We arrived in Boqueron Friday afternoon with the plan on overnighting here, clearing out with Customs on Saturday and heading off later that day. Things haven't exactly gone to plan! Firstly, Customs told us they don't work Saturday and Sunday thus delaying our earliest departure to Monday. And then the weather is conspiring against us. We have to sail across the Mona Passage on leaving Puerto Rico, a stretch of water 80 miles wide separating PR from the Dominican Republic, and notorious for kicking up big seas. All the advise is not to sail it when the wind is from the north and, you guessed it, it's coming from the north for the next couple of days. Tuesday would be a good day to head off from a wind direction perspective but there big swells forecast until Wednesday (up to 13') suggesting Wednesday would be a better launch day. But then another band of high winds is forecast to come through on Thursday. You get the picture!
Meanwhile we're having a relaxing time here in Boqueron and finding it very sociable. It's the departure / arrival point for most boats sailing between the Bahamas and the Caribbean so there are plenty of cruisers here to share a beer and anecdote with. We've also used the opportunity to re-stock (yet again) Jay Jay with enough food to probably sail to the Arctic - a chap off the neighbouring yacht very kindly gave us a lift to the supermarket yesterday so we didn't even have to use a taxi!
Boqueron is very popular at weekends with Puerto Ricans and has a real street-party atmosphere. We had dinner ashore last night with four Canadian and two American sailors, all who had arrived from the Bahamas yesterday, and had a really fun evening. We also got a couple of T-shirts painted with Jay Jay on the front, set again a Caribbean beach. A nice souvenir of our time out here. Let's hope the UK serves up enough sunshine this year for us to be able to wear them.