Voyage to Puerto Rico, Part 3
Rocking’ in the Mona Passage: Wind at 20 Knots, Vessel Speed 6.6 Knots, Waves 6 Feet!
Just before evening as we entered the Mona Passage, we saw our first whale! She did a vertical jump out of the water about 40 feet from the boat, just to get our attention. She then proceeded away, jumping out of the water about every 45 seconds, showing off. Cool!
I got the shortwave working again just as we were getting to the Mona Passage. The weather GRIB file showed the wind speed would be sustained up to 20 knots and from the northeast. This was fantastic news! Our weather window held and we could continue sailing at a fast clip. We were in for a wild ride.
The waves were also larger and so the boat was slamming up and down a lot, but we were moving fast. We got the majority of our motor-less sailing in the passage, moving over six knots much of the time. During one of Shelly’s night watches we were really moving, but she also was trying to avoid a big tanker seen on the AIS so she just kept going. She was amazed at how well the boat could do in rough conditions. I was trying to sleep at this time and it was not easy. The forward berth was like a noisy earthquake, rocking up and down, back and forth and when waves hit the hull it sounded like a war zone. The salon was tilted so far that I wouldn’t stay on the couch. Note to self: Need to come up with a tie-in for sleeping.
This video was taken the next morning after the waves had calmed down a bit but the wind was still around 20 knots. You can see how the waves occasionally break over the bow, this sounds like an explosion when you’re in the bow berth. The image from the chart plotter at the top of this post shows the wind and boat speed (trust me, it does), and the land mass of Puerto Rico to the right. Our boat is the black boat symbol in the upper left. The yellow arrow shows the direction of the wind hitting the boat. Despite the wild conditions, the weather was clear and sunny the next day and by the time the sun rose, you could see Isla Desecheo, part of the territory of Puerto Rico. If you look carefully, you can see the island in the distance in the video linked to at the start of this paragraph.
Isla Desecheo
Just as we passed the island, the wind and waves suddenly died down to nothing, being blocked by the land mass of Puerto Rico. We motored in to Mayaguez Bay and dropped anchor at 3 pm. We made it! And we both agreed, that was the most difficult passage we’ve done BUT, it really wasn’t that bad. As Shelly said, the conditions on climbing expeditions we’ve done was far more difficult. Well yes, but for sailing it was pretty hard. The worst thing for me was the inability to get a satisfying sleep and the fact that I have a hard time eating anything when the boat is rocking so much.
It’s been a long odyssey from Rock Hall to Puerto Rico, but we finally made it to the tropics. We’ll hang out in the Caribbean for possibly up to a year, but who knows? I hope now we can sail more with the wind than against it!
An Entire Case of Stocked-Up Bahamian Beer Remains Undrunk. What to Do?
Posted in Sailing by Mark with 4 comments.
Hi guys,
Glad to see you made it safely to PR. It sounds as though you got another notch in the experience belt. Well done.
We are still in TCI and plan to leave on a good window this weekend. Our plan is a little different, we will sail due east as far as we can an then south to PR. We will keep well north of Grand Turk and make the turn south as the winds clock back easterly. Hope to see you again soon.
Mark, you should try sleeping on the salon floor (on the mattress from the berth). Much lower center of gravity and less rolling. Ask Cindy about food prep for a passage, she is very good a prepping dry meals for us. We tend to get on opposite cycles as one of us wants breakfast as the other wants dinner.
Mark and Cindy
sv Cream Puff
http://www.creampuff.us
Also, Where did you dock the dinghy when checking in with Customs and Immigration at Mayaguez?
Hi M & C,
We followed the delivery crew’s advice and went south of the TCI banks for a smoother ride as they were blocking the waves, at least for the first day. Overall not really a longer route and you can sail pretty much directly east once you’re south of the banks if the wind is right of course. The salon floor is a great solution, we will do that next time. As for the food, we could pretty much eat whatever we wanted, I just lose my appetite for the first days of a rough voyage no matter what is available.
As for clearing in at PR: We didn’t actually have to go ashore. Shelly found that if you have a DTOP decal you can just call customs and they can check your information. You don’t need the actual decal, just proof that you paid for it, which you get online. The customs officials check your information and call you back to inform you whether you need an inspection or not. Pretty convenient. You need to stop here but not necessarily go ashore here. The website to acquire the decal is https://dtops.cbp.dhs.gov/ and the customs phone number is online.
Good luck, looks like you guys will have a good window!
-Mark and Shelly
Hi Mark,
Great info on the DTOPS. We did not know about this program. We’ll give it a try.
Mark