Our weather window to travel from DR to PR came on a Sunday, the day after the regatta party extravaganza. Unfortunately, Guillaume and I were over-served at the party, which we regretted when we left for our passage that Sunday. Ah well. Some lessons you just have to keep learning. This passage included crossing the dreaded “Mona Passage”, the last of the major gremlins on the passages east and south to the eastern Caribbean. The Mona Passage has ocean depths that plunge some 24,000 feet, and it also has the hourglass shoal that shallows to 120 feet. Slow Waltz’s track never went over the shallow extreme, where some very nasty and confused seas can be created with that volume of water moving from the deep and hitting the underwater slope, particularly if there is a significant north swell.

As we left the dock in Samana, we noticed that we had a stowaway on board. We decided not to evict him. He is a very small lizard and he seems to have made a home for himself on the swim platform. We have named him Pedro. He is sighted sporadically with the latest sighting just yesterday on the forward cabin top on the mast step, where I managed to snap some close-ups. We had gone three weeks without seeing him so we weren’t sure we were going to see him again. We are glad he is still with us. Once we saw him down below in the head, but after that, he migrated back to the swim platform.

Back to the passage, Guillaume and I took shifts sleeping as soon as we left the dock, and basically were never in the cockpit together. Overall, the 26-ish hour passage was fine, but we were both seasick a couple of times. The seas were quite rough in the afternoon but calmed down again at night and again, we were with our convoy of 7 boats. Of the 7 boats, 2 continued on to Ponce on the south shore of PR. We decided to pull into Boqueron, on the west shore of Puerto Rico, the other 4 boats pulled into Mayaguez. We had to take a taxi to Mayaguez to check in. Tony the taxi driver took us all over the place. We got groceries, a cell phone, a courtesy flag and a Big Mac meal (couldn’t resist).

The next day we left for Gilligan’s Island and rejoined Simplicity II and Leeloo. It was a cute anchorage with mangroves to explore. Gregg, Mario and I went for a quick snorkel, since one of the locals told us that there was a spectacular reef. It was pretty good, saw some big fish and then, I felt something brush up against my leg and then a burning sensation. I turned and saw the jelly fish that stung me. Dang! Headed back to the boat and fired up the internet and after a couple google searches, I am now a self-professed expert on the treatment of jellyfish stings.

The next day we headed for Ponce on the south shore. It was a fine stop, with access to great provisioning. From here we rented a car and went and checked out San Juan, the capital. There is a lovely old town there with a couple of spectacular forts and great shopping.

Next stop Salinas. A popular anchorage for cruisers, good wind protection from all directions. Spent one night there, then off to Cayo Santiago, otherwise known as Monkey Island. The island is populated with over 1000 monkeys and a research centre. It’s not permitted to go to shore (the monkeys bite according to the sign), so we dinghied in close and watched the monkeys playing in the mangroves. It’s a very small island, and there truly seems to be a thousand monkeys there.

From there we left mainland PR for our first stop in the Virgins, specifically the Spanish Virgins. There are two main islands in the Spanish Virgins, Culebra and Vieques. We had heard there has been a spate of crime against cruisers in Vieques, so we skipped it and made for Culebra. We took a mooring ball and spent 8 wonderful days there. A lovely little town called Dewey is nestled deep in Ensenada Harbour. There are great bars and restaurants. Chatted with several locals who are mainland Americans who have settled in Culebra. They play current movies at the library two nites a week and healthy chickens roam free everywhere with little chicks in tow. You can take a ferry to the mainland for $2. I loved this island. It has a Caribbean feel, with amazing beaches and snorkelling and it’s very clean.

That was a wrap for Puerto Rico, since we were off to the US Virgins for our next stop. I have to say that Puerto Rico was an extremely pleasant place to visit. The mountains views were spectacular and San Juan is a must see. After our time in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and Dominican Republic we were back in US territory and wide eyed at the sight of malls, well stocked grocery stores and fast food (I will admit it). We spent a total of 17 days there, 9 on the mainland and 8 on Culebra.

USVI’s are next for us.