Freebooter has arrived,
After an arduous 6 days at sea after leaving the Turks & Caicos, we made it to San Juan. It was an ambitious Northly tack, to beat against the predominant E-ESE winds, for a long final tact SE to Puerto Rico from the Atlantic side. It was not working well, variable winds and squalls delayed our progress. We finally got a break off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic in the form of a NE'stly. We were then able to make a run across the eastern top of the Dominican Republic, across the Mona Passage, directly for the western tip of Puerto Rico. It didn't hold out for long before turning into an E'stly, but enough for us to make the Mona passage crossing in its infamous swell. On a time constraint, as a crew member had a flight from San Juan, we motored for 10 hours in the close into the lee of the island. We did this for better time and to avoid the ocean swell. We made landfall early saturday morning into San Juan. A lovely end to a great voyage. We were greeted by the mild winds and protected waters of the inner harbour, a salve after days at sea out of sight of land. After clearing customs, and cleaning the boat, we got to enjoy some of the old San Juan, and my new home and haven for Freebooter at N18 27.589, W66 05.306. A far cry from Freebooters homeport of Fleetwood, but a nice home harbour nonetheless.
The Journey has been ambitious, at some times perilous, but a great adventure none the less, where Freebooter has surpassed my expectations and that of the crew, for a safe haven in the blue waters of the Caribbean, where Freebooter can really come into her own.
Freebooters Final Tally (Boat log) for the Stormrunner (UK-Canada) and Sunseeker (Canada-Puerto Rico) adventures, is 7429 nm. That's the distance travelled from Fleetwood, UK to San Jan, Puerto Rico by sail boat since our departure on the 3rd of May. We'll be updating the website with the actual route taken (GPS Co-ordinates and dates) from the log shortly and posting on the accessory sailblog route page and eventually on this web page itself as an image.
I would like to thank all the crew (Freebooters one and all) for a sterling effort and there invaluable assistance in making this adventure possible.
Freebooter is now about to undergo some much overdue love and attention in harbour, but her adventures will continue...
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