtesy of King Neptune!
After the excitement of catching the fish, we found we were very close to crossing the equator. Eitan stopped the engine to initiate the pre-crossing ritual for the pollywogs, a term used for someone who has never crossed the equator by boat. The ceremony involved taking a shot of truth serum (rum) and confessing to our crimes against King Neptune and the subjects of his domain. My crimes were being a pollywog and undertaking this kind of voyage with my level of anxiety, I was clearly guilty. As punishment we all needed to navigate our way around the boat deck, blindfolded, then swim around the boat in our “birthday suits”. We had a lot of fun with the shenanigans then got back onboard to fire up the engine to continue motoring across that invisible line called the equator. With the current, Eitan throttled up then cut the engine one more time, just long enough for us to drift over the line. We excitedly counted down 10, 9, 8…3, 2, 1, 0! We were officially shellbacks now! The current was still pushing us north and Eitan hurried to start the engine once more to prevent us from drifting back into the northern hemisphere, which we assumed would be bad luck. A part of me wished there was a physical line or barrier to see marking the equator but we only had the numbers on the GPS to tell us where it was and validate that we had crossed.
Now that we were officially in the southern half of the world, it was time to pay tribute to King Neptune for our safe passage for the remainder of the trip. We each threw coins from our last port of call into the sea and I tossed in a couple sand dollars as some nautical currency. Then, Eitan poured rum over each quadrant of the boat to satisfy the sea god’s thirst. Afterwards we were all smiles as we sipped celebration beers and enjoyed our fresh fish for dinner.
In hindsight, the equator crossing day was probably the best day of the entire passage, aside from seeing land when we arriving at the islands. We hadn’t had the most comfortable passage and, since departing Mexico, this was the day we were most looking forward to. After cloudy and squally weather in the doldrums, we felt blessed to cross during the afternoon and have a calm day filled with blue skies. Catching a tuna was just the icing on the cake. From what we had heard, conditions should be much easier in the southern hemisphere, so in many ways we felt like it was all downhill from here, or so we thought!
