Gear Failure

We've had a few things break on the trip - the staysail is out of commission until we can get to port and figure out what's going on with the top end of the roller furler, both the main and jib have been re-stiched or patched, and jam cleats on the main traveler and wind vane are both looking pretty arthritic.

But the really critical gear failure has been the diapers. Turns out that Elias' old cloth diapers don't fit Eric so well. He overflowed another one today, about the third time that's happened. So we got to clean up baby poo that had been smeared the length of the saloon.

Friends, on top of everything else that we're dealing with, I've got to admit that I found that situation a little hard to take.

On the brighter side, we crossed the equator this morning. King Neptune made his appearance and gave treats to the three shellbacks on board: Elias (chocolate), Alisa (rum) and myself (rum, too). For the pollywog on board, that poor uneducated soul who hadn't even gotten around to sailing across the equator yet, King Neptune decreed the traditional dunking in salt water. In consideration of his tender age, this was administered as a swipe of an ocean-dipped finger across his brow.

If King Neptune had known what the little rascal had in store for the day, I'm sure he would have dumped a whole bucket of equatorial water on him.
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At 2/06/2011 5:14 AM (utc) our position was 00°51.99'S 132°32.03'W

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