Hawaii to Tahiti: Day 12. Shellbacks

23 Apr

We crossed to Equator last night right before midnight. We are now officially Shellbacks, a term used by old times sailors to designate those who have made the trip across the imaginary line. This is a huge personal accomplishment for us, as we’ve been dreaming of taking our boat to the South Pacific for 10 years.

It was fun to count down on the GPS to 0 N and then back up again, knowing we were now in the Southern Hemisphere. We celebrated with a shot of Linie Aquavit and a shot of Rum, and gave Neptune his share of each. A fun fact about the Linie Aquavit is that it’s already been across the Equator – it’s part of their brand and marketing, hence the ‘Linie’ (‘The Line’) designation. We brought it over from Norway and we saved some just for this occasion.

We are now sailing along towards our destination, continuing to take advantage of the favorable wind angle to, you guessed it, make more easting. We are passing a long string of islands to the West called the Line Islands, belonging primarily to Kiribati and some to the US. There is a lot of fishing and cargo transport activity in the area – we’ve been spotting ships on AIS and radar for the last couple of days, all of them too far out to see with our own eyes but easy to spot on the instruments. Less than 850 miles to go now!

Aloha from Octavia and Petter

2 Replies to “Hawaii to Tahiti: Day 12. Shellbacks

  1. I am so excited for you guys!!! What an intense trip so far. Such happiness I have for you that you have crossed the equator. I am so happy you are able to do these posts!!!! Loved the shout out to the HoloLens in your previous post 😉 Lots of love always!!!!

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