00.22.076S / 131.12.479W southern hemisphere We left the northern hemisphere at 5:30.33am PST, I was hoping for some kind of first-down marker, one of those projected lines you see on TV – no nothing. Just watching the GPS going down to to 00 and switch to S. We had rain on the radar most of the night, and it started just after we crossed the equator. At 8am we grabbed the scrub brushes and did a quick wash down in the drizzle. The rain also brought the temperature down to 78F and we have overcast at the moment. It is kinda ironic that we have the coolest day right at the equator. After the washdown, we shutdown the main engine and fired up the wing engine. I wanted to add a little hydraulic fluid to the Naid stabilizers (normal after 200+ hours), and checked the main engine oil level. We have been running non-stop for over 200 hours, and last time it needed a quart of oil around the 200 hour mark. Sure enough it was down about a quart, so topped up the oil. Also added a little hydraulic fluid to our main hydraulic tank which runs the cruise generator, bow thruster and windlass. It seems to be down a bit also – that may need some investigation. Not so bad spending 20 minutes in the 120F engine room when it’s 78F outside. Yesterday’s boat project: The anchorage in Socorro Islands was very rough, and we had the flopper stoppers out. The previous owner had installed some very wimpy clam cleats on the line holding the flopper stopper. The starboard side clam cleat broke in the Socorro anchorage. We have several stainless padeyes on the foredeck that were installed to hold various deck boxes that we are not using. Yesterday we removed a padeye (six screws), cleaned the area and Christine filled the holes with 5200 sealant. We then drilled new holes at the base of the flopper stopper, and bedded the fitting and screws with 5200. Never a pleasant feeling drilling holes in your boat. I then attached the block and tackle we salvaged from Blue Moon (and used to raise the anchor) – now we have a system that allows us to raise the flopper stopper like a window shade. If it works as designed, we will replace the port side as we have extra padeyes and another block and tackle setup. (For the sailors: the block and tackle gear were used for the running-backs on Blue Moon – so high-end spendy Harken 5 purchase system…. we may have the most expensive flopper stopper retrieval setup in the Nordhavn fleet). PIctures to follow. We’re managing our speed for a Monday April 1 morning arrival, an average of 7.6k should have us arriving just at sunrise. [google-map-v3 width=”350″ height=”350″ zoom=”7″ maptype=”satellite” mapalign=”center” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”-0.54827,-131.3918{}cruiseship.png” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]