We had recent news from some friends who arrived in French Polynesia and said that they were somewhat deflated rather than elated.  When we arrived there it was a time of high excitement. We got to wondering what would make the difference. They were two and so were we. We stopped at Galapagos but they did not - their crossing from Panama was only about 6 days longer than ours from Galapagos. So what else? Well, they did not have SSB but had satellite comms - we had both. We believe that daily conversations with other folks on an SSB net does wonders for morale and the sheer enjoyment of long ocean passages.
Our watch system had Norma on until midnight and me 0000 to 0600, so Norma was on the crossing net and was net controller 1 or 2 days a week.  She really looked forward to the morning net and would then update me on boat positions and what was happening when I awoke.
It was the same on passages to and from NZ, from Vanuatu to PNG where Norma called in to two nets, and then again in the Indian, South and North Atlantic oceans.  Some say SSB is "old technology " and it has been around for donkeys' years but you cannot run voice nets using satellite technology except possibly at a cost far in excess of the cost of running an SSB.