April 03-04, 2001 -- Samana to Boqueron

April 3-4, 2001 -- Samana to Boqueron On April 3, we did a repeat of April 2. The difference was this time, we got proper Navtex and we could hear Herb. What he had to say wasn't promising. He reported that the weather window would be closing in 24 hours due to an increase in the winds in the Mona Passage. We all had a radio conference and I stated my belief that this was not a weather window traveling at 5 knots as it would take 36 hours to cross. Everyone else did weather by committee and by consensus decided that they could stomach 20 knot winds in the Mona for the few hours they would be between wind shadows. We said goodbye to everyone as they pulled up their anchors and left. After the last boat passed us, I walked into the main saloon and said to Michael, "You know, if we leave now, we will be in Boqueron by noon tomorrow." Once we were released from traveling 5 knots with everyone else, this became a suitable weather window for us. We pulled up anchor at 2200 GMT and headed for Boqueron. Within an hour, we passed the lead boat and continued on our way. It was a fairly comfortable crossing, all things considered. It was a bit lumpy in places, especially as long as we traveled on the 'Canned Iguana' shoals. The water depth would go from 50 to 60 feet to 300 feet and back again in about 10 minutes. This caused the seas to become confused. However, after that, the seas settled down into one direction, about 50 degrees off our bow. The wind never did swing fully out of the north east. However, it blew East for most of the trip so we did get a little stability out of it. We dealt with a few squalls, though none of them hit us directly. Periodically the winds would hit 20 for about 15 minutes before dropping off to their customary 10 to 15 knots. As long as we were in VHF range with Masade, we maintained a radio check in with them. However, we did not switch to SSB due to the fact that it causes the autopilot to malfunction.. We were riding fairly comfortably and did not want to inadvertantly hand steer off our course while talking with them since we can't use the SSB and the auto pilot at the same time. Just as Bruce's book states, after we cleared Isla Desecho, or Al Devekio as Mike calls it, we came into the wind shadow of Puerto Rico. The winds died and the seas dropped quickly. On our way in to Boqueron, we saw an enormous shark! At first we saw a what looked like a big board sticking up in the water, then it started moving toward us and we saw that it was a 15 foot shark as it came past us to check us out. It was way cool to see one, especially since we were in the boat and not in the water. After the shark got bored, I looked at everyone else and asked if anyone else heard the theme to Jaws! We dropped anchor at 1707 GMT. We lounged for a while, then I headed in to call Customs to clear in. They instructed me to go to Mayaguez to clear immigration and then they would give me my customs control number. This is pretty pitiful, considering the fact that I am clearing customs back into the US as a US citizen! As in the mainland, I shouldn't have to present my passport! But Puerto Rico wants all of the advantages of being part of the US, but at the same time wants to do what they want to do. They really need to be brought in line with the rest of US, and a great place to start is by declaring English the national language thus making the US, ALL OF IT (including Miami) speak english! Anyway, we spent a quiet evening listening to everyone as they each made landfall. Kokopelli, Masade and Pamela landed at Mayaguez while Fortitude came to Boqueron.