— Is that it? Have we really got out of… you know what? That is what we have been asking ourselves for the last three days. The wind is following, or close to it, there is sunshine and +17°C during the day. And we do not feel like going back into the forties, let alone the fifties, any time soon. The boat is airing out together with the crew's brains, and last night we became so relaxed that we even forgot to close the small crack in the forward hatch. For the first day there is no condensation; all that remains is to wash the mould out of the forward cabin and a few corners — the inevitable result of all that condensation. The next step will be removing the polyethylene “second window panes” from the hatches in the galley and saloon. When we taped them on, I sighed: — I thought I would never have to do this again after Antarctica. But we did, because otherwise condensation ran in streams onto our heads, tables and walls.
Enough of the sad things. Life is getting better! We are hoping this really means we have entered latitudes suitable for pleasant sailing, rather than merely a break between bouts of bad weather. The captain even picked up the guitar today so that we could hope with songs. Yesterday there were two events that, by the standards of our endless Groundhog Day, were absolutely enormous.
We had a bath day! At last the watermaker stopped tripping out on the high swell and produced a normal amount of water, there was enough sunshine, and we ran the engine to heat the water. You will not find a cleaner crew anywhere in the far or near south of the Pacific now. We promise :). We will not say how many days we had gone without washing properly.
And the second event, which is really the first one, was—
37°11′ south
All night yesterday we were crossing the 37th parallel — the alpha and omega of our adventures. If you do not know what that means, those magic words are easy to find on our channel and website :). Anyone who ever fell asleep hugging a copy of *In Search of the Castaways* can imagine what was happening in my head when the first light of dawn on the waves and sails matched the figures 37°11′ on the chartplotter.
We are crossing the 37th parallel for the last time in the foreseeable future. — Well, guys, 800 miles due east and we are on Maria Theresa Reef? I laugh. — Oh no! We have already been there! Nastya replies.
For the first time we are this close to our own track around the planet — only 800 miles along the 37th parallel, and Jules Verne's island could close our circle: Lady Mary would have crossed all 360 meridians. But we are taking a winding route to the finish, via the equator.
We finally crossed the International Date Line
On the chart, on our phones, through the time zones and between hemispheres. So for us it is still 1 October. We went back through the last five years to remember what we were doing on 1 October, starting in 2016.
2016 — day 11 of our Atlantic crossing, heading for Guiana. 2017 — a Sunday in Cartagena, Colombia. I sat on deck typing with the screen switched off so that nobody would guess we had a laptop. 2018 — we celebrated the deckhand turning seven and a half on Kauehi Atoll in the Tuamotus. We had a picnic, baked potatoes and collected coral. 2019 — we arrived at Tristan da Cunha and discovered that it was impossible to anchor at the island's only anchorage. And right now, exactly two years later, on 1 October, a new video about it has appeared on our YouTube channel. Have you seen it? Go there quickly! 2020 — we were on a road trip through northern Western Australia, in Karijini National Park, with our friends Brian and Yulia, Seryozha and Yulia, and their children. We slept in the bush and swam beside a snake at a waterfall.
And today, 1 October 2021, day 29 in the South Pacific has begun, and it has been three days since the ordeal that lasted almost four weeks finally ended. In fact it feels as though we have already been at sea for more than a month: we are tired of the cold, storms and headwinds.
Other things
Nastya spends the whole day switching between lessons, gymnastics, reefing sails and tacking. I write the book, then an article, then read about how to write a book, then write again, do fifty squats and write some more. I really need to switch to household jobs now.
Lada did three English lessons. The English programme at their St Andrew the Apostle Geography School is very strong. And not just the English. We cannot wait to get internet access again and return to online lessons. Ladunya and I dream about that with equal enthusiasm. In the meantime the entire crew has revised all sixteen English verb tenses. For a visual aid we used a tense table from a thick handwritten notebook of vocabulary, exam questions and grammar that I started in fifth grade at School No. 15 in Zlatoust — back in 1986. That notebook has travelled around the world with us and been to Antarctica. It even inspired the captain to suggest an auction of objects with similarly long histories. What do you think — would that idea work?
We are doing small household jobs bit by bit. Yesterday we fitted a side board to the watch sofa so that on port tack nobody falls off it under the table. That is where I sleep too — when I am on watch and when I am not. On passages I can sleep only in the wheelhouse.
…oh no… Word has frozen. It has just killed a third of this report. I will finish on the cheerful note that the crew is getting ready for dinner, the captain has finished making music, and I need to do about twenty push-ups so that I am not painfully ashamed that we are nowhere near as athletic as he is. The deckhand is baking a cake and has already taught me to make slime — my hands are now green like Princess Fiona's.
Have a wonderful weekend, friends! And thank you for writing to us, worrying about us and keeping our fighting spirit alive. Sent by satellite from 35°11′ S, 168°19′ W.
Thank you to everyone who contributes to the success of the expedition through YooMoney and PayPal! To see where we are now, open the Route tab. It shows Lady Mary's track from the Rockstar Iridium 360 tracker provided by MVS Telecom.