About 8:30am this morning we crossed the equator (actually a couple times because it was very hard to get the 0 00.000'N reading on the plotter) and we're now in the southern hemisphere! We planned for a celebratory swim but a school of stingers had the same idea so we only jumped in and out very quickly!!!

It's the start of our sixth day at sea and we're still about 200NM from Galapagos, it'll take us about another two days from here. In all honesty I don't think Neptune is very happy with us, despite a wonderful 1st day we've been plagued by light headwinds, counter currents and rain. We're fighting through 1.2kts of counter current right now which is frustrating, our speed through the water is 6.0kts but our speed over ground is just 4.8kts, our passage guides for this area all refer to a "very favourable south equatorial current", yeah right. Otherwise today is looking good as the sun is out and while we're still motor-sailing at least the wind is on the beam so we can make for Galapagos without tacking. Hopefully Neptune will look at us more favourably now we're Shellbacks.

One upside to the lack of wind is that the seas are very calm, it makes moving around the boat as simple as if we were at anchor (you can put down a glass of water without fear of it sliding away). Other recent passages have all been like a washing machine compared to this. Life aboard is very easy, we've even been enjoying an afternoon beer (normally no alcohol at sea). It always takes a few days at sea to settle into a routine and stop feeling like a zombie but we're doing well now. We alternate shifts, 3hrs at night and 4hrs during the day. Afternoons and dinner are the only time we're awake together.

The bread is getting better too as we're learning a few shortcuts so it's less of a task. We started with an App on the iPad that had us mixing, kneading, rising, kneading, rising, shaping, resting before finally baking. Now it's more like mixing, kneading, rising, baking.

We caught a giant Mahi Mahi on the first day so we're only now putting the line back in the water.