It was half past midnight and the wind had been building for the last few hours. We had left the west coast of Puerto Rico the previous morning, sailing off anchor and through the cut, and now were blasting towards the Turks and Caicos. It had been a slow start out of Puerto Real. The mountains of Puerto Rico reach 4,390 feet, and we felt the wind shadow even 20 nautical miles out.
Fully exposed now to the trade winds, we were also experiencing the forecast system that carried a stronger breeze and bands of heavy rain. The coast of the Dominican Republic lay 15 nautical miles to port, but there was no chance of seeing any light from the island in this weather.
It was just my father and me on board , my 1969 Luders 33. He had joined me in Saint Thomas after I singlehanded from Sint Maarten. We would be tackling about 1,000 nautical miles, sailing up through the Exumas, an amazing opportunity to spend time
