The Mona Passage

The Mona Passage

Thursday 27th - Friday 28th Feb 2025

Our journey across the Mona Passage from Boqueron, Puerto Rico to Samana, Dominican Republic went fine. We had been monitoring the weather forecast for the past week and what we experienced was pretty much exactly what was forecast. We raised our main sail before pulling up the anchor, mostly to provide some extra dampening of any roll, but also because we were hoping the winds would pick up from < 5 knots to something sailable later in the afternoon. We left at about 8.15 am and arrived at Puerto Bahia marina, just to the west of Samana, at 9.30 am the following day, having covered ~ 145 nm. We gently motor-sailed the first 8 hours, then sailed overnight and started motor-sailing again shortly after sunrise because the winds had gone light again and were directly down wind. On Thursday morning the seas were dead flat, but the overnight period was quite rolly, but not too terrible. What was exciting was the wildlife that we saw. Within the first 15 minutes we saw two dolphins (always lovely to see) and shortly thereafter we saw the first of four whales that we encountered on route. The first whale gave us a full breach, as did the final one off the coast of the DR. We also saw several birds … masked and brown boobies, a white tailed tropic bird and a pair of bridled terns. 

The passage was a positive experience, but I cannot say the same for the docking. I really made a pig’s ear of the maneuver. We were told that it would be a stern-to / port side tie up, and as we entered the channel in the marina there would be plenty of room to turn the boat around before backing in. We entered the marina and lined up for the backing in, but every time I tried to go backwards in a straight line the prop-wash from the propeller pulls us sideways. I would then pivot the boat in forward gear to realign us, but once I engaged reverse we again went sideways to the slip. After multiple attempts we had drifted close to the boat in the adjacent slip and ended up getting his anchor stuck in lifelines and bent two stanchions. What a cluster-fuck! In retrospect we should have come into the channel already in reverse with some headway to allow steerage, then the pull of the prop-wash to the port side would have helped us rather than hindered. My only excuse is that I was already very tired! We finally got tied up in the slip and here was no damage to the other boat. In the afternoon I was able to partially straighten the bent stanchions and they will work perfectly well for the rest of this trip. My ego took a bit of a hit … but I should get over that!

We will stay one week at this marina and hope to rest up and also rent a car for a few days to explore the DR a little. Dave Anderson arrives on Tuesday.

Mike

19 11.672 N, 69 21.307 W

Sunset in Boqueron the night before our departure

This photo isn't going to win any prizes, but you can at least see that it is a whale (humpback we think)

Bridled terns resting on a fishing float (probably a life bird ... we'd be more certain if we kept better records!)

We saw several squalls but were able to avoid all of them

Sailing into the sunset. We later added the reefed genoa to our sail set up.

Behind the wheel as the sun goes down into clouds ... chart plotter above the compass, autopilot controller to the right

Long exposure view from Cotinga, taken after sunset

Ditto

The sun rising as we approach Samana

South Coast Puerto Rico

South Coast Puerto Rico

Monday 24th - Wednesday 26th February 2025

“Passages South: The Thornless Path to Windward” by Bruce van Sant is a legendary cruising guide that is well known to many sailors. It outlines how to make it down through the islands from Florida to the Eastern Caribbean via what is known as the “Thorny Path”, using the night-time land breezes to offset the relentless trade winds from the east. In the book (we have the 10th edition), the author recounts meeting an Australian around-the-world sailor who said that the south coast of Puerto Rico was the roughest water that he had encountered thus far. We are starting to realize why!

Over the past week or so we have had some delightful down-wind sails, such as the leg from Isla Caja de Meurtos to Gilligan’s Island (20 nm), but we have also had some really rough sections. In particular, when we left Gilligan’s Island we expected a short (10 nm) and easy motor sail along to La Parguera. What we encountered were large, steep waves that had us hanging on for dear life. The two full water jerry cans, tied on at the back of the boat behind the cockpit, were sliding and fighting to break loose of their tethers. Waves from the stern quarter were rolling the boat badly and also catching the edge of the dinghy, that we had mistakenly left tied up on the davits. All told it was a short but harrowing passage! We aren’t sure why conditions were so bad - the winds have been consistently solid at 15-20 knots most days - this seemed no different. There were squalls in the area, but at the anchorage before we departed they mostly just delivered rain without strong winds. Maybe it was different offshore. I think part of the issue is that coastal waters are shallow for miles out and swells roll in from the open water and steepen up as the depth decreases. Thankfully the anchorages have been excellent, and in the case of Gilligan’s Island and La Parguera they were being mangrove covered reefs, which blocked out all the swell. 

