We had several squalls dogging us through the small hours of the morning but only a little light drizzle. The wind remained calm at about 5k and moved first to the South then to the SSW. Our progress was not impeded at all by these variations and our motor continues to turn over at about 1600rpms, the same speed as since yesterday afternoon when we set it. The seas remain very calm with some swell though the direction is hard for us to determine in the dark.

A small sliver of moon rose at about 3am and many stars are also still visible. At 4am no more squalls are on the horizon though we can detect clouds covering stars in many parts of the sky, especially to the South where we still see lightning. Our course remains 184M and our distance to run to Laughlan Atoll is 167nm. Our speed is between 5.5 and 5.8k over ground and we expect to arrive at Laughlan tomorrow morning at about 9 or 10am.

At dawn conditions were excellent with very few clouds and lots of sunshine, finally. Wind was light to nonexistent still and seas very calm with a SE swell of 3-4ft.

At about noon we had a decent breeze from the East and we shut down the engine and actually began to sail. This lasted about one hour then we motored again for another hour then finally the wind became steady and we shut down the engine again. Conditions remained good with much sunshine but thin gray cloud can be seen to the West and is moving East covering about half of the horizon. We are sailing at about 6.5k over ground with the wind from the East at 10-13k.

At about 2pm we caught a nice yellow-fin tuna of about 15-20lbs. At 3:30pm we have 100 miles to go to reach Laughlan and conditions remain almost the same. Wind is holding at 10-12k roughly from the East giving us an apparent wind angle of about 70-80 degrees. Cloudy skies are filling in from the West though to the East it remains clear. We are sailing at about 6 – 6.5k as before. Seas are a bit more lumpy but not rough by any means. We are going to have to slow the boat down at this rate if we want to arrive in after dawn tomorrow morning. We still expect to arrive at the island by 8am.

As night settles in massive amounts of lightning can be seen in almost every direction, especially to the West and North, though also in the Southeast. The frequency of the flashes is phenomenal. We have never seen anything like it. We are a bit nervous about it, but, we have seen lightning in the sky in this area almost every night and so far nothing has come of it.

By 7pm the wind has come more to the SE and our apparent wind angle is close to 40 degrees. Our speed is down to 3.5k and we are starting the motor again. We had a ship pass us to port heading North at about 10pm.