Across the Equator

We bid goodbye to the Southern hemisphere today after spending eight eventful months in it and crossed into the Northern hemisphere at 1639 local time. This was our fourth Equator crossing in less than a year so Neptune's sentinels let us pass without even giving us a second glance! So far the progress has been better than expected though the doldrums must have shifted North with the Sun and we may yet encounter them as we move North. Since last two days, contrary to all weather predictions we have been getting strong Westerly winds. If these are an indication of an early SWly monsoon setting in, we should be extremely lucky because in that case the doldrums will be in a disturbed state and we can get out of their clutches easily.

It is getting increasingly hot by the day with the temperature inside the boat refusing to come down below 32 C at any time! All the water that evaporates from the sea during the hot day comes down at night as thunder showers with strong gusty winds and sheets of rain! So we are settling into an interesting routine of staying awake during the night controlling the boat and unable to sleep during the day due to the heat!

The chef suffered a bit of a setback today with the discovery or rather non discovery of any butane gas in the gas cylinder. That definitely is the end of any cooking on board and the chef will need to be at his creative best to make unheated canned food taste palatable till we reach home 1200 Nm away!