I left the Marina on Thursday night, March 30th. The plan was to sail at night over to a small anchorage called Escondido, sleep during the day and then take off on the evening of the 31st to cross the Mona Passage. That was the plan anyway, as I often do when sailing, once I get going I am more likely to keep going. Especially since my solo anchoring act on Mayaguana, see prior blog post.
The first night was actually really nice, I made better than expected time, I had about 12-15 knots of apparent wind, from a direction that allowed me to sail most of the time, AND the waves were small, 2-4 feet. As dawn approached Friday morning I decided to skip Escondido and push on through, like I said, sailing conditions were good and I was making better than expected time.
As I was crossing Bahia Escocea the wind and waves began to get worse. I had gone about 60 miles and still had 150 to go. It was time to crank up the engine so that I could continue to make good time and point a little higher into the wind so that I could make it around two capes that were about 20 & 25 miles ahead. With the engine running I was still making about 5 knots and figured I would be around the capes around noon. My estimate was pretty close.
Two hours later I still hadn't made it around the second Cape and I was in 20 knots of breeze about 30 degrees off my bow and in 6-8ft confused seas, there was no wave pattern.
By now I was getting really tired of bashing in to the wind and waves. I was concerned about my leaking water pump. I was on a lee shore with an iffy engine getting the crap kicked out of me. Then like magic everything got better. The night Lee kicked in, the seas got better, the wind dropped to around 15 knots and I tacked to cross the Mona Passage. The rest of the trip was REALLY very good.
There is a book called "The Gentleman's Guide to Passages South" written by Van Sant. He knows what he is talking about. If I had followed my original plan I probably would have avoided the 12-14 hours of bashing into the wind and waves. To anybody that is planning on crossing the Mona Passage I highly recommend reading this book.
I set up a spot adventure, check it out.
Spot Adventures Link
Steve
The first night was actually really nice, I made better than expected time, I had about 12-15 knots of apparent wind, from a direction that allowed me to sail most of the time, AND the waves were small, 2-4 feet. As dawn approached Friday morning I decided to skip Escondido and push on through, like I said, sailing conditions were good and I was making better than expected time.
As I was crossing Bahia Escocea the wind and waves began to get worse. I had gone about 60 miles and still had 150 to go. It was time to crank up the engine so that I could continue to make good time and point a little higher into the wind so that I could make it around two capes that were about 20 & 25 miles ahead. With the engine running I was still making about 5 knots and figured I would be around the capes around noon. My estimate was pretty close.
Two hours later I still hadn't made it around the second Cape and I was in 20 knots of breeze about 30 degrees off my bow and in 6-8ft confused seas, there was no wave pattern.
By now I was getting really tired of bashing in to the wind and waves. I was concerned about my leaking water pump. I was on a lee shore with an iffy engine getting the crap kicked out of me. Then like magic everything got better. The night Lee kicked in, the seas got better, the wind dropped to around 15 knots and I tacked to cross the Mona Passage. The rest of the trip was REALLY very good.
There is a book called "The Gentleman's Guide to Passages South" written by Van Sant. He knows what he is talking about. If I had followed my original plan I probably would have avoided the 12-14 hours of bashing into the wind and waves. To anybody that is planning on crossing the Mona Passage I highly recommend reading this book.
I set up a spot adventure, check it out.
Spot Adventures Link
Steve
