Mona Schmona.

The before photo of the YOLO crew. Taken just prior to weighing anchor and attempting the Mona Passage

The preparations were made and the routes were planned for the big bad mona passage and on Saturday the 12th we set out for Puerto Rico. We figured it to be around 36 hours to cross from Cayo Levantado in the NE end of Bahia de Samana, Dominican Republic to Boqueron on the SW coast of Puerto Rico. During the day Saturday we did some daysailing/fishing in the bay on our way to have a quick rest at Cayo Levantado for the late afternoon to wait for the tradewinds to calm down. As we approached Cayo Levantado, we saw Eventide already anchored and waiting to leave. While at anchor next to Eventide, Andy and Chris decided it to be necessary to swim to shore to buy OJ for YOLO. Once they made landfall with drybag in tow, much to their surprise, they realized they had marooned onto a beach on the property of an all inclusive resort. Needless to say, their expedition took a bit longer than anticipated (for several reasons) which left the other two crew on YOLO a bit perplexed. Meanwhile Amy and I had dinghyed over to Eventide to discuss the latest weather reports, which looked good, and started getting anxious to get going as the sun was setting by this point.

Andy and Chris returned around mid dusk with a 2-liter pepsi bottle full of Orange Juice... Dont ask... Eventide weighed anchor and set off for the mona. We decided to stay back and let them schlog into the chop that had yet to fully settle in the early evening and then radio back to let us know how they were doing in it. We passed the time by playing another rousing game of Farkel then set off across the infamous Mona Passage about 8:30pm.

Before we set out I had promised our visiting crew at least 4 fish along our crossing. Luckily my promise was kept and we landed exactly 4 fish. Amy was the 1st to strike. She reeled in a nice 6 lb Mackerel on Sunday around dawn. Later that day, Chris discovered a flying fish that landed on our deck (which normally wouldn't count, but at this point I was getting nervous about fulfilling my promise). Then in the late hours of Sunday night, while on their watch, Chris and Andy had caught two more very suspicious looking fish. We never even tried to eat these things, but it was good to hear when I woke up that my quota had been filled!

Trying to gaff Amy's Mackerel.

Cero Mackerel courtesy of Amy!

Flying fish discovered on deck by Captain Chris

Chris and Andy caught two of these funky looking fish... not sure what they are

Overall the passage went very smoothly. We motored about 30% of the time, motorsailed about 40% and sailed about 30%. We would have liked to sail more of it but were just happy to have this leg completed safely. We made landfall right on time as the sun was rising in front of us for our approach into Boqueron Harbor (SW Puerto Rico). We were all awake on the approach and we winded our way through the landmine of sailing vessels already anchored in the harbor. We snuck in and found a nice spot near the beach to drop the hook by around 8AM on Monday morning. The crew was exhausted but excited to explore this strange new land called America. For Andy and I, this was the 1st time we've been on US soil since we left Key Largo on November 27th. Once settled in the anchorage, we dinghied to shore and took a taxi to customs as there was no one to come to our boat. After clearing, the cabby was nice enough to take us to wal-mart and wait for us to do a provisioning run! It was a weird feeling being in a wal-mart. Seeing all the taco bells, McDonalds, Best Buys, etc... was interesting to Andy and I as we've been away from it for some time.