Shellbacked

Day 23
Noon Position: 0 30 84S 127 58.85W 

Course/Speed: S 7

Wind: ESE 14 – 20

Sail: Double reef in working jib and main

Bar: 1015

Sea: Mostly SE to 8

Sky: Clear

Cabin Temp: 82 

Water Temp: 73
Miles last 24-hours: 158

Miles since departure: 2803

At 7:30 this morning Pacific Time, Mo crossed the line for Cape Horn and is now in the southern hemisphere. There’s something pleasurably exotic about putting an ‘S’ at the end of one’s latitude. Though still in the Pacific, one has definitively left home waters and has entered a world where there is far more ocean than land and where the lows turn around and go backwards. 

On the old square riggers, a hand who made such a crossing was forever more referred to as a “Shellback,” a term I am fond of and would entertain as a tattoo on some part of my person if tattoos had ever made the priorities list.

It is reported that Neptune, on such occasions, comes aboard for some festivities with the uninitiated that, to contemporary sensibilities, looks a lot like hazing. Workplace harassment protocols have not made it this far to sea. I’ve always crossed the line alone, and for some reason, the King has failed to note any occurrence.

By way of celebration, in the evening I popped a bottle of sparkling wine from my good friend Jim Walter at Amphora Wines. The cork lept from the bottle and must have sailed three boat lengths in a lovely arc before splashing down at the crest of a wave. Room temperature, shall we say, but fine and crisp. Thank you, Jim. 

Fantastic day’s run. 158 miles in the last 24-hours. Winds have been strong the last day and have finally backed more into the east as we’ve approached the line.

Can’t win for losing with reefs, though. Fail to put one in and the wind keeps rising; put one in, and the wind drops. Last night I rose every hour and fretted for a time as the winds crept up from 12 to 15 to 18 to 20 knots. I already had a reef in both working jib and main, but at about 18, Mo wants less canvas when reaching. Each time I chose sleep over kitting up and going foreward to the mast. We were, after all, flying! At dawn I put in a second reef in the main. Wind dropped immediately to 15 (though it did come back to 18 – 20 within the hour). In the afternoon a squall came by and winds dropped. Thinking this the effect of the squall, I waited two hours before going back to full sail, at which point winds jumped to 15 and have been creeping upwards since

Ah well, it all drives the ship ever southward, so I can’t complain.