Surviving the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico-USS Iwo Jima, patrol boats and more! #trawlerlife
⚓ Crossing the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico | Isla Desecheo, Caja de Muertos & U.S. Coast Guard Inspection and USS IWO JIMA! 🌊🐕
In this episode of Unanchored Life, we leave the Dominican Republic and take on the legendary Mona Passage — one of the most unpredictable stretches of water in the Caribbean — on a 19-hour overnight passage at 7 knots.
🌙 Night watch on a liveaboard trawler
🐾 Boat life with our dog Gypsy
⚠️ Yellow quarantine flag raised
🇺🇸 Arrival in Puerto Rico
🚨 Surprise U.S. Coast Guard inspection
🎣 Offshore fishing in deep Atlantic waters
🏝 Isla Desecheo wildlife refuge (former military site)
🏴☠️ Isla Caja de Muertos “Coffin Island” & its 1887 Spanish lighthouse
A surprise visit by USS Iwo Jima
We navigate past Isla Desecheo, once used as a WWII bombing range and now a protected wildlife refuge, before making landfall in Puerto Real, a working fishing village on Puerto Rico’s west coast.
From there, we fuel up and continue along Puerto Rico’s southern coast toward Caja de Muertos, an island steeped in pirate legends but best known as a critical navigational landmark for ships crossing the Mona Passage.
If you love:
• Real-life cruising stories
• Overnight passages
• Caribbean sailing routes
• Honest marina reviews
• Living aboard full time
• Or watching two reasonably competent adults and one skeptical dog attempt ocean crossings
You’re in the right place.
👉 Subscribe for weekly episodes as we continue our Caribbean adventure aboard our trawler.
#MonaPassage #PuertoRicoSailing #LiveaboardLife #TrawlerLife #CaribbeanCruising #IslaDesecheo #CajaDeMuertos #BoatLife #USCoastGuard #SailingAdventure👍
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No Foreign Land boat link:
https://www.noforeignland.com/map/boat/moonfleet
Ever wonder what happens when two fairly sensible people — and one skeptical dog — sell everything, buy a boat, and set off to sail the world?
Meet Ken and Kirsten Kopp — he’s a retired helicopter test pilot (aka crash-test dummy with a with a McGuiver mentality), she’s a real estate broker who thought “remote work” meant Wi-Fi, not waves. Together with their dog Gypsy, they’ve traded land life for life aboard their 60’ trawler.
This is "Unanchored Life”— our not-always-smooth, occasionally-brilliant, frequently-hilarious (to us anyway) voyage into full-time boat life, letting go of midlife "trappings", reinvention, exploring the world at 8 knots, and mild chaos.
Join us as we swap runways for waterways, listings for latitude, and figure out—one leak at a time—what it really means to live unanchored.
👉 Want to come aboard?
Get exclusive maps, stories, behind-the-scenes bloopers, and unfiltered updates here:
⚓ https://unanchored.life#/portal/signup
00:00 Introduction
00:46 WHY IS THE MONA PASSAGE DANGEROUS?
03:13 NIGHT PASSAGE!
04:13 ISLA DESECHEO
04:59 PUERTO REAL
05:51 ON OUR WAY TO CAJA DES MUERTOS
06:23 STOPPED BY US COAST GUARDS!
08:07 ISLA CAJA DES MUERTOS
09:21 USS IWO JIMA TURNS UP!
10:10 GYPSY SWIMS!
UNANCHORED LIFE
He flew helicopters, she sold dream homes, and now they’re chasing a dream of their own — full time life on board a 60 foot trawler. With their dog Gypsy as first mate, Ken and Kirsten Kopp are exploring the world by sea, learning that freedom comes with saltwater, engine noise, and the occasional small miracle.
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