A night in the Mona Passage

We got back to Cap Cana around 11 pm Thursday.  I didn't like the vibe of the marina so I was looking for a weather window to cross the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico.  It is 80 miles across this section of water.  It is the passage that separates the western and eastern Caribbean and many boats have been de-masted or simply turn around due to the bad conditions.  There are wind shadows, thunderstorms and wind accelerators all caused by the mountains of Puerto Rico, not to mention the ever present 1 knot of west set from the Equatorial Current.

Top Shelf Route Since October 31st.

If we didn't go Thursday night, the next window was Wednesday of the following week.  This was a quick decision on my part and I would pay for it later that night.  We used Sammy on last time to provision the boat with the great DR fruits and veggies.  My plan was to leave at 2 am to catch the night lee off of the east coast of DR, then catch the Puerto Rico night lee after the daily thunderstorms move northwest off of the coast.

This plan had two problems.  First, the weather window was only open for tonight, but the second larger one was that we had to deal with the DR Navy to give us our "Despacho" out of the country.  This could only be done between 8 am and 5 pm Monday through Saturday.  Two days earlier, I saw a sport-fish next to us try to depart at 8 am.  It was 10:15 by the time he got under way.  Knowing this, and with the closing weather window, I decided to depart after clearing at 4:30 pm.

Leaving Dominican Republic 

The "gang" of DR officials gathered about 5 pm at the boat.  Julianne and I were inside.  They decided to invite themselves on board.  There was 7 of them.  One had a Navy uniform on, another was from immigration, and I never figured out who the other 5 folks were.

They sat down in the Salon and made themselves at home.  The Navy guy started filling out the Dispacho, while another guy who didn't identify himself took pictures of our passports with his cell phone.  The woman from immigration noticed that our passports were stamped into the DR a month into the future, but fortunately it was no big deal.

I had to sign the Dispacho, and one other document, then the unidentified big guy motioned to take him down below to do an inspection.  He looked in two cabinets, then motioned me into the port cabin.  He picked up the mattress to show me what he would do to the boat if I didn't give him what he called a "present".  I had read about this bullshit behavior in the cruising guides, but we hadn't seen this in any of our previous marinas.  I had gotten rid of my pesos, so I gave him $10.  He looked at me and said "there is three of us who need presents".  I wasn't going to argue, I gave him $30 and he put the mattress back down.

I was going to fake an engine issue after we got our Dispacho, so I could leave at 3 am, but after playing Santa Claus with the "presents" I just wanted to get out of there.  What a terrible way to end our visit to a great country like the Dominican Republic.  We were off the dock at 5:30 pm heading for Boqueron PR.  Good riddance to the corrupt DR "officials".

The seas for the previous 4 days were reported as 10-12 feet as there was a large high pressure near Bermuda that was aiding the trade winds.  The wind forecast for the night was 10-15 gusting 18 knots out of the northeast.  This would put the additional 3-5 ft wind driven waves on the port bow.

As soon as we got off the DR east coast, I set Top Shelf's on-board Furuno radar to 36 miles to watch for the storms coming off the east coast of PR.  Sure enough, just before dark, they appeared at the edge of the radar. We were heading straight for them.

Sunset Mona Passage

We were experiencing 8 foot rollers with an additional 3 foot NE swell on top of them.  Occasionally we had 11 ft seas.  I told Julianne to go sit in the stern cockpit where you can see that actual size of the waves before it got dark.  She came back to the fly bridge just saying "WOW".

As the storms approached, the wind moved straight east on our bow and increased above 25 knots.  After an hour, those 3-5 foot waves from the northeast turned into 6-8 right on the nose.  Including the swell, Top Shelf was bouncing over 15 foot waves in the pitch dark.

As anyone who has done deliveries with me knows, I cannot sit a watch in the pilot house in these conditions.  I'm OK up on the fly-bridge, it is further aft.   I normally plan on staying up on the fly-bridge, rain gear and all, but the potential for a lightning strike brought me inside.

Boqueron PR Dingy Dock

To me, this is the only design flaw of the Fleming.  The pilothouse is too far forward.  In seas like this, the stern takes the top of the wave at the same time the bow is in the trough.  On a 15 foot wave, this causes the bow to rapidly descend, which gives negative G forces in the pilothouse.  You literally come out of the helm chair, or if you are standing, you experience brief levitation as your feet come off the floor.

It wasn't 15 minutes inside that I went from feeling fine to ready to puke.  I was sea sick in 15 foot sees in the middle of the night.  I was ready to move back to the fly-bridge and take on the lightning strike, when Julianne said "Why don't you lay down, I'll watch the Radar and let you know if I see anything"  These are some of the sweetest words she has ever said to me (LOL).  Withing 5 minutes I was laying on the couch in the salon and she was riding the waves in the Pilothouse.

Julianne is now fully certified in nighttime navigation.  Not only did she handle the negative G's, she ate cheese and crackers and watched 2 movies on the iPad.  I don't know what I would have done without her.

At about midnight, Julianne woke me up and said that we must be in the Puerto Rico night lee as the wind had calmed down to 10 knots and the wave have subsided to a 5 foot swell.  I took over from the fly-bridge and she retired to the fly bridge couch for a much deserved rest.

We got to Boqueron PR at 2 am, after being scared to death by a PR patrol boat (not USCG) who pulled up next to us after following us for 30 minutes.  I tried to call him on Channel 16, no response.  To me, this is uncalled for behavior, but once again, this type of thing is described in the cruising guides.  While he was following us, I recalled my decision to not carry weapons on this trip.  Since I didn't have any weapons, I had my brand new spear gun ready for my one shot!....Just in case...

Next Post:  Wild and Crazy Boqueron PR