2014 04 17
London, ON
It was a quiet day and night out of St Eustatius, us motoring in no wind. There were no problems with the diesel nor have there been any since the Antiguan departure.
Dawn saw us coming up on the BVIs. Our intention was to motor straight through this charter boat haven, hopefully managing to avoid contact with any errant credit card captains. The country is a small one and an hour of concerted motoring saw us in and out of the closely grouped mountain tops that comprise this Caribbean nation.
Since leaving Antigua we had been augmenting our daily download of the grib weather files from sailmail by listening to Chris Parker who maintains a daily Monday to Saturday voice weather forecast.
Our plan had been to sail from BVIs to Turks and Caicos and then run up the east side of the Bahamas before cutting west to find Florida. The BVI gribs suggested this was a bad idea with strong adverse wind and huge waves due to hit Turks and Caicos just about the time we would. Chris Parker's forecast supported our assessment as did the NAVTEX broadcast out of Puerto RIco.
Reluctant to give up a very good plan we hedged our bets. Leaving BVIs we sailed more west that we otherwise would have making distance along the north coast of Puerto Rico. The forecast did not improve so it was obvious that our plan was dead. Time for a new plan.
Already halfway across Puerto Rico we decided to commit to the Bay of Samana, Dominican Republic. We had to cross the Mona Passage, a reputedly hazardous body of water separating the islands of PR and DR and if all went well we would be into safe waters of Samana the night before the strong northerly winds and waves would hit.
The Mona Passage was a non event. Luck was with us and with no weather briefing at all we hit the perfect day for a crossing. Sundown saw us motoring into the bay in front of the town of Samana. Our hook was down and we were enjoying a cockpit cocktail before dark settled like a blanket around us.
It would be three days before we stuck our nose out of the Bay.
London, ON
It was a quiet day and night out of St Eustatius, us motoring in no wind. There were no problems with the diesel nor have there been any since the Antiguan departure.
Dawn saw us coming up on the BVIs. Our intention was to motor straight through this charter boat haven, hopefully managing to avoid contact with any errant credit card captains. The country is a small one and an hour of concerted motoring saw us in and out of the closely grouped mountain tops that comprise this Caribbean nation.
Since leaving Antigua we had been augmenting our daily download of the grib weather files from sailmail by listening to Chris Parker who maintains a daily Monday to Saturday voice weather forecast.
Our plan had been to sail from BVIs to Turks and Caicos and then run up the east side of the Bahamas before cutting west to find Florida. The BVI gribs suggested this was a bad idea with strong adverse wind and huge waves due to hit Turks and Caicos just about the time we would. Chris Parker's forecast supported our assessment as did the NAVTEX broadcast out of Puerto RIco.
Reluctant to give up a very good plan we hedged our bets. Leaving BVIs we sailed more west that we otherwise would have making distance along the north coast of Puerto Rico. The forecast did not improve so it was obvious that our plan was dead. Time for a new plan.
Already halfway across Puerto Rico we decided to commit to the Bay of Samana, Dominican Republic. We had to cross the Mona Passage, a reputedly hazardous body of water separating the islands of PR and DR and if all went well we would be into safe waters of Samana the night before the strong northerly winds and waves would hit.
The Mona Passage was a non event. Luck was with us and with no weather briefing at all we hit the perfect day for a crossing. Sundown saw us motoring into the bay in front of the town of Samana. Our hook was down and we were enjoying a cockpit cocktail before dark settled like a blanket around us.
It would be three days before we stuck our nose out of the Bay.
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