Oh...the dreaded mona

It’s been another long time between chats and I’m sure this will turn into another novel, which I am apologizing for now. Last I wrote we had just landed in Luperon, Dominican Republic. What a fantastic country. Although Republica Dominican is a 3rd world country, the poverty is not evident throughout the area. Yes, the people do not have as much as most, but the Dominicans always had a smile on their faces and the food cooking in the little homes smelt like restaurants everywhere and of course the music was pumping from every street corner.
Motorconchos zip around you everywhere and it is apparent that this is the best way to see the countryside. So Mike and I rented a motorbike.
It was fantastic. We left the little town of Luperon and travelled on back roads to make our way to a town called Los Hidalgos. Along the way we biked through little villages where laundry hung out to dry on barb wire fences and the smells came from the smoke huts along the side of the road. Every village we encountered the people would look upon these 2 gringos and once we smiled and said “Beunas dias” we were returned with big smiles and big waves, it was great. We ascended a mountain pass and luckily the bike made it up and were rewarded with the most amazing view of the most beautiful countryside. We rode around for about 6 hours and put about 250 km on the bike…only an introduction to Dominican.
The harbour in Luperon is rated one of the best hurricane holes in the Caribbean so the calmness in the night was a welcome after spending a lumpy 3 weeks in G-town.
The harbour has a marina and a yacht club both of which proved to be a great spot for happy hour. We met some great people during our happy hours at the yacht club, people who have been in Luperon for years, people heading west to Jamaica, people heading north to US, and people heading east and south like ourselves. We were especially happy to meet the people heading east and south, and to our enjoyment we met 2 more “young cruiser” boats. Wuhoo! More young people. We met a couple from the states whom we had been told about and we also told that we HAD to meet them. So we finally hooked up with Scott and Kim on Anthyllide, and we also met 2 young kiwis, John and Paul (like the Beatles) and Laura who boarded ship in g-town with these two great guys to enjoy the adventure aboard Double Bryun. So needless to say the young cruisers were having mucho fun!
Once we arrived in Luperon we called our parents to assure them we were alive and eating well and bathing (moms huh!). When we called Mike’s dad he told us he and Ann we ready to jump on a flight and head south to see us. What a great surprise. Seeing how we haven’t seen family in over 9 months we were very excited. So a week after we arrived, Tony and Ann landed in Puerto Plata only 40 miles away. We were thrilled they had arrived and had a ton of activities planned. Tony informed us they had rented a car, so the options were endless. We headed out for Santo Domingo, the capital of Dominican Republic, with a stop in Jarabacoa a small place way up in the mountains. Our trip started out great…the sun was shining, the traffic wasn’t too bad and we were excited to see the country….then we got to Santiago. Let me just say that it is a wiser decision to hire a driver to take you into the big cities. The drive through Santiago was…hmmm…how do you say…..insane! The driving in DR is crazy….absolutely crazy. So we finally made our way through the city and again the road trip was good…little traffic, beautiful scenery and we were almost at our destination. Arriving in Jarabacoa was outstanding. We were able to rent a little room in a beautiful hotel, somewhat like a eco hotel in the jungle with a view of rushing rapids below. It was very beautiful. The next day we hiked up to the local waterfalls which were outstanding. Unfortunately the drive through Santiago sort off turned us off going to Santo Domingo which is a shame as I’ve since found out it is an amazing city. Next time>
Before we knew it, a week had gone by and it was time for Tony and Ann to head home. We said our sad goodbyes and began preparing for our long trip to Puerto Rico.
Finally the window arrived and we were anxious to leave the safety of the Luperon harbour and man…were we ready. As much as we love this country, the harbour is anything but clean. The water is brown and you don’t dare dip your feet in as you fear you may come out with extra toes. Because this is such a poor country, there is no money for a proper sewer system and /or garbage disposal so without going into detail you can imagine what the water is like. We anchored our boat near the mouth of the harbour so we could at least clean our prop as an inch of barnacles had grown on it in the 3 weeks we were there. Mike had the fortunate job of jumping in the water and cleaning the prop….ewww!
So our window had arrived to cross the mona passage from the DR to PR, a 270 nautical mile passage, a crossing I had been dreading for a year…no joke! We left the harbour at 6 pm and were greeted with much larger waves and way more wind (18 knots) than we had thought there would be. Normally we like wind, but when you are doing a windward passage (which means the wind right on your nose), you don’t want a lot of wind. Needless to say our 1st night out, we made very little progress and it was a real struggle just to average 2 knots….(which is very very slow). Finally by mid morning the next day the seas died down a bit and the wind eased off and we were able to put down some miles….UNTIL we rounded one of the capes. Cabo Frances is along the north coast of the DR and it took us 5 hours to get around as the wind picked up again (on the nose) and we were smack dab in the middle of a lightning storm…not fun. We were the tallest thing around us and with all electronics turned off we hoped it would pass quickly.
Finally we saw the light at the end of the tunnel (literally..the sun was setting). The sky cleared, the waves decreased and finally the wind switched to the south so we could actually sail! We had a great 2nd night and really began to put the miles down. Finally by the next morning we were off the tip of Cabo Samana (the north eastern tip of DR) and we were entering the MONA. To our delight we were able to sail for most of the day with light winds and small seas, and at about 5pm we felt the fishing line go taught….another mahi. We knew this guy was big. Mike hauled the line in by hand and after somewhat of a struggle pulled in our biggest mahi mahi yet. 50 inches from head to tail…he was sooo big. We looked at each other and wondered aloud what the hell we were going to do with all this fish. Mike filleted the fish and I cooked fish everyway I knew how to until about 10pm. Luckily our travel buddies aboard Double Bruyn weren’t far behind so we planned to share the wealth. We had another uneventful night under motor sail and by the next morning Double Bruyn had caught up to us and we did the “fish pass off” mid ocean style. They in return did “fresh pineapple pass off” mid ocean style. We were very happy to have our DB companions along the way.
You have to remember that we were out for 77 hours, so the conversation can begin to get a little bizarre, so it was a treat to tell jokes, play trivia and just chat with another boat over the radio (hopefully the coast guard didn’t hear our dirty jokes).
Finally after 70 hours on the boat Puerto Rico came into view and as the sun set and the night overtook, the millions of lights lit the mountainous country of Puerto Rico. By 11:30 Sunday night we had the anchor down in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico…77 long hours, 11 hours longer than I had calculated. We were all exhausted and excited, but exhaustion overtook and we were all fast asleep by 11:35.
I know…another long one. I’m sorry!We are now in a little town called Boqueron planning to head to Cabo Rojo today and then jump across the southern coast this week and hopefully be in the Virgin islands in 8-10 days.
As always…keep the comments coming and know that I will write again soon.
Thanks for listening…
Adios..
Kylie and Mike