We were the only boat anchored off Gilligan’s Island and had fun watching two guys windsurfing in the bay. On of them came over to say hello, tied up his windsurfer and came aboard for 15 minutes to chat. Gerd originally came from Germany, but moved to Seattle in the late seventies. He was a computer scientist, but is now retired and spends winters with his wife down in Puerto Rico. He was clearly an excellent windsurfer and does give lessons - impressive for a man who is now 80 years old!

At La Parguera, once the rainy weather had passed, we took the dinghy over to some mangrove covered barrier islands where locals like to tie up their boats and party. It’s actually pretty cool - there’s no actual beach, but once tied up to a mooring you can jump in and stand on the sand in about 3-4ft. There are some pretty large tarpon swimming around! We brought snorkel and masks and swam over to the sand bar between islands. Unlike most people we had not brought our beers and boom box with us.

Today we set out with some trepidation on the last leg along the south coast. It turned out to be a pretty good sail and as we round Cabo Rojo (which we had visited by land) and turned north along the west coast of Puerto Rico we were making almost 8 knots with just the Genoa. We pulled into Boqueron just before noon and are now preparing for our passage over to the Dominican Republic.

Mike

18 00.964 N, 67 10.664 W

Windsurfing near Gilligan's Island

Gerd comes over to say hello

Gerd preparing to do a water start

Local party-spot near La Parguera - shallow water, behind mangrove covered barrier islands,  and lots of big tarpon!

Gloria, happy to have survived yet another adventure!

Passing Cabo Rojo on the south-west corner of Puerto Rico, sailing ~ down-wind in 15-20 knots of breeze and ~ 4 ft seas

Once in the flat waters off the west coast we flew along at ~ 8 knots with just the genoa

Old San Juan and Isla Caja de Muertos

Old San Juan and Isla Caja de Muertos

Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd February, 2025

Our plan for Saturday was to drive to the old section of San Juan, find somewhere to park, walk around and have some lunch.  Things seemed to be going smoothly until we got to the waterfront where it appeared that every passenger had just left the giant Virgin Cruise ship.  Additionally, half the population of the island may have had the same plan as us!  Old San Juan has narrow streets, lined with parked cars and vehicles looking for a parking spot whilst trying to avoid running over the hundreds of pedestrians milling around aimlessly.  To add to the general chaos, almost all streets are one way.  It’s necessary to plan your route carefully so that you don’t wind up driving in circles. Even good planning can’t save you, as that right hand turn you were counting on is unexpectedly barricaded.  As the navigator, I admit that I was having a melt down.  We found a couple of parking garages that were completely full.  In despair, we decided to switch to plan B and go to the Botanical Gardens. With some difficulty, we found a more major road heading away from the old section.  Then, by some miracle, we found a parking space!  We dumped the car and started walking.  The area where we had parked was the government center for Puerto Rico.  We saw the Capitol Building and sculptures of past Presidents.  We carried on walking until we found a nice looking restaurant.  Lunch was served!  Mike ordered Yucca mofongo with Cuban ropa vieja.  I went for Puerto Rican stew with sweet potato.  The food was great and the place had an air of gracious dilapidation.  We resumed walking and got to the large fort that overlooks the harbor entrance.  The large grassy expanse around the fort appeared to be a popular park for picnics and kite flying.  We toured the fort (Castillo San Felipe del Morro). Originally built by the Spanish and subsequently expanded and reinforced, the fort eventually came into the possession of the US. If was further modified and used during WWII to watch for German submarines and warships.  The walk back to the car seemed a bit daunting, so we stopped for a coffee to energize ourselves.  The traffic was quite heavy on the drive back, but we were pleased to arrive at the marina in daylight! 

