Any sailor traveling across Southern Puerto Rico and heading West has to cross the dreaded Mona Passage; this is the body of water between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and is considered treacherous due to a massive amount of water from the Atlantic Ocean pouring into a small funnel between the islands. Sailors have been known to face 40-50' waves in this passage when winds and swell kick up as well as afternoon thunderstorms. To safely cross the passage, it's essential to pick a favorable weather window, one that has good winds (direction and strength), low wave heights and long wave lengths. To help us choose our window, we hired Chris Parker, renowned meteorologist. He forecasts the weather and suggests the pros and cons of leaving on any particular day. You are in the best position if you have flexibility. A schedule is the downfall of a sailor.
The window we chose happened to have very low winds so we knew it would be more of a motor, which was fine by us. It turned out that the sea was like glass the whole way across. It could not have been more beautiful. But, when we hit the coast of the DR, the winds and swell turned Northern and we pounded against them for a long time. The northern swell and winds were not forecasted and took us by surprise. But, after 50 hours, we safetly dropped anchor in Luperon, the staging area to prepare for the Bahamas.
Luperon is an amazing place with beautiful landscapes and kind and friendly locals. It was fun to get to use my Spanish and converse with the locals. The clearing process was interesting and long. We checked in with the navy first on our boat, then with Customs, then the bay, then immigration, then agriculture. Once the process was completed, we were free to roam the town and enjoy the local cuisine, flora and fauna.
NEW TO OUR CHANNEL? We are Eileen and Brown Councill. Welcome to our channel and a glimpse into our life adventure! 2020 was a year of uncertainty and change (for all of us, right?), but we overcame the challenges and decided it was time to chase our dream, to sail around the world! Did I mention that we had very NO sailing experience? Before leaving Qingdao, China, our home of 4 years, we sold almost all of our earthly possessions and started our international search to find the right sailboat that we would call "home." After 5 months of unanticipated twists and turns, we found what we were looking for, a used Leopard 44' Catamaran located in St. Lucia.
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Mona Passage, Mona Passage.
The contender is cooking on the table.
Muchas gracias, adios.
Goodbye Puerto Rico.
Hello.
Mona Passage.
There's our final view of Puerto Rico.
Seas are super calm right now, which is great.
Going into the Mona Passage.
Good morning.
We're on the way, finally.
Why is the Mona Passage so treacherous?
Because you have the whole Atlantic Ocean funneling into a smaller passage.
I also read, I think that it goes from like 2,000 feet deep to 100 feet deep.
I guess at the shoals maybe, at the hourglass shoals.
Like a funnel.
Yeah, exactly.
And they did a song after this passage.
Mona Passage, Mona Passage.
Straight to GPS.
Okay, so this is Steve Cash.
Good morning.
Steve, we're so happy you're aboard. Tell us why you've decided to come on this journey.
This will be my longest ocean passage.
And I'm primarily a trawler guy.
Loved to sail my whole life and wanted to be on the adventure.
And we are glad you're here.
It's been a lot of fun.
Awesome.
And the weekend jail furlough was very lenient and allowed him to come.
Just like in the British Navy, they wouldn't have had a Navy if it weren't for criminals.
That's why I'm here.
And how do you guys know each other?
Worked together in 1987, 88, I think.
Way back.
Yes, a long time ago. I was a photographer.
And if you need a great photographer, Steve's available.
SteveCash.com
The dreaded Mona Passage.
And she is as calm as can be, at least for the moment.
The wind is only 5.8 apparent and we are moving at 5.9, which means basically we have no wind.
We hired Chris Parker to help us choose our window, which has really helped us.
It's going to be a motoring trip, unfortunately not a sailing trip.
But we prefer that over rough seas and variable conditions.
We're really happy at the moment that it's calm.
It's going to take us about 48 hours to get to Luperon.
We plan to arrive around five in the morning.
At this point, we are probably going to have to motor most of the way up to at least our waypoint,
which will be closer to the Dominican Republic side.
Look at them, they're so beautiful.
Hey, boys.
That is the coolest thing ever.
You guys like to play, don't you?
Yeah, that was for sure the most amazing encounter I've ever had with dolphins.
How about you, Steve?
Very good, pretty amazing.
That was definitely the most we've seen at any one time.
We are four hours into our trip.
We're coming right on our nose, which is a bit of a surprise.
That's not what was predicted.
At 8.5 knots.
And we're traveling at 6.1 knots at the moment.
