Crossing the equator

(C) Greenpeace/Peter Sandison

Today was a normal workday on board the Rainbow Warrior. The deck crew was doing some painting, and finishing the new linoleum job in the main deck hallway (yellow because that's what we have left over from doing the mess room floor). The engine department worked on the alarm system for our water maker (to automatically warn them of potential trouble). They also finished some work to reclaim engine heat for hot water. Neil, the radio operator went up the mizzenmast to pull down a no longer used wire antenna.

But at 3:25pm work stopped to observe the equator crossing. This was especially fun for the nine crewmembers who had never crossed the equator by boat before. We're ahead of schedule so there was time to drift for a while, right by the line.

A couple of sea turtles came and loitered around the ship for about an hour. Maybe they were curious to find such a funny thing floating in the middle of nowhere - more likely they were trying to scrape off their harmless (but probably annoying) suckerfish hitchhikers.

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