It seems like we began to find our way into our routines today. We've had a rotating watch schedule from the beginning of the crossing with 3 hours on, 9 hours off, but we are really beginning to live it rather just abide by it. Jeff does the 6 to 9 shifts, Melody 9 to 12, Erlin 12 to 3 and Cassie 3 to 6. Melody and I seem to share our shifts, with me trailing off about 11PM on her 9 to midnight shift and her awakening about 8 on my 6AM shift. Cassie and Erlin emerge from their respective cabins somewhere about mid-morning.

Having 4 people on board has real advantages in regard to rotating shifts, as we each get an uninterrupted 9 hours twice a day to do as we please - more or less - between our shifts. It certainly allows each of us to catch up on our sleep. Mid-morning and afternoon naps are the norm. There is something about being on the ocean that induces a bit of additional sleep. Is it the warm, pleasant weather, surrounded by blue or is it just being rocked and swayed on the ultimate water bed?

Mind you, there are several boats out here that are making this crossing as couples-only. Melody and I have done overnighters several times, but we've only done it for single over-nighters and one two-nighter. I cannot imagine Melody and I doing this crossing alone for 20 nights in a row, as these other boats are now in the process of doing.

I suppose this begs the question about single-handing and that is something I can imagine - but not really. When single-handing, there must be a lot of time where the boat is sailing along with no one minding the store. I guess that works out here in the open ocean, given that we've seen no one out here and the chance of running into something is somewhere between slim and none.

The real danger (if that's what you want to call it) would be an equipment failure that occurs while dozing off. We've had two instance here so far of the auto-pilot losing its setting and the boat starting to go off course as a result. I say "starting to go off-course" because someone was at the helm (or at least in the salon awake and paying attention) and caught the malfunction before the boat turned far enough for the sails to collapse. What if you were single-handing and sound asleep when that occurred? Hmmm. The idea here on Double Diamond is that this should not occur with 4 of us on board and it is precisely why we are traveling with this many people. So far, so good.

As an aside, I should note that a friend of ours, Ian Macrea of Fall City, WA, departed Puerto Vallarta yesterday in his boat, Freya. He is single handing to Hawaii. We heard him check in on the Puddle Jump radio net last night and hope to follow his progress for as long as the radio signals allow.

We are now about 650 miles into our 2,700 mile trip. Winds have been very consistent in the 15-20 knot range for the past 24 hours and the weather forecasts seem to indicate that this will continue. It's not clear to me where land breezes stop and tradewinds start, but I'm saying we've made it to the trades and that we should see consistent wind now from here to the equator, assuming the large scale factors of northern hemisphere spring weather patterns hold. Mild spring storms forming north of Hawaii and making their way to the west coast generally translate to good tradewind sailing this time of year - so I've been told. We don't wish anyone at home bad weather, but if you are there and getting some wetness, it probably means we'll be sailing all the way to the doldrums rather than firing up the "Iron Wind".