Penalty and green spagetti 00.00N 88.48W

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Tue 30 Apr 2013 20:01
02:51 am this morning Salsa af Stavsnäs with crew crossed the equator and are now in the Southern Hemisphere.
And right now we are in archipellago of Galapagos and we where greeted by a big group of sea lions. They swam around the boat and did almost all the tricks dolphins can do. We where at a stand still since Erika and I just had taken down the gennacker (huge sail like a spinnacker but can be used on one side), we have no wind and we must say we have been lucky to make it here with much less engine hours than most.
So what happened last night?
The kids where really disappointed when we told them we would not make it to the equator before they had to go to bed. We might be there tomorrow morning, we said. And we could not do much, the boat could not be pointed further south at that time. But then suddenly the wind backed by midnight and we where going straight south!
About 30 minutes before we where going to reach the equator I woke Ellinor and we prepared with candles, some drinks and snacks, plus we put green spagetti in the bucket we use to take up sea water.
Then we went in to the kids by 2.30 and we sang: In the jungle, the mighty jungle the lions sleep tonight, but with a new text:
At the equator, the warm equator, Salsa will cross tonight...
Accompanied by guitar it sounded probably worse than we think. But the kids woke up with a smile and then went to the bathroom and locked the door. 2-3 minutes from the Equator they came out dressed like Queen Neptune and Little Neptune. They used finger paint and all sorts of stuff to create something spectacular. Then we where told to kneel in front of the queen and tell her what we had done wrong lately. Well what we told her is a secret but the penalty was hard. Ellinor and Erika (yes Erika played doubble rolls) got the penalty not to talk for an entire day. Andreas and I got the penalty; No morning fruit, no afternoon coffe/snacks and one head meal was gone as well. You can imagine the protests! The boat was moving along slowly, with only the main loosley footed so we would have time to make all these things. The moon was shining like daylight and on the very calm ocean there was a moon "street".
As this trial was over Ellinor and I had the test to see if we where indeed experienced sailors with guts.
We took a hand of slymi green spagetti and said it was sea weed (which of course nobody believed). All had to take one spagetti and that was easier said than done. It was revolting to say the least.
But all made it and then we gave Neptune the rest.
As we crossed the 00.00.000 we took a bucket of sea water, and then baptised everybody who took their sea name.
Andreas Fisken (the Fish)
Erika Delfinen (The dolphin)
Ellinor Bulten (The nut and bolt)
Staffan Hummern (The Lobster)
 
Then it was time for drinks and celebration. The genua was rolled out and Salsa picked up speed in the night towards the Southern hemisphere.
 
It is funny, in New Years eve you look at the clock, when celebrating the Equator it is the geographical point, talk about room and time...
 
The water here by the islands is 21 degrees, we had a swim and it was lovely! The air is cool but nice. We enjoy it but we are a little tired.
 
The penalties where shortened to be quite 1 hour (and that was fun enought) and no morning fruit.
 
Take care and Happy Valborgsmässoafton!