I have the line from Finding Nemo stuck in my head. All you folks with kids will certainly remember where all that Nemo can come up with to describe his home in the big blue is "big and blue ". It is indeed very big and very blue out here.

We have had a good sail so far. Yesterday the forecast NW winds turned up as westerly and we are heading farther south than initially planned. The goal for the moment is to keep the boat moving comfortably and get away from the mainland and out to the trade winds as quickly as possible. Conditions varied from full sail yesterday to two reefs in the main and a reefed genoa all of last night. We charted our location this morning and had covered 155 miles in the last 24 hours. This is a great run for our little boat and we are hoping to keep up this kind of pace. It is surprisingly chilly out here and we putting on fleeces and windbreakers at night. Granted, we are barefoot and wearing windbreakers

We have been fishing for days now without any signs of a fish which is disappointing everyone, especially the carnivores on the boat. The only sign of sea life was a squid that (flew / jumped / whatever squids do) and ended up aboard. The kids got a kick out inspecting him this morning.

This afternoon, the kids and mom are in the cockpit under the shade cover working on math and it sounds just like normal. I can hear a mix of: patient instruction, exasperated noises, high quality whining, a few threats, several tearful breakdowns and regularly scheduled tantrums. At least some things stay the same. At our last anchorage, the kids organized a time for a "Kids Only" radio net that mirrored the grown ups' daily VHF net. There was even a "Services Needed" segment where the kids could ask for help finding something or if anyone was an expert in something they needed. Timothy (always the smart ass) took the opportunity to ask if anyone knew where he could find a new teacher or an upgrade for his current teacher that he could take to the South Pacific with him. We had people teasing us about this for days.

We have lots of fresh veggies aboard that need to be eaten before they can spoil so we have been eating really well. It is great to be sailing; everything is working and the weather is fantastic, so all is well aboard the good ship Whisper.