Took turns thru the night manning the Helm. The waves were incredibly huge and hitting us on the port aft side the entire night. They were slapping the inside of the starboard hull and making a lot of noise. We were thankful for the half moon while it lasted. The auto helm kept our course the whole time, which meant that we didn't have to hand steer. We found ourselves in a busy shipping lane, trying to get out of their way. We radioed one boat, Horizon, to make sure they could see us and they agreed to change their course and pass us further on our port side. That worked out well. We managed to stay away from the other big ships. I was manning from 4-6 while Mark slept and it was so dark, we had huge winds over 25 knots and we were sailing with jib only at speeds up to 8 knots. It was like being on an endless roller coaster. Just moving around the boat was difficult as the feeling was like a washing machine agitator. Got to sleep until 8. We had breakfast and the waves continued to be rough. By lunch time, the waves flattened as did the wind. I was able to cook a hot lunch for us. We also took showers off the after stairs. The Royal Caribbean Rhapsody passed us on our starboard side, heading to Cozumel, out of Tampa. I radioed the ship and asked for current weather. They were very happy to oblige and give us that information. It helped pass a slow sailing afternoon. With lack of wind, plus a cloudy day, we ran one of the engines. That way our batteries would be fully charged for all the electronics we need thru the night. There were dark clouds in the direction of Cuba's coastline. We eventually got some light rain for about an hour. It was enough to wash off the salt layer on our boat. The winds picked up, so we shut off the motor. Looks like more rain heading in our direction. We are now 28 miles from our turn at the west end of Cuba.