Those best laid plans . . . well they changed! We decided to leave Samana Sunday night instead of waiting for Monday morning. I was following Bruce Van Sant's (author) advice. We had the weather conditions for a "comfortable" crossing of the Mona Passage for "the mom and pop on their 36 footer". He couldn't have described Jorge, me and CS'ta Time any better! Pat and Bridget decided to alter their plans and cross with us as well.

During the first 3+ hours I thought we needed our heads examined! The waves were crashing over the bow and the winds were 20 - 22 kts - right on the nose. We almost turned around. After giving it another hour or two, I'm glad we persevered. The winds settled and the seas diminished (at least they weren't crashing over the bow anymore.) The long and short of it was the winds and seas picked up occassionally, then diminished again and once again picked up but it really was a comfortable 29 hour crossing.

Motorsailing parallel to a storm off the coast of Puerto Rico.

Isla Desecheo, Puerto Rico.

Sunset over the Mona Passage from Puerto Rican waters.

 

About 5 miles before Boqueron (our destination point in Puerto Rico) we ran over something and it didn't sound good. Jorge checked for water coming into the boat but everything was sound. We put the boat back in gear and motored going less than 5 kts into the Boqueron anchorage. Jorge was not able to set the anchor because the engine made a horrible noise when he put it in reverse. We put out lots of chain as the seas were calm and we went to bed.

Tuesday we took a taxi with Pat and Bridget to Mayaguez to check in. We then took the taxi to a mall. One just like in Canada or the states! Pat kindly volunteered to dive under our boat to see what the problem was (a commercial diver by profession, boy I love making friends who are divers (Lynn from N.Y. who dove for us in George Town.) The pictures show what was wrapped around the prop. Things are good now with the engine and gears. We celebrated crossing the Mona with Pat and Bridget on CS'ta Time with a good bottle of wine we had been saving since Canada. It was a great feeling putting that body of water behind us.

Pat after freeing the rope and buoy.

Jorge holding the culprit.

The culprit on deck (note Jorge's toes in the picture).

Downtown Boqueron.

Today we are "borrowing" power and internet from a restaurant that is closed on Wednesdays. We are planning our next move along the south coast of Puerto Rico.