281: CROSSING THE EQUATOR for the FIRST TIME - CRAZY Ceremony!

We are getting ready to fulfill the dream come true in our lives and that is to sail the Pacific to French Polynesia. I've wanted to do this since I was a little boy. We've been through about three and a half years of training. We're still alive, the boat's still floating. We have Francesco and Yuka with us to be with them along the way and it's time to get started. Our boat is ready to roll. We checked out everything. It's not perfect but we're ready to go so let's go. Let's hope they start. Oh that's one. We only need one right Yuka? That's right we only need one. We are embarking on a 4,000 nautical mile journey from Panama City to the Marquesas in French Polynesia that will probably take us between 26 and 30 days depending on the wind. The passage is broken up into several stages. The first stage takes us out of Panama City usually with a decent north wind that spills over from the Caribbean across the isthmus of Panama and continues past Punta Mala. Then the wind dies and we will enter the next stage motoring with the help of the magic carpet, a two to two and a half knot current that leads us into the doldrums. The doldrums are called the ITCZ or Intertropical Convergence Zone. It's basically a large area that constantly moves north and south of the equator and promises squalls and no wind. It's about 150 nautical miles wide and we want to spend as little time in it as possible. We will try to pick a spot to cross it at its narrowest area motoring until we break through the southern squall line back into sunny skies. The last stage starts once we are south of the ITCZ where we will find consistent southeast trade winds that will take us all the way to the Marquesas. But since this is weather there are endless variables that affect all of the above conditions so no two Pacific passages are the same. Our journey will surely be a unique one. Yuka did an amazing job getting our fruit in place. We've got too much. We don't actually have enough room for it but it's up in the front too. The criminal. The criminal. A camera! 1.42. First day, first duty. It's crazy. Saying goodbye, seeing the last of the islands of Panama. Totally calm day. Making some progress. Just getting ourselves out of Panama City. So that's where we are right now and only 30 more days of this. Our first day is coming to an end here and we are debating on whether to set up the Ioxley or not. We're gonna set it up now while we have some daylight and have some options. First time we've flown her at night. It's beautiful. What a special gift from Francesco and Yuka from Japan. Oh man. Are you gonna give me a bite? Day two. The color is back up. I guess we had no wind. Good job. I didn't do anything. Good job to you. Good job. Yeah well you don't put it in there. Oh it's a good thing that it was in there. Bring it in please so we can uh yeah. Look what I just pulled in. No I was actually just talking trash. That's what I was doing. It's a Japanese way okay. Of course. I didn't know there was another way. Oh fish number two. You better not lose it. Oh man. I got it. Wow that's what a beautiful fish. Wow look at you babe. Day two, two fish. Day three, three fish. Something really fishy about these crossings. Getting all the rough edges off. I guess all the scales. And also there are some bones. Oh some bones. All right we're drying the fish but we're gonna vacuum seal it. Wow this is good. Sushi chef Yuka. That's that's Francesco's work. He did a good job. Look at that technique. What technique? It's just cutting. No you're doing great. It's so fun watching you work. There's a lifetime of culture. My mom. Your aunt. Yeah she she likes cooking but I think she sort of try person like me. But my aunt yeah she studied. So Francesco. Oh we're eating well. Brown's lentils, Indian lentils and then he made this beautiful rice to go with the lentils. Wow. This stuff is amazing. Let's see. Day two is coming to an end here quickly. The sun is starting to set and I am on duty in 20 minutes from six to nine. So we've shifted our shifts from two hours to three hours during the day and then two hours from midnight until six in the morning so that we get a little bit more downtime during the day and we're not switching so often. The boys are gonna do a workout. The girls are gonna watch. We had a beautiful sailing day. We've been doing great mileage today. The parasail has been a champ. We had to jibe it. Move it from the port side to the starboard side so now it's flying on the starboard side and potentially we'll have to drop it and raise our main and fly the jib because the wind just keeps shifting on us so we'll see. Just gonna kind of take it one moment at a time with four people on the boat. You can do a lot of things in the middle of the night that we would never attempt to do if we were by ourselves. Time to lower our flags. We are no longer in Panama. Well there goes the bow of the boat. We're digging. We're plowing for sure. We got ourselves a couple of bow babes. And it's the end of day two. Just take a look at how beautiful it is. The sunset, the oxley and it's just so peaceful. Once we hit the highway which is the trade south