Leaving DR and Mona Passage

Current Location:  Playa Santa Anchorage, near Guanica, Puerto Rico
Miles Traveled:  79
Weather:  Mostly sunny, windy (15-20 knots), overnight showers, mid-80s
Highlights: Spent last 3 days travelling from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico.  We knew the trip would be difficult, but we waited for a decent weather window, traveled mostly during the night (following Bruce Van Sant's book), and hugged the coast for much of the trip, so other than a very long and exhausting transit, the conditions were relatively tolerable.  DR coastline is pretty dramatic, with beautiful bays and mountains, but sailing east, we were fighting both the persistent easterly trade winds, and also the accompanying rough seas.  We left the marina around 10AM after topping up the fuel tanks and clearing out (only about $25 in "favors" to a couple of the officials), then motor-sailed about 12 miles down the coast to Sosua, where we dropped anchor, turned on the water-maker, and waited out the afternoon trades.  Pulled up anchor at 6PM and motor-sailed through the night across the north coast, around the Samana peninsula, and into Samana Bay, where we dropped anchor at noon off the island just outside of Samana.  Got a few hours of sleep, then left the anchorage around 6PM, motor-sailed across the bay, down to Punta Cana on the west end of the DR, across the Mona passage (passing close to Isla de Mona), then on to Puerto Rico.  Our final destination was Ponce (about 40 miles from the SW point of Puerto Rico, but we realized that we would probably arrive in early morning darkness, so we chose instead to drop anchor about 20 miles west of Ponce in a fairly open and easy-access anchorage, get some sleep, and finish the trip the following morning.  Found our way into the anchorage, dropped anchor around 2AM, buttoned up the boat, and crashed for the rest of the night.