Penalty and green spagetti 00.00N 88.48W
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Tue 30 Apr 2013 20:01
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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!
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