Around 2:00am we made our first crossing over the Equator Line (south to north).... a big deal for those navy types. Dad and Shannon were determined to witness this one (even though there was another later in the day) and had quite an adventure with the second mate on the bridge
*see for more details: www.onedegreesouth.blogspot.com
Anyways.... around 9:30am we made another crossing and everyone was actually awake so we had an official ceremony... we all became "shell backs"!! The funny part is that the captain actually made a mistake and crossed before telling anyone, so we had to head back and cross again (so people could take a picture of the navigation equipment saying 0 degrees). Luckily we already had a video of it from the 2:00am visit, so we got some chamgane and enjoyed the chaos from the edge of the bridge :)
Later that day we had another snorkling excursion.... this time in deep water. Although the fish were pretty similar to what we had already seen, this time we had a few wonderful surprises! Sea lions!!!!!!!!!! They loved to play with us when we dove down and they would come right up to your mask at full speed and at the last second they turn away. It was so cool.
The most wonderful experience was with a sea turtle. I saw him coming up from below and he kept slowly ascending. If he had continued any more, we would have hit each other. With no sound under water, it was surreal. I could have reached out and touched him. It was an amazing moment. Then I looked around and realized there was about four people on either side of me.... hahaha You think you are in the solitary state, but everyone is having the same experience. Still great though.
We concluded the day at Fernandina. This amazing young island still showed all the signs of new volcano eruptions. It was really incredible. The entire walk was over lava field of different shapes and styles. At the end of the walk was a colony of marine iguanas.... piles and piles of them! They were sneezing salt water at us and tiny Sally Lightfoot Crabs were cleaning off their shedding skin. The most amazing sites in these islands are the variety of animals you see together. On one rock there was iguanas, crabs, sea lions, flightless cormorants, and blue footed boobie.
We do so much everyday that I am having trouble writing about everything, but at least you are getting an idea :)
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