Our last blog and position post was dropped as we passed Providencia island. We had 3g cellular internet
for several hours there. I'm afraid that is over for the duration however. As the sun set and we lost sight
of Providencia, we also lost sight of land period, until Cuba breaks over the horizon a few days from
now. Unless TMobile has a reciprocal with cellular carriers in Cuba (you never know!), we're probably
relegated to SSB communications until we get in range of Key West.

We had rain scattered around at sunset yesterday but no thunderstorms. I have not seen lightning or
heard thunder tonight so far. That is a happy thing because there's nothing more messed up than a
lightning strike on a yacht. Imagine losing everything electric/electronic. I mean, the coffee machine
might not work! Seriously though, no GPS, no chart plotter, fried wiring everywhere, no batteries to start
the aux. It doesn't get much worse. We keep a handheld VHF with built in GPS in the microwave at all
times (except when making popcorn). We also have paper charts of the entire way home and a working
compass or two. No interest in testing our readiness but I feel like we could get it done old school if we
had to.

There was an ominous and fairly large looking squall on the radar at around 8PM but is crossed our track
to port and faded away before we got near. Now at 9PM the radar is clear. The atmosphere has been,
quite thankfully, very stable today given what we've gotten used to. Every degree north brings better
conditions it seems. It is still pretty darn bumpy and blowing 20 knots on the bow, which isn't perfect,
but it's a good trade if we don't have to deal with tstorms. The wave action is rough at night though
because it is so dark you can't see them, so its kind of like being an ant in a match box that some little kid
keeps randomly shaking.

I can see stars straight overhead now. Pretty awesome. The moon won't be up for another few hours but
I look forward to greeting it! Or Jeff will, he has the dog watch tonight.

Morning. We passed behind Quita Sueno overnight. We gave it a wide berth as it is a very extensive
reef. We had originally hoped to stop there for lunch along the way. It looks pretty amazing from
satellite pics but it is so remote, and also fairly dangerous to approach due to all of the coral heads, it
doesn't get a lot of intentional visitors. When we arrived in San Andres, the coast guard was just
returning after rescuing some folks on a yacht that had shipwrecked there.

Staying well off Quita Sueno meant it didn't knock the seas down as much for us as we'd hoped. It has
been a very bump 24 hours bashing into head seas. Worse, after clearing Quita Sueno we turned further to
weather to transit a deep water channel behind Rosalind Bank, taking the 5-7 footers almost on the
nose. We originally wanted to avoid crossing the Nicaraguan shelf in shallowish water but the conditions
swayed us. Now we head 015 from Quita Suena to the east side of Thunder Knoll (an ominous name for
an ominous place). It is very strange to be way out in the ocean, no sight of land anywhere and in 80 feet
of water. This course change gives us a better angle to the seas and more sail power. Ten degrees when
sailing close hauled can change everything.

Not long after deciding to cross the bank, we made the final call to completely ditch Grand Cayman as an
anchorage. This let us cut even deeper into the Nicaraguan shelf. With a little wind and a decent angle
Swingin' on a Star began running 8-10 knots. The motion settled and the miles began to finally click by.

At nightfall we are 130nm from Nicaragua, 250nm from Jamaica and 210nm from Grand Cayman. Fishermen
from Honduras and Nicaragua have been known to become opportunistic pirates, boarding yachts and
stealing stuff (no crazy Somali blood baths, just petty robbery). Regardless we are not interested in any
encounters out here on the shelf. When we turned on the radar for night watch we picked up a few
targets ahead of us. We have been running without AIS on to keep a low profile but you can't hide from
radar. So far the fishing boats we are tracking are just fishing.

It's a beautiful sunset in the Caribbean Sea. Made so much more lovely after the pummeling we got
Tuesday and Tuesday night. Swingin' on a Star is doing 9.4 knots in 15 knots of breeze from 50 degrees off
the port bow and all is well. I think she smells the barn.