Well, so far this has been an interesting story arc. Some chapters seem to move at a glacial pace, but these have so far been set-ups for the next chapter. Lots of folks have vented, ranted, and pouted about a few of the fights, but all-in-all they were handled rather well in my opinion.
Gaining a crewmember (and a musician, especially!) as well as fighting one of the Seven Warlords. Hmm… in consideration of story length, this might be another 'mini-arc' according to some. Yet, the mini-arcs move the story along as much or more than the major arcs, which are themselves of great importance to the story, not in the least because they make up the bulk of it.
Some members here think Bart will inform Luffy of Ace's defeat at Blackbeard's hand. Personally, I don't- of what possible benefit is it to Bart to do so? Since it's highly doubtful the WG would ask him to relay such a message to a pirate, he wouldn't be carrying out an official order by doing so, either. If I were to hazard a guess, Luffy will find out the details when he lands at Fishman Island in the next story arc.