I thought I would never use the word "swift" when describing the Wanderlust, but now I feel that I must. It is 3:45 am and we are off the south coast of Puerto Rico bound for Ponce. We have been offshore for about 35 hours. Right now we are making 7 knots in only 12- 14 knots of wind on a deep reach. We had the spinnaker up for about 12 hours and then the wind went more northerly and built. We are under about 1/2 or less of our jib and one reef in the main. Since it is the middle of the night I have not increased the sail area, and indeed there is no great reason to do so. With this much speed I do not feel that there is any need to pile on more canvas. I do not want to enter Ponce in the dark even though I have been in there before. Also we are crossing a large bank with a deep drop-off. That is where the fish like to hang out. I want to tow out lines through that, but only by daylight. I am not keen on bringing fish on to deck in the dark, and they prefer to bite around sunup and sundown.

So Wanderlust is making swift headway and we are romping through the miles.