Equator crossing

November 13^th: Woke up to a stunning sunrise for our departure from the Southern end of Lingga Island. Today we will cross the Equator as we travel up the Western Coast of Lingga, to our anchorage on the Northern end of the Island. Robbie has been up since 4:00am on the phone to the USA, trying to source the part for the freezer. Easier said than done! After many phone calls to Sub-Zero with no luck, including getting put through to the Corporate Chef for Sub-Zero, and two fax machines, and speaking to a number of people, we were finally told that they can’t ship parts internationally. Explained that we are on an American powered boat, we cannot buy the part in Asia as it is the incorrect power voltage and Hz. Finally got told there maybe one lady who can help us but she is out of the office. Very frustrating but I have to hand it to Robbie, he kept his cool and was still smiling at me.

We departed at 7:30am and it was really hot and steamy already. The waters in this area are very shallow, 5 to 14 metres and we have just had a rain squall with 30knots wind and rain which was very welcome to wash the salt and dust off the boat. We didn’t make water in the last anchorage as the water was very murky and we were down to under ¼ tank. We are merrily making water though as we speak heading on our passage along the island.

Our plans to celebrate the Equator crossing with Storm Vogel are not going to materialise, it’s too rough for a raft up. There has been all sorts of suggestions as to how we will celebrate the crossing, and perhaps make a Guinness book of records including a naked swim, the ladies from all the boats (there are 5 boats with us today) all baring their bottoms and having the Latitude written on them (00.00.00) Any way none of the suggestions were that thrilling but we still have to make an offering to “King Neptune” for safety and this involves a shot of the most expensive alcohol on the boat.
Well as the weather deteriorated it got a bit tricky, Robbie caught one GPS as it read 00.00.00 and I missed the other GPS – it rolled over very quickly. I had the bottle of Glenfiddich ready to give Neptune a shot but the lid was a cork and it broke in half, leaving one half in the neck of the bottle. So poor old Neptune had to make do with Robbies normal whiskey! We didnt have any, it was very roly and the anchorage is only a short distance away. We have just anchored outside the village on Besar, and will take a local boat over to the Equator monument, that will be strange walking on the Equator!