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Our first stop was Cayo Santiago, which we have re-named Monkey Island. Access to the island is forbidden as it houses a research facility where laboratory testing is done on monkeys. I didn’t actually think that we would see any monkeys but as soon as we dropped anchor we spotted at least five of them on the beach and more in the trees. I’m not sure whether escaped monkeys have colonized the island or whether the scientists are practicing free-range testing in Puerto Rico. In addition to monkeys we also spotted a shark, at least 6 ft long, hunting in shallow waters. We had been hoping to check “shark” off our sightings list for some time so I was feeling pretty good about the possibility of seeing a manatee before leaving Puerto Rico. Unfortunately it was not to be and the closest we got was a poster in a marina.
In between avoiding packs of wild dogs in the streets of Ponce, Adam downloaded a weather forecast with lots of wind for our trip to the Dominican Republic. We set off in high spirits, enjoying the tribute to English speaking 80’s music that we found on a local radio station, but as night fell the wind died out. After 15 hours of motoring we cursed the wind, cursed the waves, and cursed the forecasters who have been toying with us for 10 months. We decided that we needed a break from the drone of the engine and pulled out the headsail. There wasn’t much wind but we got out the whisker pole to hold out the sail and managed to eek out 1 – 2.5 knots. Many, many hours later we landed in the Dominican Republic.