This morning, I am determined to photograph the page on the Navigational Channel which illustrates the position of M.V. Queen Victoria at the precise moment she crosses the Equator, believe it or not, for the third time on this “Discover South America Cruise.”
We are now steaming in a south easterly direction, parallel to the coast of Brazil at around 17.5 knots. I was expecting to have crossed the Equator during the night.
Towards leaving the Amazon around this time yesterday morning, I missed that magical 00:0.0 degrees; I was having breakfast! Right now, we are 00: 4.8 degrees north, down from 00: 11.7 an hour ago.
Almost there.
We crossed the Equator at 09.13 hrs & 46 seconds ship’s time, just a few moments ago.
The photo below was taken from my balcony at around 09.20 hrs 00:0.8 degrees south.
So now, once again, in the southern hemisphere, we are calling at, along South America’s east coast:-
Salvador, Brazil. 7th Feb
Reo de Janeiro, Brazil. 9th/10th Feb
Montevideo, Uruguay. 13th Feb
Buenos Aires, Argentina 14/15th Feb
Puerto Madryn, Argentina. 18th Feb
On 20th February, in the evening, we enter the Beagle Channel, leaving very early the following morning. We then call the same morning at Ushuaia, Argentina.
By then, I think that we shall be almost as far south as Buxton is north of the Equator. (Cape Horn is 55 degrees south, Buxton, around 53 degrees north. One could not dream up such a journey, although nowadays, South America is becoming ever-more a tourist destination. Still, few folks from the U.K. will have set foot in the Manaus Opera House.
There was, inevitably, the “Crossing the Line ceremony where guests who have never crossed the Equator before volunteer to be charged at the Court of King Neptune, for various “silly” offences. Being doused in multi-coloured sludge as well as out-of-sell-by-date spaghetti, and then tossed into the swimming pool is by way of public sentence.
I am amazed that rational and successful people are able to “let their hair down,” and participate in this ancient tradition. (I have in my collection, an original “crossing the line” certificate from the very first world cruise, organized by American Express who chartered the then almost new Laconia from November 1922 to, I think, April 1923)
While photographing all this, my cell phone battery expired! So, I missed the end, which was a little annoying!
Being day 26, we have completed exactly one third of this Discover South America cruise.
Thanks for reading,
David 16.24 hrs.
David's Cruise 