Jan 19

Today we sailed across the equator. This is an important event on ships. Anyone who has not crossed is a “pollywog,” and those who have crossed are “shellbacks.” Heavy hazing happens here as a right-of-passage aboard naval ships. We had some much milder silliness on ours.

Kathleen and I have been good about hitting the gym. We’ve run and lifted for 4 times out of the 5 days so far. It is difficult to weigh oneself since the ship rocking adds about a 6-lb swing in weight based upon the ship’s acceleration.

I expect that I’ll break my Diet Pepsi habit. You pay for soft drinks, and a “fill whenever you want” glass costs over $5 per day. I am not going to spend $600 on Diet Pepsi for the trip, so one minor bad habit will be broken.

We leave the ship Tuesday for our Galapagos trip. We’ll be off the ship 4 nights, so we’ll be even more unreachable. I’m not taking the computer, so no more postings likely until Sat.

This should be an interesting excursion. Lots of animals, and so long as we do not initiate contact, they are said to approach us. One event is snorkeling with sea lions, where they frequently brush against you. We’ll see.