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4/13/2006 6:50:00 AM
830 miles to Hiva Oa
Dead center on the equator
Day 15 of 25 - From 'normal' Pollywogs to Shellbac
DAY 15 of 25 - Wanna know what 'Pollywogs' and 'Shellbacks' are ... well read on.
Sorry for the delay of this report . you might NOT have gotten your good morning news brief from Lawur on time today but in return we are now official Shellbacks . and most of you are Pollywogs . let me tell you, I feel so different I cannot even tell you .
SAILING UPDATE
There hasn't been much sailing going on the last 24 hours . maybe a few hours here and there to conserve fuel but all in all the winds have been very light and we have been motoring for the most part. Yesterday, for crying out loud the wind came for a while from the SW . well that is an odd direction for this area but it seems there is some sort of weird weather system hanging around here and the forecasts on what to expect the next 500 miles differ dramatically . the computer files called GRIB that show the wind and direction and which get sent to me via email daily show winds, though light but at least in the low teens, as of tomorrow. Don, the weather guru from California, predicts another 400 miles of no winds to talk about . I sure hope he is wrong because that would put a serious wrench in our plans and mean we are wobbling around out here for a while . and he even says there is no change in sight in the near future.
Here a few stats since Niki deprived you of any numbers in her last report, yesterday has been our slowest day of this trip so far with 106 miles for a 24 hour period. we tried to sail when we could . we had wind on the nose and we tried to tack around . not a great success in the middle of the Pacific . we had current pushing against us . all in all a slow day in terms of progress . however on the positive side of things, we had a REALLY calm day and let me tell you we enjoyed that thoroughly!!!!
BOAT UPDATE
Nothing major to report beside some routine maintenance . oil refilling (about a quart every 50 hours), changing the 'oil diaper' below the engine (that's where the old quart goes . a 'feature' of my Perkins 4-108 . sort of an automatic oil change), refilling the tanks with the jerry cans out of the cockpit and moving the empty cans onto the rail . hurray we have an aft cockpit again!!!!
FISHING UPDATE
I just threw the lure into the water again . this time I am 'shooting' for a Mahi Mahi . nothing less . maybe I even go as far as some people suggested and release a Skipjack again . we still have one of those in the fridge to be barbecued tomorrow.
FOOD PLAN OF THE DAY
Breakfast - Pancakes with raspberries. not fresh anymore . sure you would have asked if I wouldn't have clarified that
Lunch - Scrambled eggs with baked beans and sausage . Niki blew out egg shells to use for Easter decoration
Dinner - Arancherra with avocado and tomato . fresh . really the last fresh ones we had . promise
HIGH OF THE DAY
I have to say some days it is hard to pick one high of the day . so here we go with a few for the email travelers on Lawur. In preparation for the equator crossing, we did what most people do early . we took a swim around the boat . well to be exact I swam around the boat. It is a bit of a frightening thought when you walk up on the bow, about 850 miles away from the next piece of land, with thousands of feet of water below and you jump off the only thing afloat around you . BUT to make sure you don't think we have gone completely insane, we put a line out behind the boat, have taken all sails but the main down and waited for very lite winds and calm seas before we did this . so now after over 2000 miles on Lawur, this was our first time off her . if only for a few seconds. I went up on the bow, took a dive off with Niki and the boys quite apprehensive and saw the boat passing by me at over a knot of speed . doesn't sound much but a knot is about as fast as I can swim . for a short period. So without using the rope, I got to the swim ladder and was back safely on Lawur. Niki and the boys both walked down the ladder and went for a swim on the rope themselves . a big step for all of us but oh so refreshing and invigorating . hard to describe after being 'locked up' for 2 weeks. Yes it is 2 weeks today that we have left Z town and it looks like we have passed the 2/3 mark on our journey.
