Crossing the Equator
Today we “crossed the line!” As we approached the equator, Expedition Leader Lisa Trotter announced that there would be an opportunity for an early morning swim. Conditions here in the doldrums were perfect for it. There was no wind and calm warms seas beckoned us. The fact that we were swimming in some of the deepest water in the Atlantic, over the Romanche Fracture Zone made it even more interesting. The Fracture Zone, named for the French research ship, Romanche which first measured its depth is the largest such feature in the world and is 7728 (a bit over 25,000’) meters deep.
Returning to the ship for breakfast, we soon heard that we had to assemble on the sun deck for clearance procedures before we could cross into the Northern Hemisphere. Once there we greeted King Neptune and his Queen, the ravishing Tethys, mother of all the oceans. Those among us who had not yet crossed the line by ship (called “polliwogs”) had to be cleansed. This involved the ceremony of kissing a fish, a haircut, consuming an inoculation potion and a dip in the pool. Once all these polliwogs had become “shellbacks” and King Neptune had given his permission, we proceeded up to the line itself.
There we had the option of swimming across the equator or kayaking across the equator. As we were engaged in these activities, a large freighter, Margarita, bound for Recife, passed close astern of us. She had had to alter course to give us a wide berth as we were dead in the water. We can only speculate what was going through the minds of the career seamen on board her, passing our ship, our 6 zodiacs, 20 kayaks and numerous swimmers in the water in the middle of the Atlantic. I suggested to the Captain, “They probably think we’re crazy” and he replied, “Well, we are.”
We continued across the line and sailed all day across a flat calm sea. We are in the doldrums now. The technical name for this region is the Intertropical Convergence Zone or ITCZ, where warm moist air rises off the surface producing a band of clouds all across the world ocean. This zone migrates from the equator in February and March to about 10¢ªN in July and August.
In the days of sail, ships could spend weeks becalmed here, but at least there was usually plenty of rainwater to catch and a chance for sailors to wash their clothes and their ship. This migration of the ITCZ produces the rainy seasons in tropical countries and in some countries like Cameroon, located far to our starboard, it produces two rainy seasons, one as it moves north and then another as it moves south.
