onward

I sailed eastward yesterday about 30 miles off the north coast of Puerto Rico. I'm now 38 miles off of Bavaria, Dominican Republic and 48 miles from the Navidad bank, the first of the shallow banks that lead up to the Bahamas.
Yesterday I sailed over the Puerto Rico trench which is the second deepest spot on earth. I believe this is deeper than Mount Everest is tall. I know I saw depths on my chart of over 8150 m.
I lost the bit of wind that I did have at 3am. Went to start an engine and it wouldn't start; same problem as before so I had to hotwire it. Fortunately I anticipated this problem. The contact the boat owner put me in touch with from Dream Yacht Charters in Martinique was a real skeptic about the MDI device from Volvo. He explained that the Volvo engineers he's worked with have yet to identify the root cause and told me to be prepared for further problems. Today I'll assemble the switch & wire I purchased in Martinique up to the helm so it's easier to start without going into the engine compartment.
The sun is up now and the day looks nice so far but I'm pretty tired. Sleeping in 20 minute chunks doesn't leave you refreshed the next morning.
Heavy weather is headed my way tomorrow. The weather forecast shows 30 knots of wind and 3.5 meter swells. Fortunately the wind is supposed to be a little more easterly instead of the north wind I've had. I'm looking forward to that.