This morning there were a few jobs to be done. Returning the car keys and remaining payment to the marina office, refilling the water jerries and buying ice.  We were under way shortly after ten am. The wind was quite variable, between 8 and 15 knots.  We flew the genoa and motor-sailing the 15 miles to Isla Caja de Muertos.  We think the name might mean Island of the Coffins.  Our Spanish has not improved much while being in the PR! We anchored on the south west side of the island amid a mix of sail boats and power vessels.  Looking over the side we saw several large fish that we think are tarpon.  After lunch Mike wanted to go to shore so we launched the dinghy and dropped the engine on it.  Once he collected his gear, I was on the side deck to release the painter once the engine was started.  Looking over the side I saw a decent sized shark swim by with tarpon following. Something went badly wrong with the pull cord and the engine could not be started.  Mike tried to work on the outboard in the dinghy but the rock and roll plus the constant sight of the circling shark soon convinced him to bring the engine back onto the big boat.  Mike dis-assembled the pull cord mechanism, and after much messing around the pull cord was retracted into the correct spot and we started the process over again. Mike went to shore and took a walk up the hill where the flag was flying.  He found out that the island was previously a park that was destroyed by an earth quake in 2020.  There are damaged buildings on shore.  We might try to find out more when we have any phone reception!  

Gloria 

17 53.261 N, 66 31.799 W

First things first ... lunch! Yucca mofongo with Cuban ropa vieja,  Puerto Rican stew with sweet potato (iphone selfie)

The Capitol Building

The colorful streets of Old San Juan

Ditto

The mausoleum below the Castillo San Felipe del Morro

Castillo San Felipe del Morro

Castillo San Felipe del Morro - a castle with many layers

Castillo San Felipe del Morro - fantastic views in all directions. We sailed around this point and into San Juan Harbor in 2018 (but never left the boat and kept on going the following morning)

The cafe where we had iced coffee to perk us up for the walk back to the car

Old building - New mural

Looking down on Isla Caja de Muertos from the hill on the south west corner of the island

The beach area at Isla Caja de Muertos

Ooops - There go my Undies !

Ooops - There go my Undies !

Thursday 20th - Friday 21st February, 2025

We have rented a car and are exploring Puerto Rico and birding. However, regular life goes on and we were keen to take advantage of access to fresh water (at the nearby marina) and do some laundry. So on Friday morning I set to work washing my clothes in a large bucket in the cockpit. After the initial wash stage, I transferred the clothes to a clean bucket for rinsing and pitched the dirty water over the side. To my amazement, I watched a pair of underpants, that I hadn’t realized were still in the bucket, fly overboard. I jumped into action and grabbed the boat-hook from on deck and set to trying to recovery the undies. Unfortunately, like most of our fishing exploits, this was unsuccessful and they gradually sank beyond sight. One can only wonder if they had less holes whether they might have floated longer!

Anyway, returning to the business at hand … we rented a car from a local guy named Sidney. He brought it to the marina and the three of us drove over to his his office a couple of miles away. The process was as quick and easy as is possible to imagine - he took a photo of my driving license, we handed over the cash and off we went … no credit cards, no paperwork or documents! On Thursday we explored the south west of Puerto Rico, stopping first at the Guanica State Forest. This is the dry side off the island and these forests resembled the woody areas of the canyons of Arizona. We saw a number of new birds, including Adelaide’s warbler, Puerto Rican Bullfinch, Flycatcher and Tody. We then motored on to Cabo Rojo, which has colorful salt flats and a lighthouse sitting on top of some amazing and horribly undercut cliffs. Our final stop of the day was the Laguna Cartegena which is a beautiful wetland area surrounded by hills and farmland. Here we saw Orange Cheeked Waxbills and a Red Bishop - both exotic species that originated in Africa. It was well after dark by the time we arrived back in Salinas, so we stopped for dinner in a local restaurant. The food was excellent (shrimp in garlic butter with rice and beans for me, and shrimp gumbo for Gloria), but the ambiance left a little to be desired and it was obvious we were back in the USA freezing our butts off with over exuberant air conditioning!

After our laundry adventures on Friday morning we drove over to the El Yunque National Park on the north-east side of the island. This mountainous rainforest is incredibly wild and beautiful, but also very popular and busy. We added Puerto Rican Woodpeckers and Orioles to our list as we wandered through the undergrowth near the visitors center. Later we hiked the lower section the Mt Britton trail through beautiful forests. Our final stop on Friday was at a Costco in Caguas, in the center of the island. This was our first visit to any other Costco outside of Waltham, MA and it was surprisingly similar in many ways to our local store. We bought a ton of stuff and headed back to Salinas, again arriving after dark. It proved to be something of a challenge to clear the ice in the freezer so we could store everything.

