The first time Sergio was in South America, upon arriving at the Buenos Aires’s house of his hosting friends, he went to the bathroom and satisfyingly noticed that the water flushed in a counterclockwise direction, opposite to what happens in the northern hemisphere. Indeed, below the equator, a number of things rotate in reverse, especially when it comes to weather-related phenomena (luck, however, seems to always turn in the same direction…).
Today we will cross the equator, on an imaginary line for us but well-defined by our onboard GPS. The North Star will no longer be our reference, but the Southern Cross. Will it make us more capable of orienting ourselves in this complex world? Who knows!
One thing for sure is the excitement of crossing the Earth with a sailboat, crossing not only the Pillars of Hercules but also the boundary beyond which, for some well-informed flat-earthers, there is only void.
This adventure began 10 years ago on a beach in Brazil, where, scrolling through the world map on a cellphone, Gemma and I planned to reach Polynesia starting from Rome with a boat we would purchase for this purpose. Today we are very close to realizing this dream, “only” 700 nautical miles to go!
Tonight, to celebrate, we’ll grill two thawed steaks for the occasion, accompany them with super potato chips, and open a bottle of Champbrule’, the famous Mexican champagne!
Equator
The first time Sergio was in South America, upon arriving at the Buenos Aires’s house of his hosting friends, he went to the bathroom and satisfyingly noticed that the water flushed in a counterclockwise direction, opposite to what happens in the northern hemisphere. Indeed, below the equator, a number of things rotate in reverse, especially when it comes to weather-related phenomena (luck, however, seems to always turn in the same direction…).
Today we will cross the equator, on an imaginary line for us but well-defined by our onboard GPS. The North Star will no longer be our reference, but the Southern Cross. Will it make us more capable of orienting ourselves in this complex world? Who knows!
One thing for sure is the excitement of crossing the Earth with a sailboat, crossing not only the Pillars of Hercules but also the boundary beyond which, for some well-informed flat-earthers, there is only void.
This adventure began 10 years ago on a beach in Brazil, where, scrolling through the world map on a cellphone, Gemma and I planned to reach Polynesia starting from Rome with a boat we would purchase for this purpose. Today we are very close to realizing this dream, “only” 700 nautical miles to go!
Tonight, to celebrate, we’ll grill two thawed steaks for the occasion, accompany them with super potato chips, and open a bottle of Champbrule’, the famous Mexican champagne!