As I write this, Daybreak has about 1050 miles to go to Brisbane, Australia. We've been tearing off the links on our paper chain and it's really nice to have a visual of how much further we have to travel on what will hopefully be our last bluewater passage. We should pass the halfway mark between Vava'U and Brisbane tomorrow, then the last miles will really fly by. We recently crossed a couple of other mileposts as well. First, we crossed the 180 degree meridian, which we had been counting up to since leaving Mexico. Now, we have officially gone so far west, that we're going east! The miles are counting down from 179E.

We also recently crossed 23 degrees south, meaning we have officially left the tropics. We first entered the tropics on our way down the Baja coast the first week of November 2014 and have been playing amidst them ever since. Eleven months of tropical weather....I feel a bit spoiled, but sad to say goodbye. It will be an adjustment coming back to the states in the winter and feeling temperatures we haven't experienced for a very long time!

Winds picked up here in the evening on Day six of our passage and continue to be plentiful. The average has been hanging around 19-22 knots with gusts up to 30. The wind has been from the east (ranging ENE to ESE), which is ideal because we can put it right behind us and the apparent wind is slower and we get pushed along quite nicely. The unfortunate thing about the sea and wind, though, is that when you have wind, you have higher seas. We've had a 2-3 meter swell for the last couple days as well, which is not very comfortable in our little boat.

Our weather router - Bob McDavitt - says weather looks good to head straight to Brisbane, so we'll continue right past New Caledonia, which we're pretty far south of now, anyway. His voyage forecasts shows the seas and winds coming down a bit for the next day or so, then back up for a few days, and would end the trip on lighter winds. It looks like we won't see any winds higher than we've seen already, which is good.

All is well - we're happy, healthy, and glad we brought along some meals that don't require much cooking. I'm glad I baked that cake when I did, because I'm sure not doing much baking in 3 meter seas!