of Galapagos it's going to be wide open and steady the whole way there. So we're doing right now we're doing 6.4 knots. Wow. With 6.5 knots of wind so we're doing the same as the wind speed. And definitely have some current going with us and you know you can't ask for much more as a sailor than to be. We're actually going faster than the wind speed so we are definitely in the current. I think we've got like two knots worth of current right here. We're trying to get good sleep patterns. Last night was a little tough. We had to stop and douse the sail and start the engines and you know that always affects everybody's sleep. So hopefully we're this thing is gonna not need dousing tonight so everybody can sleep well. Good morning. Today is day three and we have the sun coming up. I'm a lucky guy. I have the sunrise shift this morning. We alternate. It's a staggered schedule so everybody gets to experience everything. And we just did a sail change from running the engines and we are now cruising at 8.8 knots. We have current and the wind is about the same. We have a casualty right here. Squid got on the boat. A super exuberant squid. Passing the island of Malpelo here on the left. It is absolutely stunning. I'm so bummed we're not closer. We are doing eight and a half knots with seven knots of wind. Amazing current right here. We're just flying. Everything is good. There's just beautiful wind following seas. You don't have to touch the parasailor. Okay so the side that is curling, release it a bit. Yeah so that it catches the wind more. Open it and you can catch the wind from this side. Perfect. That makes sense. That's one. Okay. Another one is just right just a bit. A horizontal movement. Yeah. Toward the curl. I mean it was in the front and it was curling so the angle of the sail changes a bit. Okay. And wow yeah. And then you also pulled the port line down. Yes. Yes. Because to bring the sail over. The sail was quite high and I thought you know it might be rather than releasing that one even higher. Let's put this one here. Right. When the light brings. The most important thing is just keep the kite up in stayable. Right. Right. It just flip. It doesn't flip anything. Right. Because either way. You don't have to take it down. So you don't have to take it down. You don't have much control of it. That makes total sense. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. It is day four and here we are. We're motoring. One engine. We're starting to reach the doldrum areas where we don't have the wind coming from the Caribbean to help blow us to Galapagos. So we've got a gap. It's very normal to have to motor for three four days. So we're starting that. The Admiral is working hard. Making vids. Yeah. Making vids for you guys. So you don't have to do this for 26, 28, 30. Hopefully not more than 30 days like we are. And then we have our fearless crew up here. Yeah. Having their cup of coffee. The fruit and vegetables are holding out really well. We continue to consume so that there is no waste of the fresh products which needs to be monitored very closely. And here's the parasail or the oxley. Our downwind sail not being used. There is more. Is that good? I think so. Got so much pressure. All right. Learning new things. We are motor sailing. Today is just a weird one. We have a problem with our prop. It is not engaging when we put the boat in forward. So Brian's going to go in the water because we placed an easy fix. We're going to find out. Ladies and gentlemen, the sail trimming guru. She's multi-talented. Come on. Don't be. And she has. You can start releasing a bit. She has special powers. So we're going with the sushi rice and who in America makes sushi rice? Nobody. To go with to make it a true poke bowl. We haven't had a true poke bowl until today and now we're making the rice which makes it. And what is that right there? This is actually the powder of sushi vinegar for sushi. Oh that's right. It's a cheater. I love it. I bet it's really good too. And just put not too much because there's some a lot of sugar. Oh that's great so it'll last. But it's gonna you're gonna send a lot of vinegar now. Okay. It's amazing how many nauticals. Guys this is not. Amazing. Thank you but it's not that special. It's been a little bit of a bizarre day. We tried to put the parasail up but it was all twisted inside the sock which often happens. So we had to sort that out. While we were doing that we realized that we have an issue with the port side sail drive. When we increased the throttle it didn't engage the props. So Brown got in the water and tried to sort that out. Didn't see anything unusual. And then through the Facebook site Yanmar and Leopard thank you owners for jumping in. And we learned that it's probably the clutch that's slipping. So thankfully we're not going to do any additional damage to it by using it and it is working. So we're really thankful for that. And while we were doing that Francesca and Yuka took the parasail and untwisted it and we were able to hoist it. So it was just a like two and a half hours of bam bam bam things that we had to take care of and address. So anyway we got that done and it's been a beautiful day. We're motor sailing