Puerto Rico & The Mona

After spending a “boat unit” (BOAT is an acronym for Break Out Another Thousand) we had our dinghy davit repaired and were ready to move on.  Our first leg from Puerto del Rey Marina was 55 NM to Salinas.  The next day we did the 61 NM to Boqueron.

Light house on southwest point of Puerto Rico

On our way down island in 2012 we had spent time at both Boqueron and Salinas (see archived article, Puerto Rico dated April 28, 2012).  This time we just anchored overnight.

We enjoy Puerto Rico, but we had enough.  Puerto Ricans are consistently rated as some of the happiest people in the world.  They have great weather, strong family ties and really seem to enjoy life, especially on weekends!  If Puerto Rico ever becomes a state, I question their true assimilation.  They will always be Puerto Ricans first.

Our next hop was the 145 NM through the Mona Passage (see archived posting, Mona, dated April 16, 2012).  The Puerto Rican trench north of the Mona is some of the deepest water in the world.  In the middle of the Mona is the Hourglass Shoal.  Water flowing from the trench and hitting the shoal can get quite confused.  Additionally, the Mona is the gateway to the Caribbean and thus has considerable large ship traffic.

It takes Motivator about 20 hours to do the 145 NM, so we have to make the passage at night to avoid departing or arriving in darkness.  We had a great passage!  We departed Boqueron at 2:00 PM and got to watch a whale breaching.  During the night our AIS picked up several ships including one that was 1083 feet long, but they all passed with plenty of sea room.

Puerto Bahia Marina

We arrived safely at Puerto Bahia Marina, Samana at about 10 AM.  Now it is time to enjoy the resort life (see archived posting, Samana, dated April 14, 2012). 

Spanish Virgin Islands

After spending some time in Charlotte Amalie, we motored west to Culebra which along with the island of Puerto Rico, Vieques and Mona make up the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.  Culebra is one of the must stop islands in the Caribbean.  Motivator has now made three stops in Culebra always anchoring in Ensenada Honda (see archived posting, Culebra, dated April 20, 2013).

In the Virgin Passage we met a couple of cruise ships headed for Charlotte Amalie.  Our AIS was indicating that the first one was turning which was not apparent visually.  A call to the ship verified that both would be turning and that if we held our course and speed we would be clear.

Both passed with plenty of water to spare.

After a couple of peaceful days in Culebra, it was time to move on to Puerto Rico and Puerto del Rey Marina near Fajardo.  Puerto del Rey is one of the largest marinas we have visited.  They offer 24 hour golf cart service to and from your boat, but we prefer to get a little exercise and have been using our bicycles.

Strongarm Electric Winch

As you might have notice in one of the previous photos we were towing our dinghy rather than lifting it to its cradle on the sundeck.  That is because the electric winch in the lifting crane gave up lifting our dinghy (now called El Gordito), but more on that in a subsequent posting.

Old San Juan

Due to a shipping snafu, the new electric winch is coming by slow boat from Nebraska.  So we will do some sightseeing and other boat projects while we wait.