The weather window opened up —more or less – and we made a break for the DR. This passage was one we had dreaded: our destinations dictated that we travel the north shore of both PR and the DR. There are only two “safe havens” along the north shore of PR if things go horribly wrong in a north wind. We kept ourselves way out from shore and in the event nothing did go wrong -- except that we forgot to “clear out” of US customs and immigration and that, combined with the fact that we exceeded our speed estimates and would reach the DR at 3 in the morning, meant that we headed down the west coast to Mayaguana to kill some time the next morning.We started across the Mona Passage in the early afternoon. Initially things were fine but the wind picked up to a gusty force 6, the sea got “big” and the waves were in the wrong direction for us. Despite the Stugeron, I was reduced to incapacity and abject misery. But I was rewarded. I was on the 4am to 8am watch and at around 7:30 before anyone else had risen, I was scanning the horizon and saw amongst the white horses an extreme white top – clearly not just a wave breaking normally. It was evidence of a whale and seconds later, the whale itself breached, coming right out of the water and slamming back down creating the spume I’d seen earlier. Chris also saw some blows before 8am and we were confident we’d see whales in Samana – even got the kids up to help watch. Unfortunately, just like the turtles, they didn’t get to see any that day...
By midday we were anchored and cleared into the DR. “Clearing” here involves a visit from a couple of friendly officials who do the paperwork on your boat and require a couple of “gifts” to keep things sweet...
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