19:29.45N  80:24.53W

 

We are just passing between Grand Cayman and Little Cayman but going faster than we would like. We have one reef in the main and one in the jib but are still doing over 10kts. We have passed the Cayman Trough where the sea is over 7,000 metres deep.  I had a look back through our track to see if this is a record but it isn’t. We passed over the Puerto Rico Trench on our way down from the USA in November. We passed over a point 7,800 meters deep. That’s almost 5 miles down.  Gulp!

 

Dolphins are frequent visitors to Alia Vita once we are offshore, typically in pods of 5 to 8. Between Puerto Rico and Haiti were visited by a pod of about 30 which is unusual, we haven’t seen that many since the Cape Verdes when there must have been 100. This morning however we had a new experience. One lone dolphin played at our bow for about 10 minutes before being joined by one more.  This dolphin seemed twice the size of anything we have seen before, almost black in colour and didn’t have the usual long snout/face. Its head was round and featureless. The second was the same but smaller. They were less ‘frisky’ and came up for air much less frequently.  We will need to research this once we have proper internet.