Not wanting to cross the equator in the middle of the night, we decided last night to sail westward just north of the line until the sun was up. Early in the morning we resumed our course SW and crossed from North to South at around 10:30 in the morning.

To start the celebrations for the day, we popped a bottle of Champagne and shared it between us, with Teo mostly sticking to pear juice. He is not a big fan of Champagne, more or a frozen margarita or mojito kind of kid. But I digress. We toasted the southern hemisphere and toasted Itchy Foot for taking us safely there.

On a more somber note today also happened to be Mia’s uncle Oke’s funeral today and so we toasted his memory. Mia had hand stitched his name onto a piece of fabric and after a splash of bubbles and a few words we cast it into the sea at the equator. We will miss him.

After a bit of lunch we has a special visitor onboard Itchy Foot. Neptune’s consort Amphitrite rose out of the depths of the ocean to welcome us to the south pacific and hopefully grant us safe passage, if only we could complete the trials. Neptune, it would seem, was busy. To transform ourselves from landlubber and pollywogs into the sons and Neptune and Shellbacks.

Mia was the first up and as the sea was a bit lumpy she had to crawl around the cockpit three times on hands and knees while being sprayed with water, to wast away the dirt of the north and cleans her for the southern seas. On the aft deck, she had to prove her worth by roaring like a lion (for strength), squeezing like a dolphin (for speed) and oinking like a pig (for intelligence). Having passed these tests she was granted safe passage in the oceans by Amphitrite and given a marker pen tattoo of a turtle. Teo was up next who performed the trials beautifully. And finally Jon was welcomed to the South Pacific – through it did take longer to wash away his dirt from the north. The celebrations continued with the beach boys providing musical accompaniment as we danced on the aft deck as the whole crew were dressed in grass skirts, flowers and even a flowing green wig – someone looked dandy.

So now all the crew are members of the Order of Shellbacks.

The afternoon continued nicely with good sailing, making water, showers on the aft deck, building a lego Y-wing bomber and then watching a movie before bed. Thanks to Tina for taking full responsibility and organising todays events – you make a great greek goddess.