Reflections from the Mona Passage

The Mona Passage

I have been worried about the Mona Passage every since our Gulf Stream crossing. We read about the horrible thunderstorms that build up off the coast of Puerto Rico and hit you, whack -right in the middle of the passage. Yuck! I was so worried about this one I even asked our sailing mentors John Hutson and Wyatt Nichols to join us but the timing was not good for them to leave work. So, we prepared all we could and again waited for the perfect weather window.

On April 5, at 7:00 am we left Luperon with mixed feelings. In many ways we were wishing we could spend two more weeks in the DR but we knew this weather window was too good to pass up. We also had that nagging feeling of the need to be in Grenada before the end of June for Hurricane season.

We are a very slow boat so we left two hours before the rest of our fleet. This was going to be the longest passage on our journey. Everyone talks about how much easier an offshore passage is after the first 24 hours. They are right. You are actually tired enough by the second day to really get some sleep on your time off. I had prepared a lot of yummy food so we could just heat things. I made potato salad, smoked sausages; macaroni and cheese and bought a roasted chicken. Of course I had the regular PB&J's prepared for emergency. The seas were so calm Glenn actually went down below and made a hobbit "second breakfast", a yummy breakfast burrito. Hobbit first breakfast was a pop tart.

We arrived in Boqueron, Puerto Rico around 10:00 am on Friday morning. We spent the rest of the afternoon clearing in with customs. It is great to be back in U.S. territory.