Conquering the Mona Passage!

We arrived in the Dominican Republic 3 weeks ago with the plan to leave the following day and head to Puerto Rico. That plan quickly changed when we realized how strong the trade winds really were. We were pinned down, in a great location, but still pinned down.

We realized a lot more planning needed to go into this passage so we began to research. Luckily, we had the book, Passages South, by Bruce Van Sant onboard. This book is very popular for helping boaters make the tricky trip to the Caribbean. Although he's a bit over the top in a few places, it's a helpful book. We took some of his key points and paired them with Chris Parkers suggestions on how to navigate the passage. Chris Parker is a very famous weather guy that boaters use. He's on SSB daily at 6am and he emails forecasts twice a day. This guy is almost always right, it's amazing. We paid an extra $35 for a 5 day one-on-one personal weather planning service that he provides. We told him where we were and where we'd like to go. He waited for a window and then gave us a plan. Here's what we received:

CWF2 - Depart: OceanWorldDR - To: PuertoRico - (sc) Calypso - 44' Antares 44i Catamaran  

Try to stop late mornings into evenings when Trades and seabreeze are in effect. Mildest time to move from NE DR to HourglassShoal is after Midnight...passing HourglassShoal around or before Dawn...then arriving in PuertoReal by Sunset or early evening that same day. Conditions in the MonaPassage are mildest during daylight hours, but surge about Sunset...HOWEVER if you're within 30mi W of Mayaguez at Sunset, then you're in the lee of PuertoRico and you will see very mild conditions at all times from Wed6 into Fri8.  

If it were me, I would do the following:  

Depart OceanWorld 6am Tue5 as proposed, and move 10mi E to an anchorage: variable wind mostly SE under 10k thru about 9am...then wind backs to E and builds to 15-20k, 4-6' by Noon.  

These conditions persist till about 8pm-or-so.  

When wind veers S-of-E and begins moderating (probably 8pm-10pm timeframe) get underway, and move ESE, aiming to pass just N of Samana.  

Depending on conditions, and your speed, I might continue moving throughout the afternoon-evening on Wed6, if wind is under 15k, seas under 4', and conditions are tolerable....but if you're making really good time, then I might stop.  

Optimum time to transit E of Samana to HourglassShoal is 8pm-8am Wed6 night-Thu7 morning, with wind mostly E@10-13, 2-3'. I would stay within 5mi of the DR Coast until turning roughly E or slightly ENE from the NE tip of the DR, toward a point just N of HourglassShoal.  

In the MonaPassage (E of HourglassShoal) from about 8am-8pm you should see mostly ENE-E@10-15g18, 2-4'...as soon as you are clear of HourglassShoal, you can turn SE for PuertoReal, and motorsail. Then, beginning maybe 30mi from PuertoReal wind dies and you motor.  

Squalls should not be a problem...we can't rule out a stray mild squall with 5k of extra wind anywhere E of 70W, but very little coverage.

End of report  

This passage definitely took more planning then we’ve ever had to do in the past. Many sailors will tell you that there are only 2 weather windows a year that will allow you to actually sail the Mona Passage, otherwise you are beating into the wind. With that being said, you must wait for the trades to calm down so you can motor the entire way safely with the winds on your bow. 

Our trip started calm...We had some winds at 20 knots for a small part of the first night as we were in between capes. The capes would then shield us from the wind when we'd pass them. As we passed the northwest cape of the Dominican we were greeted with a bunch of Humpback Whales! One even breached the water, flew up and then splashed back down...It looked like a school bus landing in the water! Huge splash!

Then we made our way down the west coast of the Dominican until we made the turn to port, out into the Mona Passage. We were to hit the Hourglass Shoals, a section between the Dominican and Puerto Rico that is much shallower (about 200 feet deep), at dawn according to Chris Parker. We slowed our approach to do just that. Sailing a bit and tacking around. This difference in ocean depth at the Hourglass Shoals creates massive seas and currents. You must pass to the north of them and then turn southeast towards Puerto Rico once you pass them. Then we were lucky enough to be able to sail a couple hours down the Puerto Rico coast until we had to flip the engines on and motor the rest of the way.

Overall, it was perfect! Chris Parkers forecast was amazing and just walked us right through it. Now we are in Puerto Rico and about to set sail this afternoon to start sailing east along the south coast! 

You can view our exact path by clicking the link to our GPS tracker above!