While being on passage is a physical break from the destination which we have just visited, in many ways, it's also a welcome break from life in general. No more officialdom, yacht maintenance and projects, daily chores, touring, dealing with landlubber matters, etc. It takes a few days to get into the routine, but you enter a "bubble" - One that revolves around the watch schedule and includes activities, amongst others, like keeping a lookout, updating the deck log, plotting our position, providing regular position reports, monitoring radar activity and getting sufficient rest.

On this particular passage, though, getting sufficient rest has become somewhat of a challenge. For some inexplicable reason, no matter how much sleep we're both getting, we're exhausted. As a result we've had to "tag team" all day today. Instead of our usual six hours on, six hours off, neither of us is making it much beyond two hours, before a nap is needed. Feeling a little "green" due to a rather rolly sea state is obviously not helping either. Hopefully we'll have our "sea legs" for tonight's watch schedule.

During a watch, there is also a sense of insignificance, vulnerability and loneliness in this vast ocean. Coupled with these feelings, though, is a sense of presence and peacefulness at "being in the moment". This was magnified last night as it was a very dark, overcast, moonless night, with barely a few stars for company.

However, on occasion today, a bird or two has swept down to take a peek or something has popped up on the AIS, but we're still left with the profound sense of being totally alone out here. Enjoying the journey and not getting "destinitis" has been our challenge on every passage thus far and with lighter winds, which translates to "slow", we definitely need a dose of patience on this one. Fortunately we're not running the "gauntlet" or trying to beat a weather system, so we'll just have to sit back and enjoy the ride. Beats the conditions of our last ordeal!