Luperon, DR
19.54.031N
70.56.897W
We started the day listening to the weather reports and checking the various sites for sea states. We determined that we might have another small window of 48 hours to try to make Puerto Rico. After having done this once before, I didn't feel the anticipation that I normally get before a crossing. Still, we went through the motions. We paid our tab at the marina, picked up the laundry, uploaded our posts to this site and visited the Commandante. Apparently, there is a new rule (according to him per US instructions) that all vessels leaving for US ports, ie Puerto Rico, must have an inspection to document that there are no illegal aliens on board 1 hour prior to leaving. OK fine. Since we plan on leaving at 6 am that means they have to be here by 5 am. No problemo he tells us. He gives us a new dispatchio and says he'll visit us in the morning.
We make arrangements to meet later with several other boats besides our little group that are hoping for the same window. However, by the time we meet in the evening, we all notice that the winds have not died down as predicted and still gust to 20kts or better in the harbor. Elaine made the observation that there is no dominant voice in the group to say 'This is what we are all going to do' to make it easier for everyone to blame someone other than themselves for making the decision.
Although we are anxious to leave, Dale & I and Roger & Elaine are leaning more towards not going at this point. We learned from the last time that the winds and waves are a lot more than we bargained for when the winds are still blowing in the harbor. Moon Goddess is hell bent on leaving in the morning. MTNest is cautious but anxious to leave; we'll see what happens.
After all of the back and forth, we returned to the Palace where Dale asks me what I want to do. I tell him that once we go to bed, we should leave the wind generator on. If it starts turning (usually at 10 kts) prior to our departure time, we stay. It's about time for us to go to bed now and it hasn't turned off yet. I don't think we're going anywhere tomorrow.
The next window looks to be in another week. We're going to get pretty good at playing dominos. We're also going to have to start a college fund for the Commandante's new baby and make our dispatchio deposits there.
