Equator crossing
In the days leading up to the equator crossing the excitement builds. The shellbacks onboard, those who crossed before, hold secretive meetings in the lounge while the pollywogs speculate wildly about the upcoming ceremony. Will they really cut our hair? Will there be a swimming stop? Some even heard there is something personalised planned for every pollywog.
Then one night at the eight-o-clockie captain Hans announces that he aims for the crossing to happen the next day around noon so that everyone can be on deck for the occasion. He also give some clothing advice for the celebrations. Other than that he keeps us guessing as to what is about to happen.
As it happens, I’m on helm duty for the last half hour that morning. Hans seems to consider it a fun challenge to cross exactly at noon. Every few minutes we get a course change. 1-8-0, than 1-4-5 back to 1-7-5, and so on. In the meanwhile more people gather around the wheelhouse to see the coordinates on the screen change from N° to S°. When that finally happens the massive fog horn sounds, we cheer and we congratulate each other. The final order to the helmsmen is to put the rudder at mid ship. The engine sounds die down, and we await the upcoming events while drifting back and forth on the equator.
That afternoon we are honoured by a visit of Neptune and his court. What exactly went down will stay between him and the crew of Europa, but it’s fair say he won’t allow just anyone into his kingdom. Having eventually been granted entry we celebrate by swimming in the ocean. After that the whole crew joins in a well needed cleaning of the decks. At the same time the winds finally picks up so we start setting sails. What a way to start our southern part of the voyage!
