Lee and Peter Sailing Trip was for Four not Two Years. Now an Italian adventure

The Mangrove river is beautiful. All the Mangrove roots are tangled into the mud and new roots descending from the leaves branches. It is like a walking tree as Peter describes. At the end of the river, there is a nice hotel building after 15 minutes walking and here we ate lunch.

There are couple of tall rock islands in the National park. The unusual looking Pelican birds are swarming around these islands. The caves are inside of the islands and have a lot of beautiful stone carvings left by Indians.

Mona Passages( between Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico) is long enough. About 36 hours long. Half way over Peter declared that there is a fresh water leak in the engine. We have to stop from time to time because of the condition let the engine cool and add water. And it is going to be a rough trip. Saturday will have nasty weather so we have to be in Puerto Rico before Saturday.

Well these are the realties. We have two choices to stop at Punta Cana in DR or push on to sail to Puerto Rico. We need to order new engine part and it takes maybe two months to order the part in DR. Peter decided to push through. He had to stop every hour to check the engine and add water through the night and the day. Luckily we were able to sail a bit but that is rare seeing the prevailing winds and current is from the east and we have to go east!

We are 15 NM away from our arrival, Boqueron, Puerto Rico. Whooooooray……
…………… !! We are making it! Now Peter is stopping every fifteen minutes to check the engine! Very light wind to sail and run the engine only 10 minutes at once. We would be so happy to anchor and take a rest.

7.2 NM more to go! The water is dead calm and the sails are up with very light wind ghosting along at 1 knot. The engine breaks the silence! And stop the engine again the silence returns! The classical music is on and breaks the silence and occasional VHF radio calls break the silence…………….We are definitely in the safety zone……………………..

Two nights through and second night, Peter was watching all the time because of the engine. He said that he feels like having Jet lag now. I just hope to anchor at safe place soon and take a rest together. I feel allright after eating good lunch but a little concerned about Peter.

The black grey clouds are forming and it started to rain lightly. And the light rain turned to a heavy rain. We are only 0.6 NM away from the Anchorage. Ahhhh the moment of throwing the anchor into the water……….even if we get wet putting down the anchor……………. a little.