Mona Passage

[Ded reckoner]

There are several cruisers in Bahia de Samana, Dominican Republic comprising a little flotilla looking for a weather window to make a passage to Boqueron, Puerto Rico. The plans are to motorsail or motor to shorten the time of exposure. Van Sant cautions against crossing over the hourglass shoals east of DR's Cabo Engano. The length of the shoals would be about one third of the distance between DR and PR. The depth wouldn't typically qualify as shoals except the surrounding body of water is rising from a depth of about 1000-2000ft to about 200-500ft. Van Sant claims this sets up currents and can create adverse wave conditions. Neither GFS, nor the European model, nor PredictWind see significant wave heights over 1m for Wed and Thu. Windy Premium shows current going north of just 0.1-0.2kts above that on the northeastern coast, and those currents are less than 1kt. Cornell's book, "World Cruising Routes," has no information on currents through the Mona Passage and there's no cautionary notes. Can anyone support Van Sant's dire predictions? Of course, it saves significant distance to avoid the dog leg and go straight from Capo Engano to Boqueron.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Ded reckoner

There are several cruisers in Bahia de Samana, Dominican Republic comprising a little flotilla looking for a weather window to make a passage to Boqueron, Puerto Rico. The plans are to motorsail or motor to shorten the time of exposure. Van Sant cautions against crossing over the hourglass shoals east of DR's Cabo Engano. The length of the shoals would be about one third of the distance between DR and PR. The depth wouldn't typically qualify as shoals except the surrounding body of water is rising from a depth of about 1000-2000ft to about 200-500ft. Van Sant claims this sets up currents and can create adverse wave conditions. Neither GFS, nor the European model, nor PredictWind see significant wave heights over 1m for Wed and Thu. Windy Premium shows current going north of just 0.1-0.2kts above that on the northeastern coast, and those currents are less than 1kt. Cornell's book, "World Cruising Routes," has no information on currents through the Mona Passage and there's no cautionary notes. Can anyone support Van Sant's dire predictions? Of course, it saves significant distance to avoid the dog leg and go straight from Capo Engano to Boqueron.

We left from Samana to the park further south. We then angled a bit south after leaving the park and avoided the shoals. I dont have charts here. But it was uneventful to Boqueron other than the thunderstorms looking that way! There will be large continuous thunderstorms at night near PR, readily visible 50+ miles away on Radar.

[MicHughV]

It's gonna be a windward slugfest no matter how you look at it. Not called the " Thorny Path" for nothing, but I see relative light easterly winds along the coast of DR.

[Pitchondesign]

We passed near the Hour Glass Shoals twice. Both times, the waves did pick up and were confused from several directions. Sea state the first time was 3-5 feet. The second time was near flat, except near the Shoal.

[singlespeed]

Done it a couple of times. Look at projected swell as well as wind speed/direction. Actually scariest passage was a relatively wind less (<10 knots), in a forecasted north swell. Got close to Boqueron and heard a continual roar. Huge running surf, fortunately it was dawn so we could actually see it. Chart showed 25', but it was scary large. Avoid the north swell days to make the passage.