After two rough days and nights working our way down the northern coast, weathering swells that sometimes seemed to tower over our heads but only once brought seawater into the cockpit, we've worked our way around Cabo Samana" on the northeastern coast of the DR and anchored in Samana' to rest up and wait for a weather window to cross the infamous Mona Passage to Puerto Rico on our way down the islands of the Caribbean. Luperon is a tough act to follow and the town of Samana has not left a good impression with us. As you can see in the above picture, there is not a lot of pride here.

The Mona Passage gets it's reputation because of the Puerto Rican trench which lies north of the island, the second deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean. The water that this 5+ mile deep hole in the ocean draws through the passage between the DR and Puerto Rico brings some less than desireable waves and conditions for sailors. Couple this with thunderstorms coming off the coast of PR and it makes for a memorable passage, although not always for the right reasons. We're seeing predictions of a pretty calm passage. Keep your fingers crossed.