Boqueron to Guanica

After a very good night sleep, the next morning we had to tackle the immigration issue. Several people had told us that you could check in in Boqueron. Dennis from our buddy boat Magic came in the morning with his dinghy to tell that he had tried several times, but they really wanted to send him to Mayaquez, he asked if Jacques could give it a try, but he also got a no, so in the afternoon the four of us took a taxi to Mayaguez. 

They drive a little bit wild here on very small roads. (Not as bad as in the D.R. because there you had a lot of small motorcycles, who function as taxis, mothers with two children and a big bag of groceries on one of these “taxi’s” was rather normal, really scary!!!!!!). After we were completely legal and back at the boat it was time for a big nap, we were still enjoying our feeling of accomplishment having come this far. We anchored there for three days, visiting the village, doing laundry AND I got a haircut!

The tactic of sailing the south coast of P.R. is that you leave very early in the morning, when the winds are still calm and arrive around ten in the morning in your next anchorage, before the trade winds start blowing, directly from the east (where you need to go). So we did just that and arrived in Parquera at around 9:30 am. (Paul has birthday, but there is no internet here, still congratulations). After a nap we re-anchored, because the winds had really picked up and we had a peaceful day on the boat.

Next day we went into town, you walked that in 10 minutes! Eat an ice cream, the most wonderful treat for a boater, and tried to find an island where a lot of monkeys supposed to live. We had a wonderful dinghy ride through all the channels of the mangrove islands, but did not see or hear any monkeys, although Jacques tried to call them and made a lot of monkey moves….(you know, playing Tarzan!!).

We are now since a few days in the Bahia de Guanica, we did not go to town, but anchored of the Cayos de Cana Gorda (Gilligan’s Island). The island is originally called Cayo Aurora for a woman, who at age 40 escaped misery and mistreatment at the worker’s barracks of the nearby La Bellena farm and swam to the island, where she lived a Robinson Crusoe live and became quit old. None of the books tells exactly how old, but I would say "go girl!!!"

Ria

Bahamas to Puerto Rico via Turks & Caicos and Dominican Republic

We stayed about a week at South Side Marine in Provo. This marina is managed by Simon Anderson and his wife Charlyn helps out. They are extremely helpful with rides to downtown, etc. Every night we had happy hour and met many interesting boaters. After the barbecue I went to the boat by myself with my hands full of half empty bottles, etc. and slipped off the boat and hurt my wrist pretty badly. The next day we went to a clinic to have an X-ray made which fortunately showed no fracture. I am still very handicapped at the moment of writing 3 weeks later and Jacques has to do the household things.

We crossed the Caicos Bank to Ambergris Cay with the wind on the nose but had a restful night at the anchorage. The next day we shortly stopped at Sand Cay in the Turks Islands but the swell was too large so we went on to the Dominican Republic. We had a good night sail and arrived at Ocean World at 8 a.m. The next day we went on a tour with other cruisers to Puerto Plata and visited the local Rum factory, a cigar “factory” and some other shops. Friday we went to the casino at Ocean World with dinner and dance show. Saturday was the national holiday because of the liberation from Spain 62 years ago. We watched the parade and also made a visit to the very very poor Haitian part of town. On Sunday we had a meeting with other cruisers at the pool to discuss the strategy to sail to Puerto Rico across the Mona Passage. Three of them left the same day but we found it better to wait another day.

The second half of the trip from Ocean World to the Mona Passage was horrible, 17 hours with high waves, we planned to anchor half way, but that was not a good spot at all and we decided to go to Samana. Half way one of the motors stopped, we put up the sails, because with one motor we would not have enough power against the waves and the wind (between 16 and 20 knots). That also meant constantly tacking. After the motor had cooled off Jacques tightened the water pump belt, but after 15 minutes it stopped again. We were hoping that after rounding Cabo Samana the wind would be with us so we could sail into the harbor and luckily it was. 

After several tries we were on a mooring ball and were immediately visited by “Joe” in a little motor boat. “I will help you with everything, I speak good English!” He went away letting us guess what would happen, he was back in five minutes with three other guys, he suddenly was in need of a driver, than there was a helper and two guys from the navy, we had to fill out paperwork again (we had already checked out in Ocean World but this was an other entrance, he explained.) After they were done Joe wanted to know what we thought about some gifts!!!! I played dumb for a little while but we had read enough about this to know we had to give them something, so we had to open the wallet again. After we sat down we were thinking this is it! We were so tired, did not even eat and at seven we both were in bed. But you see what a good night sleep can do for you, now we are on the most difficult passage of the whole trip, the seas are smooth, only some swells, the moon is nearly full and we enjoying the trip very much.

It is 7.00 in the morning in the Mona passage and I have slept at least four hours, we are still going smoothly and are about halfway! Our buddy boat is about 4 miles ahead of us and will soon be out of our radio reach. We should have the radio checked because people can easily hear us, but we can not hear them, is a little frustrating. About midway the wind got stronger but we could still motor sail. Then when we came in the near of Isla Desecheo and were boarded by the P.R. Coast Guard who checked our bilges for drugs, holding tank system and safety equipment. We couldn’t find the flare Jacques bought in Miami so we got a warning. Later we found the flares. 

Then when we were about 10 miles from Boquerón we almost hit a large tower of which the light was not working. I immediately wanted to put my life vest on and at 11 p.m. we entered Baya de Boquerón after 31 hours where we anchored between some boats without anchor lights so that was a little challenging. We took a well deserved arrival drink, did hi-fives. We had conquered the Mona!!!

Ria