The passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico is considered a rough passage, with strong winds and high seas pushing through the sixty-mile space between the two mountainous islands. Our passage starts at Luperon, which makes the trip 260 miles total to get to Puerto Rico. The initial part of the sail brings you along the rough coast of Dominican so it is really important to pick a good weather window. A group of nine boats left the harbor in Luperon the day before we had decided was our weather window. It was difficult not to succumb to the herd instinct and leave with the group. We decided to stick with our decision to let the swell drop down one more day and leave the next morning. We checked out of the country and got things ready to head out.
Our weather window held ... we sailed some and motored some along the coast of Dominican. When we got to the end of the island of Dominican we encountered a strong head wind coming around the island. We took this as a sign to begin the Mona Passage crossing. The direction across wasn't quite right, we were pointing to the North side of Puerto Rico but we were sailing and not beating.... So we decided to go with it and hope that the wind direction which switch so we could sail more towards the South side later. Luck was with us and the wind clocked around as we crossed the Mona Passage. We arrived in Boqeron as the sun came up after a two night - two day passage. We were tired but happy we made the difficult and exciting trip. We met up with some of the boats that left early and they ended up having a tough passage with a lot of swell and wind. They had to stop along the way and were just getting into Boqeron with us. Sometimes is pays to stick by your own assessment and not run with the crowd.....