Gassing up Lindsay McRory November 3, 1996 The week passed quickly with all the pre-departure work that has to be done. By day's end tomorrow, we are officially in go mode for waiting on the next weather window to come along. Today's weather forecast indicated that we may not have a break until after Thursday. The Mona passage separates Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It's famous for rough seas, squalls, and lightning storms. We do not want to rush it. Waiting for the weather has never hurt us before. Halloween was a gas for the kids. They dressed up as a witch and a pirate, and we drove them around the anchorage by dingy to collect booty. They were spoiled silly and really enjoyed it. The lack of good swimming and the strong trade winds have turned Luperon into our windsurfing training ground. We hauled a windsurfer all the way down from Halifax but didn't put it in the water until we got here. Four months later we have two boards and six sails. We have a kid's rig that I put on the short board. Kita and Wesley take turns on that after school until the winds pipe up to more than 10 knots. Kita is addicted; she can sail any place she wants and somehow performs consistent, effortless jibes. I am envious. Wesley is a straight-line kind of guy. I tow him upwind and he goes like stink until he's about to crash into something, then bails out at the last minute. I usually go for an hour or two a day when the wind honks. It's a good break and good exercise. One thing I didn't realize about windsurfing is that once you start having fun, you start breaking things. Each one of our sails is in some sort of disrepair. So far, I've broken a mast and ripped the mast track out of one of the boards. Sitting here with harness rash and cuts on my shin from the fin (I look like I was in a knife fight with an elf), I am hard-pressed to explain to anybody why windsurfing is fun at all. I'll be going out again tomorrow. We have accepted jerry-jugging as a way of life. Jerry-jugging water, jerry-jugging diesel, jerry-jugging gas. Every day we jerry-jug something. Yesterday, we borrowed all the diesel jugs we could, rented a truck, and made several trips to the service station. When we were done we had put 150 gallons back into Hakuna Matata. The weather will dictate our week. My best guess has us leaving Saturday or Sunday. If things break earlier, we will be ready.