Our planet is
spinning. Once around its own axis every 24 hours. As it is a spherical body,
Earth's rotation provides us with two poles and a girdle in-between, which we
call the equator. Here lies the longest parallel, here we are the fastest
passengers on the globe: Whereas our movement at the poles is close to zero, we
are turning with incredible 1660 kilometers per hour at our planets belly.
Latitude Zero -
The Line.
Myths and
stories have formed a tightly woven net since the old days, and the traditions
and superstitions are carried forth into our time. If we refer to this voyage
as to "The Crossing", this is what most have in mind. We are not only
going from one shore of the Atlantic to the other - we are changing
hemispheres...
After yesterdays bridge visits Captain Arild Hårvik meets everyone out on deck to officially apply for the Neptunian permit to cross the line. The ship's data and the names of the ones traveling with it are carefully placed in a bottle which is then entrusted to the Deep Blue of the ocean.
In times of
slow internet it may come as a surprise that the answer was there within the
hour...Crossing the Equator is a GO!
And shortly
before midnight the instruments did the epic jump from South to North. It's
like the new season begins here and nowhere else...
The next
sunrise finds FRAM unusually busy - people milling about, delicious pastries
steaming next to pots of coffee, cameras checked. It seems that nobody is
sleeping, at a quarter to six!
The reason
appears at our bow a few minutes later. Gaining contours in the rainclouds are
the islets of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, tiny barren rocks in the middle of
the sea.
Their wonder is
purely of a geological nature - we are looking at the world's only
"Oceanic Core Complex" that emerges from the sea. There is no second
place like this on the planet. Although it is still a really tough nut to crack
for science, the gist of it is as follows: We are now at the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge, the divergent seam that produces fresh Earth's crust every day and
drives Africa and South America gently apart. Here the spreading is extremely
slow, with rather cool temperatures (well, at least for a volcano). Cool means
brittle, and so the spreading causes giant cracks to form, called faults. The
result is a stack of huge slices of crust, like books in a shelf that fall
over. Only a few of these "megamullions" are known, but there are all
deep under water. Not this one - a significant place on Earth.
As
if this weren't enough we got company in form of a group of common dolphins that
played a while with us. What a morning!
Everybody got
time for a little breather in the mild temperatures of this cloudy day, before
the afternoon should bring a long awaited event - the baptism of the
"Pollywogs", of people who have not crossed the Line before.
While this was
a rather barbaric procedure in the past (there was beating with ropes involved,
sometimes to such extent that people died from this "happy" tradition
- makes you think about human nature. Again.), it is a fun thing today. The
galley crew has concocted their special recipes for a long time. It has to be
slimy, it has to be smelly. Don't wear your best shirt!
After King
Neptune has verified the position, the uninitiated get tied to a chair and then
the crew does their worst. However, there are differences - as an occasional
traveler of the lowest latitude you are done with a strong cookie and quite some
ice water down the neck. Not so the crew: Here it is stinky fish broth, loads
of cream, nasty stuff injected in the mouth and unspecified items down the
shirt (if you wear one). All with a lot of laughter and of course the cleaning
hose afterwards.
Five new souls
were baptized today; plus a few who had to undergo the procedure again, for
reasons of not having brought the certificate. One was so happy about the honor
that he gave the captain a thankful hug...
Neptune and his
Queen were utterly satisfied, and so was everybody else.
The rest of the
day was spent with cleaning, tea, and eating.
