Day 6

A great sail through the night continued into the morning and all day making a speed of around 6 to 7 knots on port tack.  Less cloud today – a few glimpses of the sun.  Saw the ‘man from Del Monte’ (or at least the container ship from Del Monte) early morning – must’ve been going to get the ripest fruits from Ecuador!  A couple of hours later we passed another container ship heading north but nothing else.  No cetaceans either – the odd bird and a few flying fish but that was it!  Productive day doing jobs.  No yoga – not easy to balance when sailing at an angle!  Later in the evening the wind dropped and great dark clouds were looming not too far ahead so we decided to motor until we passed them.  However the wind never got back up again so the engine was on most of the night.  At 03.20 on 8 February we crossed the equator at 86.52W and passed from the status of Slimy Polywogs to Shellbacks as we gave our gifts of a cup of tea and a glass of wine to Neptune - whilst we toasted King Neptune with cups of tea, ginger biscuits and bleary eyes!  Day distance: 139 miles