Our spinnaker, light and smooth, colourful and bold, flies proudly in front of Gromit, powering us through the waves at around 6-7 knots (9-12 km/h). We are thrilled! Not only are we moving faster, but the ride, oh, the ride is so much smoother than when we have our two forward sails up in a wing-on-wing configuration for downwind sailing! When the winds are light and the sails are not held full, the waves, the inevitable waves, make us rock and flop back and forth.

I still love the ocean. I still spend hours just looking out into its immense beauty. I am still in awe. This sentiment is not shared by the rest of the crew! Passage making has never been a favourite of anyone aboard. This is our longest passage ever: 3850 nautical miles from St. Helena Island to Guadeloupe Island in the Caribbean. We estimate it will take us about 30 days.

On a daily basis, Michael sends out a position report by email, to let friends and family know where we are, that we are fine and to say a few words about our day. I have compiled these reports, and will call them, instead of a daily 'twitter', a daily 'fish-byte'.

The report is limited to only 80 characters, so instead of putting spaces between the words, Michael has simply capitalized. It's random info about the day in 80 characters - the epitome of efficient! So, here is a glimpse into our day-to-day over the last 18 days :

2015/03/11 LeavingStHelenaWithinHourNextPlannedStopGuadaloupeDistance3800MilesEstimate30Days 2015/03/11 Day1LightWindsTheFirst12HrsDownJustAWeeBitToGo1SmallMahiMahi 2015/03/12 Day2LightwindsContinuingAnnoyingRollySwellGettingHotterStillWearFleece@Nite 2015/03/13 Day3UnexpectedAutoLifeJacketInflation TGIF!!! 2015/03/14 Day4Hide&SeekResults;Liam-0,Maia-0,Zoe-0,Mom-0,Dad-0 2015/03/15 D5BestStHelenaQuoteYouCanLeaveYourKeysInTheIgnitionButDontLeaveAnAppleOnTheDash 2015/03/16 D6TodayPassionFruitCheesecake&CurriedOstrichALaVietnamienne600MilesDown3250ToGo 2015/03/17 D7StillNoBigFishLastBananaWaterUpTo24DegCNoMoreFleece@NiteLightWindsSlowGoin 2015/03/18 Day8Week1-813Miles2989ToGo31DegCInBoatMovingWellSpinnakerInDayJib&Staysail@Nite 2015/03/19 Day9first150MilesIn24HrsFlewSpinnakerOverniteStillNoFish 2015/03/20 D10RapalaNoFishRapalaCopyNoFishPlasticSquid-NoFishToothpaste+ChipBag25LBMahiMahi 2015/03/21 Day11FirstSubstantialRainfall/SquallTodayAsWe GetCloserToTheEquator 2015/03/22 Day12SquallyRainfilledNit&MorningNoWindMotoringMakingWater&PowerGreyGreyGrey 2015/03/23 D13Had40KnSquallAllsWellFollowedByAllShoweringInTheRainNextTimeWillReefEarlier 2015/03/25 D14RainRain15KnotsOnNoseRainRainAnotherMahiMahiCourtesyColgateHappyBDayCornelia

2015/03/25 D15RainFiniEarlyMornEncoreAutoInflatedLifejacketDueToSaturationBinMotorinFor42Hr 2015/03/26 Day16FinallyASunnyDayWithUsableWindsAllFruitTomatoesCucumbersFinished 2015/03/27 Day17MoreRainCompenstaedByMapleSyropCheesecakeSargassoWeedDisablesWindVane

EQUATOR CROSSING 2015/03/27 00:11am LATITUDE: 00-00.00S LONGITUDE: 030-21.67W SpecialEdition4thEquatorCrossingMilestoneHopefullyEndOfEquitorialSqalls&Variable

2015/03/28 Day18JustPassed1/2WayPoint1864MilesToGoMayTheNextHalfGoQuicker!!!

So I hope this post works. Sometimes when I post remotely, through the SSB radio, it all gets mashed together instead of staying in list form.

Here is a tongue-in-check excerpt from an email Zoe wrote to our friends aboard s/v Salty Gingers, who are waiting for us in Guadeloupe and with whom we will sail back to the Chesapeake Bay:

So I'm just writing to apologise in advance. As you know, we've been locked up together for 19 days (and we still have around 14 more to go), and we are sooo bored of each other and desperate to talk to someone new at this point, things are getting serious. Soo just be prepared, we will probably spend the first three days, post arrival, talking your ears off. (This happened after our 9 day passage to St. Helena. We spent the afternoon talking all the other cruisers ears off although? they talked a lot too, because they were also under socialized,? I think we all had a mild case of this.)

Then again, this just occurred to me, we might just spend three days silent, just taking in the sound of other peoples' voices. I don't even know, all I know is we are all very socially deprived and we are not currently sure of what the side effects of social deficiency are.

Things are already pretty bad, look at this rambling email?.....

So, that's it for now. 1729 nautical miles to go.....