Galapogos to Marquesas, 2nd week

On Wed 16th April we were half way to The Marquesas, with 1453nm to go. At this point we were furthest from land - about 1450 nm, or about 1600 statute miles or about 2600km. The sea depth is 3400m.
Last week I said that we were in the trade winds, imagining that from then on we would sit back and just keep going. How wrong we were. In the last seven days we have had winds from 5 knots to 30 knots in direction varying from N through E to SSE. We have had smooth calm seas, and 4 m high waves coming from various directions and quite close together. We have had blue blue skies with hardly a cloud in sight, and squalls and rain. What has been interesting is that the other boats we keep in touch with morning and evening often have quite different conditions, but the good and bad comes to us all in the end.
The first and fastest boat, a 50 ft catamaran, arrived in Fatu Hiva yesterday (21 days) and we are looking forward to getting some feedback. Just heard that 'it is more beautiful than the pictures', but after 3 weeks at sea a bit of green must be particularly welcome. Geoff has a spreadsheet of boat positions and our own progress, and knowing that we are closing (or not) on other boats is good incentive for yet another sail change. As I write we have our 650 sq.ft orange pink and red ballooner up, winged out with the (603 sq ft) genoa. A pretty sight.
The moon is nearly full so we have moonlit nights, but the fish go down deep with the full moon and we haven't caught anything for a couple of days. The last fish we caught we salted, and now have hanging in pieces along the rails drying in the sun. Flying fish are everywhere, we often disturb a whole cloud of them (hardly a 'shoal' when they are winging through the air). During the night they land on the deck, and one even made it right down the companionway and was found flapping on the kitchen floor. They make very good bait - a bit on a hook inside a lurid plastic squid 'skirt' will attract mahi mahi if there are any around.
No shipping seen for a week, but we were called up by a Japanese tuna-fishing ship who had us on his radar but was out of sight. He was very friendly and asked if we had enough food as they had lots on board. It was quite a surprise to hear a voice on the VHF radio which we keep switched on but which had been silent since we got out of sight of land.
PS Suddenly a few minutes ago our beautiful ballooner ripped from side to side. The winds aren't strong at the moment so it must have had a weak point somewhere. It's quite frayed so will need a new panel putting in and we don't have the fabric aboard so probably will have to wait until we get to Tahiti.