Just so you know, we can't view the blog comments while we're at sea, but Mom forwarded some to us this morning. It was great to read some feedback and get some insights on such things as fuel usage on previous trips. Please keep them coming!

Ken VerMeulen mentioned in an email that he misses the peacefulness on the boat, and I/we concur. That said, our newfound energy thanks to the offloading of steering duty by Otto (Otto Helm) has created a more community atmosphere on the boat where we're all generally awake and in the cockpit during daylight hours - bracketing only our mid-shifts with required sleep. That's a pleasant change from the first 3 or 4 days where each of us was either concentrating on driving or racked out (add hurling for Vince). James Taylor's on the playlist this morning after pancakes and sausage. Did I mention we'll be having fish tacos later?!

We're still enjoying 6 knots SOG at 30-40 deg COG this morning. Jim Barrett recalled that they used 98 gal of fuel on the return delivery in 2010, which is a great data point. We started with about 135 gal (62 in tanks, 75 on deck in jerry cans), and we've burned about 8 so far keeping the batteries charged if you can believe the fuel gauge. I'm guessing 6 nmpg, so you can do he math. Like the Fram commercials used to say, "Pay me now or may me later." I'm hoping that our patience to sail through the lulls and/or non-ideal angles will pay off later in flexibility/options when we're facing (hopefully) light breezes on the nose.