The Indian Ocean: Day 3: The day we crossed the Equator, saw an oceanic white tip, and witnessed the most beautiful sunset ever

0800 Marine Biology. We just looked at copepods under a microscope. 0930 Global Studies on climate change. Lunch with the girls. Nic and I laid out on the 7^th deck. We crossed the Equator at 0245 this morning. No one told us this until the next day. So lame. But we’ve not been in all of the hemispheres. That’s pretty sweet. This is my first time ever being in the southern hemisphere. When we laid out today we were at 1 degree south latitude. How crazy is that?

I took a mega nap after sunning myself. Becca and I ventured out to the front of the ship. This was my first time up there. It had been closed up through at least Japan due to rough seas. It was a beautiful day out. Crystal clear blue waters, crazy clouds, sun. We saw a ton of flying fish. I hadn’t seen any yet; I guess you need to be up near the bow. That’s where they all seemed to be. The water was so clear, when we looked down at one point we saw two little blue and yellow fish swimming along.

We moved to the other side of the ship to see more flying fish and take some pictures. We noticed a bunch of birds dive bombing into the water and silvery flashes in the sunlight. They were fish jumping about. We figured there must be dolphins nearby. As the ship cruised past we looked directly down to see a little oceanic white tip shark! We were dying to see a shark and mostly just joked about seeing one while out at sea. WE ACTUALLY SAW A SHARK! AND IT WAS AN OCEANIC WHITE TIP! Those things are crazy hard to find out in the middle of the ocean; they’re not common. The water was so perfectly clear it was easy to identify.

Later we had to take a picture out on the 7^th deck bow for our Sea. We found Dr. Abel, the resident marine biologist on board. He was so excited to hear we saw it. Apparently that’s one of his top things to see on this trip.

After dinner we went back out to the 7^th and 8^th decks to check out the sunset. It was obscene. Probably one of the best sunsets of this journey so far. We took some pictures and ended up just chilling out on the deck for a few hours until it got completely dark so we could star gaze. Now that we’ve crossed the Equator we have started to see some of the southern hemisphere constellations. People were pointing them out to me, I would not have known them on my own. I can’t believe how many stars I could see. I can’t wait to see them turn off all the lights to legitimately go stargazing.

Tomorrow we have off from classes to celebrate crossing the Equator. It’s called Neptune Day. A bunch of people will be shaving their heads as is tradition when you cross the Equator. Yours truly will not be partaking in such activities. I like my blonde locks.

Side note: last night they “randomly” drug tested a bunch of people. We now all anxiously wait to see who gets kicked off. This is getting ridiculous.

Anyways, I’m off to bed. Becca and I are getting up at 0600 to watch the sunrise. It’s supposed to be amazing. And that’s one of the top things to do on the ship before getting off in Ft. Lauderdale. I figure I’ll scope it out, take some pictures then go back to bed. I’ve heard so many people are getting up to see it. We’ll see how that works out. I’m not good about getting up.

I miss everyone oodles. I can’t believe today is already March 19^th. 3 days til Mauritius!