Cape Verdes bound for Argentina - 4 Oct
by Kate Laird

1 39 S
28 51 W

The big news is we are now in the southern hemisphere! Hamish woke me up ten minutes early before my midnight watch to watch the GPS tick over and we celebrated with a glass of Madeira and one for King Neptune as well. Very exciting. King Neptune didn't make his visit until the morning, however, when Helen and Anna were up. I think it is a good idea to cross the line with children aboard - King Neptune was much kinder than in some iterations I've heard of that involved used motor oil and porridge. He appeared in a magnificent silver crown with a silver trident, a fleece beard and a gaffer tape mustache. Helen and Anna and I were granted passports to the southern hemisphere (a globe with the equator drawn on our hands) and Helen and Anna were each given a silver crown of their own, which are now doing duty as play castles.

Just as we reached the equator, the wind lifted 5 degrees - an amazing look at the world in motion, as the Coreolis effect started going the other way. We can't exactly check the water going down the drain in this sea (but we will when we get into port), but we could have done a pretty good estimation of our position just by that wind lift. The cloud we were under all day yesterday was textbook ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone) and then the southern trades and then this lift at the equator. It was the closest I've come to really feeling the world in motion and the shape of the earth.

We've eased sheets slightly and pulled out the staysail for the first time since the Greenland-Scotland trip (there's a narrow gap at 60 degrees apparent where everything works). We're going 8.5 knots for the first time since leaving Lydney...very exciting. (Not by Greenland standards, but by tropical standards!)

You can learn more about the Lairds and Seal at their website www.expeditionsail.com.