But the true high of the day was crossing the equator . let me give you a little bit of background on the traditions. This all started with French ships in the 16th century and was done every time a major cape was rounded, but as time went on, this hazing celebration was extended to sailors who passed the equator for the first time. Sailors are a superstitious bunch and would do anything to appease the treacherous seas. Eager to please the ancient god of the sea, Neptune, certain humiliations and fines paid were a small price to pay to get Neptune's blessing. The English eventually followed and Captain James Cook wrote in his journal about heaving 'pollywogs' (that's what we are right now and most of you are probably if you haven't crossed the equator on a ship) over the seas by the main halyard and dunking them into the ocean water 30 - 40 ft below. Once you crossed the equator and went through the ceremony, you became officially a 'shellback' with the right to tease pollywogs at liberty and especially before any crossing in the future. So, following in good old tradition, we did the following ceremony . wondering how we dealt with the dumping the kids into the water you wonder . :-)
For starters, we cooled champagne in the fridge the night before, during the day Niki and the boys dressed up two of the boys biggest stuffed animals as Neptune and his wife and then last but not least, Niki baked some fresh brownies in her early night watch. At exactly 11:50 boat time . who knows what time that is somewhere else but I think we are currently set to Mountain Standard Time . not considering daylight savings . we crossed the equator . the biggest challenge was to capture the GPS readout at 0 degrees 0.000 minutes ... you will have to wait until we hit a faster connection to see the resulting picture of our GPS. After the official crossing, the party moved up on deck, where we popped the champagne, cut the brownies and then . spilled champagne on Benjamin . he was cranky as it was because we woke him up but that just pushed him over the edge so we had a small family crisis right there . thanks Neptune. But nothing brownies couldn't help so we soothed Benjamin with a sugar rush and celebrated the crossing by tossing a variety of items overboard . who really knows what this guy Neptune likes, but we decided to toss some Mexican coins . won't need those for a while . some champagne obviously with some brownies . actually tossing the brownies hurt us more then the champagne and then last but not least a message in a bottle we had made this afternoon . will be interesting to see if anybody writes back . we will replace the dumping overboard with a saltwater bucket shower for tomorrow during the day. Now, we are official 'Shellbacks' . I am sort of laughing about all these traditions but at the end it is a great milestone for us to cross the equator with our boat . it has been a long time coming this whole trip codenamed 'Project Marquesas' and let me just take a short excursion for the ones who might not have been along from the start or for the ones who might have forgotten . this all started for TheSchmid family over 3 years ago in 2002 with me writing an email to Niki while on a trip in Austria telling her I wanted a change of pace and a change in lifestyle. Then came actually agreeing on what to do, taking sailing lessons, selling the house, finding a boat, making an offer on a different boat and not getting it, finding Lawur, spending 4 months in Santa Cruz doing major interior retrofit and leaving for the trip in Nov of 2003 from Santa Cruz thinking we would go all the way that year. Then in Jan of 2004 we realized that funds where shorter then we liked, the boat needed more repairs then we had anticipated and we decided to stay a year in San Diego to take of all that . well by now it is obvious that a year became two, we broke a mast in the marina (you can imagine we got kicked out of there faster then you can turn around), re-decked the boats teak decks and added a lot of amenities to Lawur while having gone back to work. But 2005 was the year for Lawur and TheSchmids to really embark on 'Project Marquesas' (see the FAQ section of www.lawur.com <http://www.lawur.com/> for an explanation of the code name and more details) and we finally left the good old U.S. of A. And here we are now just past the equator . maybe I did have too much champagne and I am rambling on but slowly the magnitude of this trip starts to sink in and I am finally getting into the groove and settling in I feel. Well, enough said on this high of the day . it is certainly a long one but deservingly so I believe . WE ARE SHELLBACKS.
LOW OF THE DAY
I would have to say sharing this with Ohana Kai would have made it even sweeter . but things came different and Ohana Kai celebrated 6 hours earlier then us and I am sure they had a splendid time too. Congrats to the Martin family . the big question is did Bruce shave his head because honoring Neptune with a shave is another old tradition I will follow-up on tomorrow . Bruce always talked about shaving his head but then again who knows . I guess we will find out when we hit Hiva Oa.
I hope you enjoyed today's trip . welcome to the status of 'Virtual Shellbacks' since I always say you are along for trip via our logs so I guess you earned a semi special status . NAAAAA . you are still Pollywogs . sorry . LOL
Happy voyaging,
Robert and crew
TheSchmids Family Sailing on Lawur
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