half-way!

Today marked half-way! The days are flying by, encapsulated on our little boat & structured by our watch system. We stand watches alone, although during the day the cockpit usually has at least 2 or 3 people in it, reading or playing games, or just enjoying the view! Night watches are wonderfully solitary. Our schedule is: 0700-1000, 1000-1400, 1400-1800, 1800-2100, 2100-2300, 2300-0100, 0100-0300, 0300-0500, 0500-0700. One person rotates out of the schedule every day to become the "steward," who
does all the day's cooking & cleaning, but doesn't have to stand any watches & *hypothetically* gets a full night's sleep. Everyone stands 2 watches per 24 hrs (1 person 3) that advance every day so no one is standing the same watch every night.

Today the water-maker stopped working, so I gave Dan a break from his usual trouble-shooting responsibilities & spent a few hours in what we call, "the hole," a deep, dark locker accessed only from the cockpit that is incredibly hot at any latitude, but stifling at 7N. A successful mission it was, though, to the hole, & we were off water rations within a couple hours, allowed once again our fresh water rinses in the cockpit after our salt-water hose downs that are becoming necessary in the heat.

Rylin threw our ½-day party tonight and baked us pizza after pizza, and we continue to fly (!) along at 8kts (sometimes more), growing ever closer to that benchmark latitude.