because we don't have enough wind to just regularly sail. And if we don't keep up a pace we're not going to make it to the northwest border of where the wind is going to form that we're kind of chasing. So as we're chasing it it's running away. And so it's going to be two and a half three more days of motoring motor sailing if we don't get there. So we're trying to make our way over there as quickly as possible. Anyway looking forward to tomorrow. We are going to cross the equator in the morning and that is going to be just a cool experience. And we'll see if King Neptune actually shows up on our boat. There's a high probability with Brown on board that King Neptune is going to be here. This is definitely my favorite shift. It's the 6 a.m and you get to see the sunrise almost immediately. Today is Thursday, March 7th. It is the start of our sixth day on the water and today very excitingly we will be crossing the equator. It's really wild to see how far we've come but it's even more wild to see how far we have to go. We're not even a week into it and almost crossing the equator I should say at this point. We have no wind and that's the projection for the next four days until we hit this point here hopefully by Sunday. Basically as we move south the wind is moving south so it's a lot further to go than normal. There's Galapagos there. We're going to pass on its south side today. We're about four hours behind the waypoint where we're supposed to be for our weather router. We are we are polliwogs okay. A polliwog is a tadpole that's barely sprouted legs and arms to become a frog. We are polliwogs okay but you are shellbacks and unfortunately I haven't looked up why people are called shellbacks but I think it has a lot to do with Galapagos and getting tortoise because that's the equator right and taking tortoise off of Galapagos and sticking them upside down and eating them as food at sea so I think that's what a shellback is. That's the shellback. Part of the humility that we must have is for our transgressions and our transgressions our misdeeds are against King Neptune and he's going to be King Neptune because he's not a polliwog. It's always the experienced people that do the hazy. It's meant to be humiliating but it's also a unique maritime experience and it's a lot of fun. Trying to manage our fruits and veggies and some of them are ripening faster than we'd like. We're gonna have to cut up these guys today otherwise we're gonna lose them. Things are going fast here. Tomatoes are not happy in the tropical sun that's for sure. Get them out of here. I think the boys are hoping to get an Oscar. Oh the girls are preserving. Oh that looks amazing. Beautiful. Preparation is taking place in the final hour for the King Neptune ceremony. Oh man. Oh it's beautiful. Look at all the pineapple or something in his hand. They're amazing. They're practicing their skit. So the top number is what we're looking at because now we're in the North Pacific and we are getting ready to go to the South Pacific. It's a big line. Yeah there's a big line out there. We're getting ready to cross it. Four, three, two, one. We are approaching the equator. Yes. And that means you have to face King Neptune himself. You are Pollywogs. Little Pollywogs. And you're guilty of trespassing and before you can have real shellbacks you have to pay your tributes to King Neptune. So here is your sentence. Number one. You have been sailing around the Caribbean without asking permission violating the laws of the seas. Charge number two. You have been fishing and eating my fish without asking my permission and then you've been polluting the sea with the aftermath. You've been accused. How do you plead guilty or not guilty? Not guilty. What are you talking about Not guilty? Yeah. Then you must be punished. But this is not a democracy. So I'll decide your punishment. Punishment number one. You need to crawl all around the decks making seal sounds. This is our boat. Punishment number two. You need to clean your sins swimming out on the ocean. It's time to start your punishment now. I'm taking my punishment King Neptune. Thank you. May I have another sir? Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your mercy. We have sinned against you. This is raspberry stuff. Wow. Cleanse yourself of your sins. You need to jump off the boat and swim around the boat in the middle of the ocean. Man this King Neptune guy's a tough one. He wants a lot. He does but you know what we've been really bad. You guys could play a real mean trick right now if you wanted to. Yes you're clean. But I don't think we're done yet right? No you need to offer King Neptune the finest of your rum. The last thing that we do to pay pittance to King Neptune is we give him a drum of our finest rum. One of the most valuable things at the high seas we give to you. I now proclaim you shell back. Thank you merciful Neptune. Thank you merciful Neptune. Thank you. Yeah baby. Let the games begin. Yeah. Now we are going to have a glass of our finest Oh that was pitiful. Cheers. Great passage. We couldn't think of a better way to end our first week on passage. Join us next week as we continue our adventures making our way to French Polynesia.