an anchorage on the west coast of PR. This would be a great takeoff
point for our trip to Jamaica,and also we both had terrible
hangovers after our last party night in Ponce.
So we sailed into a large very protected bay, dead flat, and dropped
anchor. Within minutes of setting our anchor a Canadian woman zooms
over in her dinghy and proceeds to tell us that we may have dropped
anchor on a submerged wreck in the bay. We were aware of the wreck
as indicated on our charts and we were both pretty sure that we
didn't drop anywhere close, we both couldn't be bothered moving,
coffee and breakfast was much more our agenda so we told her thanks
for the info and we'll deal with it when we leave in the morning.
So then she started with her "welcome speech", oh boy she was
talking to us like we were school children or something...she called
herself the "Dock Mum" and tells us that she takes it upon herself
to approach each new boat when it arrives to give them info. Jo
notices that Jason is starting to get a bit itchy at this point, he
hasn't had a morning coffee yet, and she won't stop talking,
explaining where laundry is, supermarkets, marine stores, internet,
cafes, bars, happy hrs...we tell her we are only here for the day
and that we don't really need to do anything but get rid of our
hangovers, but she continues on and on. From the way she was
talking we thought that she must have been here for quite some time
but later found that she'd only been here less than a week! Lucky
for us she was heading East to the Virgin Islands, and we were
heading West. She was a little too much for that hr in the morning!
Coffee and brekky is underway and we have a fantastic view of this
beach town called Bouqeron which is one of PR's most popular
vacation spots. The beach has loads of towering palm trees and a
mile of white sand and clear shallow waters, lined with beach bars
and restaurants...oh no here we go again and it's Saturday! Music
started up around 10am and already in the street people on vacation
are walking around with beers in hand (not a good look at that hr)
and street vendors selling clams and oysters in little shacks on the
roads.
We both tell each other that we will behave and we opt to eat out
for lunch instead of dinner to avoid getting caught up in evening
happy hrs and the like. We find a great restaurant on the
waterfront and have one of our best meals in PR. For the first time
in a long while it rained and BOY did it rain...lasting a good hr
maybe more. During this time we were watching Reverie from the
restaurant swing in every possible direction ...thinking to
ourselves that if we did drop anchor on the wreck we would
definitely be well hooked by now....oh no Jo notices Miss Canadian
arriving in the restaurant, we engage in intense conversation so to
avoid her eye contact. The restaurant is jam packed and she
recognises some other people and is on her way, and we are in the
clear! Time to leave for a long walk on the beach before heading
back to Reverie to prepare the boat for our 3 day passage to
Jamaica.
We wake early, there is no wind and the sea is glassy and flat, we
hoist the dinghy on deck and pull up anchor which comes up
surprisingly quick, no snag on the wreck, but alot of dark mud that
we hose off before leaving. The first part of the trip is to cross
the Mona passage, which is a stretch of water between PR and
Dominican Republic, DR. It is renowned for it's rough seas and
fluky winds and overall is said to be a difficult and uncomfortable
passage. We tell ourselves it's only 85 miles how bad can it be,
and Jo says that there is no way it can be worse than the Gibraltar
Straits and that she's not too fussed. We get out a few miles and
through the binoculars we can see no evidence of lumpy seas, there
still is no wind, we are motoring with 2 reefs in the main and can't
yet pull out the jib due to lack of wind.
It's now 11am and we are still motoring, NO WIND, the sea has a good
swell running, but without the wind they're not breaking and it's
all really pleasant, we hit the first drop off from 15m to 400m, the
fishing lines are out in anticipation. Soon after we hook our first
fish, hook being the key word here, not catch, as a larger fish bit
our's in half as we were trying to bring him in, bugger!!!
Still NO WIND, it's now lunchtime which is the usual time for the
winds to be building and what we'd noticed sailing around PR was
that by 2pm they were at there strongest. When 2pm comes we have
about 10 knots of apparent wind and get the jib out which helps our
speed and by the end of the day the engine finally gets turned off.
We obviously fluked the Mona passage and were grateful for it!
The passage underneath DR and Haiti was mostly calm, had a bit of
confused seas in some spots, but overall it was an easy 3 days. On
the morning of what would be our last sailing day we hooked a good
sized Wahoo which provided about 16 large fillets, so we were busy
with fish factory in the morning which made the time go very
quickly. Our arrival timing is becoming spot on as Jo check's the
chart and tells Jason that we'll be arriving into the Marina at
about 4:30pm....giddy up landfall drinks!
The arrival into Port Antonio Bay was absolutely spectacular,
Jamaica's coastline is very lush, green and mountainous due to the
Blue Mountains being located on the east coast. The Marina is
expecting us as we have a berth reserved, and there are locals
waiting to take our lines. Jason does and awesome job of backing
Reverie into a tight spot, and we are tied up within a few minutes.
Within a minute of berthing the Quarantine guy is on the boat doing
his inspection, he is extremely friendly and the inspection is over
real quick. Next the Custom guy jumps on and we fill out the
customary paperwork and he has a beer with us once we've finished
with the formalities, no fees yet which is surprising. We are told
that Immigration will see us in the morning and that we are free to
leave the boat. Our first impressions is that everyone is super
friendly! We decide to hit the Marina Restaurant for dinner as it's
a 2min walk away and plan to explore the town in the morning.
Cheers
J&J
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