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May 28, 2005
N19.5 W70.6 Luperon, Dominican Republic
Puerto Rico is a large island, and the land heats up during the day, warming the humid air blowing from the easterly trade winds, and huge thunderstorms form in the late afternoon. This often makes the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic scary.
Then, there are the currents. The North Equatorial Current moves across the Atlantic from the west coast of Africa at roughly 1 knot (twice as fast as you can swim at full speed). It then drops into the Puerto Rican Trench, 9.2 km deep, the deepest place on the planet. It then comes back up with huge force, and spills into the Mona Passage. As you approach the Dominican Republic on the northeast coast, there is the huge Hourglass Shoal that rises up to relatively shallow water, causing all kinds of turbulence.
We motor-sailed most of the way, and made good progress. The last 5 hours of our journey were in heavy winds under full sail. We were flying along, chasing a series of storm brewing over the Dominican Republic. The cut of land into the anchorage at Luperon was narrow and shallow, not something we wanted to do in heavy rains. We made it through. The guide books say that the buoys and markers are unreliable and irrelevant, and to navigate the channels with your depth sounder. Great advice, as we ran into 2 mud shoals coming in. No worries, we backed off and carried on.
There is a chapter in the book “An Embarrassment of Mangoes” by Ann Vanderhoof that describes Luperon. We cannot describe it better. Ann’s description is bang on. Truly a place out of a movie.
Posted by dave at May 28, 2005 11:31 AM