In total we have added 14 new life-birds to our list since arriving in Puerto Rico. We have one more day with the car and plan to drive north again and visit Old San Juan.

Mike

Adelaide's warbler ... Guanica State Forest

Orange Cheeked Waxbills ... Laguna Cartegena

Female Red (Orange) Bishop ... Laguna Cartegena

Salt Flats - Cabo Rojo

Pink salt flats  ... Cabo Rojo (I used a +ve vignette on this abstract photo)

The old bridge to the lighthouse ... Cabo Rojo

Cabo Rojo

Cabo Rojo .... we have to sail past this cape next week on our way to the DR

Laguna Cartegena

El Yunque National Park

One of many beautiful forest flowers ... El Yunque National Park

Playa de Salinas

Playa de Salinas

Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th February, 2025

We departed the Bahia de Jobos on Tuesday morning and motored to the channel leading into Playa de Salinas.  We found a spot to anchor off the east side of the channel between two vessels.  Looking toward the town, all we could really see were more boats—quite the contrast from Monday night! We got the engine on the dinghy and motored into the marina.  A helpful chap called Randy (S/V Sinbad) gave us directions to the hardware store and the supermarket.  He confirmed that we could get water (free of charge) and diesel at the marina.  We went into the office and asked about car rental.  They helpfully gave us the phone number of a local guy and we made a booking for Thursday and Friday. We hope to explore a bit more of Puerto Rico by car.  We walked to the hardware store and got some silicon sealant and a hose nozzle.  Continuing along the route to the supermarket we found the florist/propane refill shop.  The guy inside confirmed that he could fill a tank for us and we promised to come by the next day.  The grocery shop happened to be near a restaurant and it was well past lunch time.  After an indecently large lunch, we wandered the aisles of the supermarket with less than usual enthusiasm!  Somehow it still seemed like a ton of stuff to carry on the way back to the marina.  Mike filled the water tanks from jerry cans and then went back to the marina to refill the empty jerries. We had a light dinner and watched a FILM!

This morning, there were chores to be done. Mike filled up the diesel tanks from the jerry cans and we loaded the empties into the dinghy along with our empty propane cylinder.  Once at the marina we elected to walk to the Florist/ propane place, where we left the tank to be picked up later in the afternoon.  Then we returned to the marina and filled the diesel jerry cans. We returned to Cotinga for a well deserved rest and lunch.  After lunch we went to shore for a walk to the other side of the bay to get access to the mangrove area.  We saw a few birds including a tricolor heron and greater yellow legs. Then we walked back to pick up our propane tank.  We stopped at the marina bar and had a rest and cold drinks.  Back on Cotinga, we have showered and are feeling refreshed.

One of the things I’m excited about in Puerto Rico is the abundance of birds.  There are 17 endemic species and plenty of other birds.  Today on our way back from the propane-fill/flower shop, we saw a Venezuelan Troupial, a very bright orange and black bird.  We also saw a Puerto Rican mango (hummingbird) and a group of monk parakeets.  On Tuesday morning, before leaving the marina, we saw the Greater Antillean grackle and the Puerto Rican Spindalis. Tomorrow we will go to a couple of birding site along the south coast. Fingers crossed for plenty of bird sightings!

Gloria

17 56.909 N, 66 17.466 W

Before making our way down to our current anchorage we needed to address a potentially serious issue. On our two previous passages I had found it very difficult to dis-engage forward gear to neutral. All sorts of hideous possibilities were running through my head and I had even started to search for full-service marinas where we might get the clutch / gearbox repaired. However, when I inspected the engine the source of the problem became obvious - yet another hose clamp had worked loose (this time on a cooling hose to the clutch mechanism) and had dropped down and was physically impeding the mechanism. Thankfully this was a trivial fix.

This morning I made the mistake of measuring how far we have to sail to get back to northern Florida. I was a little shocked to realize that it is over 1000 nautical miles. This seems a bit daunting at this point.

Mike

The ketch 'Holley Days' enters the channel leading to Salinas Harbor (photographed from where we are anchored)

The view north up the channel to Salinas

We are anchored off the mangroves in a well protected spot with good breezes and a clear view out to the ocean

Cotinga at anchor - taken from land in amongst the mangroves

We have great views of the sunset

Cotinga at sunset - shot from the dinghy

Ditto

Unusual wall pillars

Plastic barrels abstract