"Slowed down a little over night, and so crossed the equator at 1:10 this afternoon. All the Cal Poly students were in the "Cruise 195" class where various ship's officers do a 3-day-a-week show-and-tell about the ship. They told me they were going to beg to get out early, but I found myself alone on the top deck when the big moment arrived. My GPS updates every second, and at our speed changes several digits in the last column each time. So there was no guarantee it would display zeros all the way across. But luck was with me, and for 1 second it displayed 00 degrees 0.000 minutes. Then we crossed the yellow line painted around the earth and were into the southern hemisphere. Apparently they used to have equator festivity crossings long ago, but something happened in the 1980s (I don't know what) that led them to not mark the occasion.
"Cooler (like 75) and partly cloudy today. I hope it will clear for star viewing tonight. The temperature will start dropping by tomorrow and it will get back to jacket weather outdoors.
"There's an archeological site just a little south of Lima from Inca times, although these weren't Inca since Inca were up in the Andes. But somewhat related. Stacy is working on a one-day field trip. She's in touch with a tour company in Lima and is trying to arrange for them to bus us all there."
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