Our sails. We've used them all on this passage...first time ever. Not as much as I would have liked but they all received a coating of salt. Poled out headsail, wing on wing and our colourful furling drifter each came out during the NE trades section where our winds were mostly from behind or on starboard quarter. Setting up the pole has always been tricky, as the clew is set high on the headsail and to clip the pole in/off we have to get a downhaul in place, and we are not well practiced. The staysail and headsail combination with 2 reefs in the main have been our standard set for at least a full week in the SE Trades. Swells up to 2.5 m and occasional squalls with 25 kts would come and go but mostly we have 13-20 kts and 1- 1.5 m swells and our top speed so far was just over 9 kts. Our best day was 167nm, just a couple of days ago, and our worst somewhere in the doldrums at 60 nm while motoring slowly to conserve fuel. The best run would definitely be the SE Trades, where day after day, we had 15-18 kts, and 6-8 SOG (speed over ground).

Nets and People. The days of sailing in isolation are over, with gizmos like the inReach. We are attached for good or for bad just as on land with a cell phone. The little green flashing light and the beep beep to signal a message has become a persistent psychological need. We, mostly I, have chatted everyday with boats around us. Lots of joking and recalling of fun and strange events, and then everyone gets serious at the daily PPJ Net at 7:00 pm each night. This net was created and reserved by our group coming out of Banderas Bay in Mexico and for the purpose of reporting each of our positions (Lat and Long), course, speed, wind speed and direction, swell height and direction, cloud cover, barometer and if all is well on board. About 7 of us have volunteered as Net Controllers for one night of the week. Mine is Saturdays. On the busiest night I had 25 boats call in, and it took an hour to get through them all.

All types of people and boats are making this crossing. You can usually tell which are the faster boats before you even leave the dock, and the ones least prepared. But it's hard to tell much about the people on board. Two singlehanded boats were able to find crew for this crossing. One took on two crew and the other a single female crewmember. This is an arduous trip for a singlehander. Last year, 2017, a single-hander went missing and hasn't been seen since. Everyone believes he became too exhausted. His last conversations with family were that he was surrounded by pirates that were trying to get on board. There are none out here.