In this war movie, the allies aim to capture a string of bridges in Holland towards the end of the second world war, but fail to capture the last one. For Bon Vent that bridge too far was Porto Rico. For 500 years, going to windward (South East) along the three big islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, and Porto Rico has presented a number of challenges: in the winter prevailing easterlies, - the trades -, that accelerate to 20-25 knots along the coast, in the summer tropical waves that sometimes build up into full fledged hurricanes as with Irene in August 2011, huge swells from the North, pushed by winter storms in the North Atlantic, the westerly equatorial current that eventually becomes the Gulf Stream, and numerous shoals between the three big islands and the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos which have claimed many boats over the centuries. Columbus lost his amiral boat on the North coast of Hispanolia, and for a long time sailors have avoided these waters. Nowadays, with better weather information being available, and rigs that allow for more efficient sailing to windward, - if one is patient enough to wait for a proper weather window -, one can make the trip from the Turks and Caicos to the Virgin Islands via the Dominican Republic and Porto Rico, and it is done routinely. As we prepare to depart at sunset from Western Hispaniolia to move East, on the lee of the coast to avail ourselves of the moderating night winds, we encounter stronger than expected trades, and the crew caucuses as to next steps. The weather window has closed, and we are running out of time to reach St Thomas in the Virgin Islands. We will not cross the Rubicon, and we abort. The decision is made to turn back and sail to the Bahamas, a relatively easy and uneventful trip in the North Westerly direction, with the wind on our quarter. The captain makes arrangements to leave Bon Vent on a mooring buoy in Georgetown, the Exumas, and returns by plane to Florida to pounder future plans.
