It's pretty mean what the crew mates have once again come up with for the novices on board at this equator christening. One by one, the sailors who were sailing from the northern to the southern hemisphere for the first time were baptised by King Neptune or Queen Cod on all the boats on Monday. Even America's Cup star Peter Burling could not escape this dreaded custom. Only a few days after being crowned World Sailor of the Year, the 26-year-old Olympic champion and "Golden Boy" had to undergo the disgusting procedure on board Bouwe Bekking's "Brunel", as did his crew mates Kyle Langford (formerly of Oracle Team USA in the America's Cup), Dutch Cup sailor Carlo Huisman and 18 other baptismal candidates on the seven boats.
According to maritime tradition, an equator baptism involves offerings to King Neptune. All baptised babies - also known as tadpoles - had their "sins" read out to them by King Neptune or Queen Cod or a member of the "Tribunal of Shellfish" (those on board who had already crossed the equator). They were then smeared with an indefinable concoction of food scraps, engine oil, pieces of fish and other unpleasant ingredients that had been collected in a bucket for days. Burling, who also had to shed a lot of hair, took the "mud fight" in his stride, as the atmosphere on board the Dutch boat was excellent. Team Brunel had been one of the winners in the fleet at the weekend, had moved up to fourth place and had re-established the connection to the leading trio with a gap of only ten nautical miles to leader Dongfeng.
"In terms of performance, we did quite well," said skipper Bouwe Bekking, "we are slowly getting closer to Vestas and Mapfre again. It seems to be going pretty smoothly for Dongfeng on these tight room-sheet courses. Akzo is only just hanging on to this group. We can barely see their top light."
On board the sixth-placed "Turn the Tide on Plastic", skipper Dee Caffari had to resist fierce attempts to suddenly join the ranks of the christened herself. According to her crew, she had already crossed the equator several times on her solo circumnavigations - but alone and therefore without a christening ceremony. As a result, Caffari had always missed out on an equator baptism so far and it was now time to make up for it. Caffari replied with a laugh: "That won't happen! Any kind of mutiny will be punished tenfold." The fact that Caffari and her 50:50 mixed crew were recently able to overtake David Witt's team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag also put everyone on board in a good mood.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
