00:07N 87:27W

 

It’s been a frustratingly slow 24 hours on Bandit.  The wind has lightened right off to around 5-6knots and while we’re still managing to sail, our boatspeed is not as fast as we’d like – we’re down to 3-4 knots at times although as I write this we’re doing 6 over the ground, helped by a favourable current.

 

Biggest excitement today was seeing a huge school of spinner dolphins.  Sadly they weren’t the least bit interested in us (“boring...another yacht heading to the Galapagos to see the rellies”) and just kept on fishing a few hundred metres off to starboard.  They did provide us with some amazing aerial acrobatics as they leapt and spun out of the water chasing fish..but would have been nice to have them on the bow for a while. 

 

We should cross the equator around 3pm today.  Three boats in our fleet have already crossed – two of them with children on board so great excitement for them and lots of fun and games and offerings to Neptune.  We have been delighted to meet up with so many “kid boats”.  It’s inspiring to see young people who have opted to take their children out of mainstream life to sail around the world – what a fantastic education!  These ”kid boats” tend to travel together so the children can socialise and firm friendships are made.   

 

Bandit’s equatorial crossing will be low key – we’ve both crossed several times but as Bandit is an equatorial virgin she may get christened with whatever we can get our hands on – suspect one of the many bottles of Caribbean rum on board may be a suitable offering to both Neptune and Bandit. A dribble not a bottle of course!