Greetings One of the things you just can't do on a trip like this is start asking "Are we there yet?' In fact you don't even want to start thinking about when you will be there as they are so mamy variables. So we have little goals we celibrate along the way. Like leaving, or like not turning around and going back the second day but these don't really count. Our first real goal was to sail a 1,000 miles of open ocean. I can tell you that is a long way when all you are doing is 5 or 6 kts. And it's not like you just set it and for get it. Yesterday in the middle of the night we had to rangle our main sail down. The wind had come up too much to keep it up any longer. When we started we pictured ourselves reading books all day and just being lazy. Well that may be how other people do it but for us it has been lots of work. No complaints mind you, but it is certainly different sailing than anything we have ever done. And it may be an unusual year with unusual weather but quoting those line s in the middle of last night sure wouldn't have solved our immeadiate problem. So the next goal is to get accross the ITCZ. If you have been following along you know what that stands for, if not, read the last couple of posts. There are just to many letters in those word to write them again here. We have heard of some boats not even seeing it and some had torrential rain for 8 hours. That is a big huddle on a trip like this. Kind of like getting over that mountain pass when there is a blizzard. When you do it you are not there yet but you feel like you have accomplished something. Then we have crossing the equator to look forward to. I am sure there will be some crazy activities when that happens. The finail goal is to arrive in Hiva Oa. But that is a long way of so we are just happy to have made it the first 1000 miles.