The contender is cooking on the table.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is Bubble Burger Sweet Onion versus George Foreman.
He is fighting the cold from the freezer.
George Foreman is fighting back.
He is marching on the burger and is sloshing back and forth.
We have an emergency going on.
Stay tuned.
We will come back once we get this cleaned up.
Thank you for joining in.
Please make sure you hit that subscribe button, the like button, share.
Sharing is very nice, especially when you have burger burgers and we don't.
George is definitely winning.
He has pulverized the juice out of them.
Whoa! Yeah! Oh!
Oh! Almost!
The beauty of flat seas is we get to work on our videos.
Great job, sweetie.
We've been traveling now for more than 10 hours.
We've had the port side engine running the whole time.
And hoping that when we hit this next waypoint in the next two hours,
that we'll start to pick up some wind.
I love how the pink is reflected in the water.
This morning with the north swell kicking up and short period between the waves,
so we are looking forward to getting around this corner here
and being able to put up the sail.
So we're going into the waves against the wind.
We put up the main, we put up the jib, we tried the sail,
but the wind angle is just way too close to the wind.
So that didn't work.
All day long, we have been beating into the wind.
The wind is coming from the north, it's supposed to be coming from the east.
It's very unusual for this time of year.
So in the final moments of the day, we are headed further out to the Atlantic Ocean
to try and avoid these fishing lines.
We don't know exactly what they are,
but we're really hoping that we don't catch them on our props.
And that is our destination right there.
That is Luperon.
Wow, it's hard to believe after 50 some odd hours on the water,
we are actually entering the Dominican Republic
and looking forward to dropping anchor and getting some rest.
We've got a little bit of a treacherous entrance here.
We need to be really careful and cautious,
so I'm out front doing some spotting,
and hopefully we'll get in here without incident.
Wow, that reef is really close.
Bien, bien, gracias.
Andy, muchas gracias.
De nada.
Hola, señor. Just now.
Where are you from?
From Puerto Rico. We'll put the courtesy flag up now.
Okay, okay.
Take your moment. I'm going to check the whole boat.
Okay, gracias.
It's so funny that they let us into their country
before we've even gotten through immigration.
Heck yeah.
It's laid back. It's way out of bed.
Where few people have come before.
Gotta have a boat to get here.
Such pretty spies.
Hola. Hello.
Hola, como estas?
Yo quiero Taco Bell.
Hey, boy.
That is crazy.
That is like something out of Dr. Seuss.
That's insane.
No way.
Oh, thank you.
Oh, my God.
So kind.
Carolina.
Muy bueno.
That is incredible.
Muy bonita.
No way.
Whoa.
This is Horton hears a who.
This is amazing.
Que incredible.
Que bueno.
Oh, my God.
Gracias, gracias.
Oh, muchas gracias.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, that's so nice.
That is amazing.
Gracias, amigos.
Gracias.
Man, that just shows you how nice the people are here.
Wow, the people are so nice.
He just climbed a tree to get this down for us.
That was so cool.
That was very cool.
Look at how beautiful these are.
Horton hears a who.
Gracias.
Man.
Oh, that's good.
This is probably made in India.
I'm herding them over your way.
After walking the town to get money from the ATM to pay immigration fees, we returned to complete the process.
Hola, Carlos.
Talk to us.
Wow, that was a long process.
First we have the Navy.
Then we have immigration.
Then we had the port fee.
And now we have agriculture.
And the cost is 120 U.S. to come here for two days.
The people here are so nice.
So nice.
They're helping me with my Spanish and being very patient.
Babe, you're rocking the Spanish.
You're doing great.
You're a natural.
And you're Chelsea?
Chelsea was my daughter who was killed tragically 13 years ago.
But this is in her memory and we leave it like that.
So it's all about everybody coming together and just enjoying themselves.
It's awesome.
And what's your name?
I'm Yvonne.
Yvonne, thanks.
You're doing good, Johnny.
You show your love for the food.
You're loving us well.
Well, I've been eating here for, well, I don't order anymore.
She just gives me something.
That means it's home.
Yeah.
Down with the quarantine.
Up with the Dominican Republic flag.
We are official!
And this is the anchorage or the mooring ball field.
We had a spot way over there.
It was way too close to the mangroves.
Anyway, we have since moved and we've got this great spot now here,
which has wonderful windage.
Very thankful to be here.
Very thankful to be in a boat that's not moving right now.
And the Dominican Republic is truly beautiful.
