Towards the end of May, we got a good weather window to sail east towards Puerto Rico. The best we could hope for is light winds, as we are in the trade wind belt blowing steadily out of the east. We didn't have any storms, and mostly motored for 48 hours into light easterlies. The seas were like a washing machine however. The coastline of the Dominican Republic reminded us of California, with wide sweeping cliffs.
Once we got to the east coast of the D.R., after checking in with our weather forecaster Chris Parker, we found that there were squalls all around Puerto Rico and decided to wait a day to cross the Mona Passage to P.R. Our cruising guide (Passages South by Bruce van Sant) mentioned a nice inexpensive marina at Punta Cana. Unfortunately, the Punta Cana Marina was full, there were no anchoring options, and the only other choice was to go into a big Trump construction called CapCana. What a mistake! We don't recommend this place to anyone. It's overpriced at $1.50 a foot, with noisy construction well into the night, the worst showers we have ever seen (not even any hot water!), no other facilities. We paid $54 for a place to tie up for the night, period, with not even enough peace and quiet to rest. After complaining in the morning, we still were forced to pay and we unhappily sailed out and crossed the Mona Passage in about 24 hours.