00.00N 89.00W
JENNY
Alan Franklin/ Lynne Gane
Wed 13 Feb 2008 23:25
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Today was a unique occasion for two of our crew
namely Ellie and Alan at 12.30 pm they crossed the EQUATOR by sea for the 1st
time.Jenny and I prepared ourselves for the ceremony as laid down by Neptune to
welcome them to his abode and to ensure that they pay due homage to
him.
In short we dressed up and they were
anointed(covered) with washing up liquid shaving gel and doused with fresh sea
water by the bucket followed by a glass or two of champagne and bacon sandwiches
for breakfast as indeed we had some 2 years previous.This followed the ancient
tradition of sailors initiating their less experienced crew members into the
rites of passage after along sea voyage.
Apart from this a really strange thing happened
yesterday in that about 160nm from any land we came across three fisherman in an
open boat no more than 18ft long powered by an outboard who were setting drift
nets to catch fish they were directing us clear of their nets. They came
out of nowhere as there is no land out here,needless to say we were all a bit
wary of their intentions as you can't be two careful and we are vulnerable being
on our own so we are warned.However they seemed what they were ,anyway about 2
hours later they caught up with us and wanted to trade so we traded 3 packets of
cigarettes for one large Mahi Mahi about 4ft long ( I think I paid to much
).Cigs and fish were exchanged the fish into a bucket which I passed to
Alan just as the tail came over and smacked him slap bang in the middle of his
forehead making him fall over backwards,at which we all laughed including the
fishermen.
However by this time dusk was setting in and we
parted company from them and after an hour or so when they were barely in sight
we doused our lights and changed course just in case,anyway no more was seen.But
can you imagine fishing 160nm out in the ocean in an open boat with only an
outboard,what a risk of life.What made them operate so far from land in a boat
that small I don't know perhaps they were after something other than Mahi
Mahi.
So at long last we secured a big fish which was
duly gutted by Ellie and myself ( quite a blood thirsty little soul that
daughter of ours ) and we filleted it as well ready for the freezer( Ellie had a
go at the filleting and was pretty good ).
By 0900 tomorrow we should be it the Galapagos
it seems to have taken us ages to get here as we have had to motor most of
the way because of a lack of wind and when on the odd occasion we did have wind
it was on the nose and didn't last for long enough to take advantage,in
fact we are probably only 12 hours behind our original arrival but its another
day so as to speak.
Well the next dispatch will be from the Galapagos
where I am returning home from as business beckons Alan and Jenny will be
blogging so you will have some culture.
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