Mona Passage to Puerto Rico

June 21st, 2007. The dreadful Mona Passage. We have read lots about it and nothing was good. The wind and the current in that 150 mile passage from the north east end of the Dominican Republic to the west side of Puerto Rico.
All day I had butterflies in my stomach because in the evening we are off to cross the Mona Passage. We are using a weather router whom we have learned to love and obey – who told us that this is the night – it will be great to cross and we could not ask for anything better. Well some things came to mind, like an airplane that will take us there, or a big cruise ship with cabin service air-condition and cable TV… I am still asking myself over and over why we are doing this?
We are leaving Escondido at 9:00 p.m. and again, it’s pitch dark. Not only that but the guide books says to hug the mountains as close as we dare, like a boat length apart. Easy said when you can’t see a thing. That’s why God invented radar – and we watch the screen carefully as we hug the cliffs for hours. Why are we doing this again?
I pretend to be very tired and make Chris do the first watch, so I don’t have to see (or not see) the cliffs at arms length. After two hours I get up and take the wheel. An absolutely wonderful night with little wind and some long interval swells that made the ride quite comfortable. I know I read somewhere that it will get rough around here or was it in a few miles, there has to be a rough bit since it’s the Mona passage. Has to be … Nothing happens all night and for some reason we have settled into our routine and we are not as tired as we were the first two nights and we actually enjoy the ride. Our weather router (AKA the “only man” on board who HAS to be obeyed) was absolutely right. It was the perfect night to cross. During the day Lucky Star got greeted by five or six huge dolphins riding our bow. What a welcoming committee.
Calculating the time and distance we have to go we realize that we are positively “flying” and we will be in Puerto Rico in 25 hours rather than the calculated 32 – 35 hours. We arrived at 10:30 p.m. in a bay called Cabo Rojo and it looked on the chart we can enter in the dark without risking our or Lucky Star’s life. Still quite dark with a little moon and no clouds we throw our hook in the water and anchor in the little bay which has some swells but seems otherwise safe. We turn everything off and go to bed, still dreaming that there has to be a rough spot in the Mona Passage – but it never came. How lucky are we. Sleeping like the dead we got up at 5:00 a.m. to round the bottom of Puerto Rico towards a town called Ponce. The weather man told us that we have to expect a tropical wave (these create hurricanes) hitting within the next 24 hours. So we are in a rush to get to a safe place where we can clear customs. The four hour ride was very choppy and windy and I kept thinking how lucky we are not to have had that weather on our way over from the Dominican Republic.
Welcome to Puerto Rico! We arrived at 10:50 a.m. at the Ponce Yacht and Fishing club which seems to have been established in the 70’s and not much has changed since than. The local people who are members of the club come on Saturday evening to listen to Latin music and have a BBQ with all their kids. It’s a bustling place and we are very happy to be here. We have air-condition and are tied to a concrete dock waiting for the tropical wave to hit, and we are not a bit disappointed that we don’t have to leave the next day – we sleep a lot and smile a lot. We have not had any alcohol to drink within almost a week and the two Gin and Tonics we drink the second night we arrive smash us – and we are still smiling.