We're about to cross the Equator! Our ship's current location is approximately 0'42" N, 38' W so in just a very short time, we'll be in the Southern hemisphere. I learned at Maritime that sailors who have crossed the Equator are called Shellbacks. The ship does an official Neptune Day ceremony but it won't take place until after we leave Brazil, and everyone is looking foward to that.

Today is a No Class day so pretty much everyone on ship is still sleeping. I was up "early" for some reason, 0800, and was able to catch a quiet breakfast out on deck. It's been raining for a few days now so sitting outside in the morning sun was very nice. I even saw another ship for the first time in several days while I was out there.

Oh...and I'm not sure if I mentioned this already or not, but we lost another hour two nights ago so I'm two hours ahead of NY time. On our way to South Africa, we lose an hour pretty much every other day and will continue to do so until we cross the International Dateline and then we'll have two April 15th's!

UPDATE: The M/V Explorer crossed the equator today at 14:46 (2:46pm) ship time! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellback