Crossing the equator: does the water really spin backwards?

When we drove through Gabon, suddenly, without any prior warning, we stopped -- and there, in front of us, was the sign that told us we were about to cross over the Equator.

I think most of us felt the way I did; Is this it?? Is that all there is about it? A sign next to the road -- and a bent, bumped-over sign at that, that announces that this is the place on the globe where you cross over from the northern hemisphere into the southern hemisphere.

But then what did we expect? What would you expect this magical mystical place to be -- this band that runs all the way around the globe, this frontier between July summers and July winters, this imaginary line that stretches about 40,075 km (24,901.5 miles) and runs through numerous countries, including Ecuador, Columbia, Brazil, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe, Congo, Zaire, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, and Indonesia, and crosses the territorial waters of the island nations of the Maldives and Kiribati, but does not actually touch the land here?

It also has a constant 12 hours of day and night, in contrast to other parts of the world, where the length of the day varies with the seasons. The temperature is relatively uniform throughout the year, there would be no reasons if it weren't for the rainy season (October to March) during which precipitation increases.


On a typical day in the rainy season, the day begins hot and sunny, moisture builds throughout the day, and it begins to rain in the afternoon and evening, with possible thunderstorms, and being home to the world's rainforests, it is also the region in the world with the greatest biodiversity and where it is a lot wetter that elsewhere -- with an average steady temperature of about 27 - 32 °C or 80 to 90 °F.

Oh! And very important! The equator is also the ideal place to launch a spacecraft, as a spacecraft launching east can take advantage of the Earth's rotation to reduce fuel costs -- if you are not too busy sitting in the bath to see of the water runs down the drain in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere than in the northern!