We did it!!

Not that I had any doubt 😁, but it’s still pretty satisfying to arrive in Puerto Rico. We’ve travelled approximately 1300nm since leaving Reynolds Park on Nov. 23, 2024 and have sailed in 5 countries! Crazy!

We had an awesome time at Los Haitises National Park. We explored the caves and rivers and had several happy hours aboard Greta and Brian’s catamaran Desert Loon. The scenery was so breathe taking that I’ll share a second post with photos!!

Our journey across to Puerto Rico began at 7am Feb. 26th. We pulled up anchor and headed to Marina Puerto Bahia in Samana to get our final departure paperwork. Desert Loon decided to travel with us so we both arrived at the marina at 9am. Unfortunately the power was out so it took until 12pm to clear out of the DR. We pushed off from the dock and were underway by 12:15pm.

It was an amazing crossing – predicted winds and waves were low and that’s exactly what we saw for the majority of our 140nm trip. We saw many whales as we traveled out of Samana Bay and into the Mona Passage. There were several other sailboats with Desert Loon and us, all taking advantage of the low wind to scoot across the Mona Passage. This body of water is known for being challenging because of rough seas and frequent squalls that can pop up on the north shore of Puerto Rico. We were having a fast, easy passage mostly under motor (with the occasional motor sail with the jib) until about 12:00am on Feb. 27th when we were hit by a fast moving squall. We had a brief gust of wind reaching 20kts and lots of rain but it was over quickly and the only impact for us was our speed. We slowed down from high 6 and low 7 knots down to low 5kts for a few minutes. Our friends on Desert Loon didn’t enjoy the squall at all because they don’t have an enclosure (or even a dodger) on their steering deck so they got pretty wet!

The overnight part of our passage was pretty good. It became a bit rough going past the Hour Glass Shoal at the north west end of the Mona Passage (right by the DR) but we were able to keep our speed up. As the sun rose around 7am, we were within 4 hours of our PR destination – Puerto Real. We rolled into this lovely protected harbour and had our anchor down by 11:10 am today (Feb. 27th)!!! We managed to do the 140nm crossing in 23 hours (I was expecting it to take us 28 hours). What a great ride!

After we caught our breath for a few minutes and got our new eSIM working, we cleared into Puerto Rico using the USA CBP Roam app. That process was super easy and we didn’t even have to leave the boat. We did a short video call with the PR CBP (Custom and Border Protection) and found out we didn’t need a cruising license for PR because we have a USA boating decal. Go figure – mainland USA requires all foreign flagged boat to have a cruising license even if you have a decal!

So here we are!! Cleared in and relaxing in Puerto Real, PR. We now have 2 months to do the remaining approximately 120nm to reach our haulout destination for this season – Marina Del Rey. Evelyn and her partner Liam will be joining us on April 6th and Caroline will join Evelyn on April 13 so we have lots of time to explore Puerto Rico!

Marina Puerto Bahia at Samana.