Sorry we have been a bit tied up with things. Pictures will have to follow as the internet is not cooperating.

So we headed out of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico in a 6 knot northerly, presumably land induced as we were expecting easterlies, but we made good time doing 5 knots. My good trimming of course! As we got further offshore and closer to the Isla Desecheo our easterlies filled in. We headed off towards Dominican Republic (DR), leaving the hourglass shoal way to port, sitting on the 300-400 metres depth contour. We had 15-20 knots of easterly wind with swell from the NE at about 1.5 - 2 metres, which was great. We had 140 Nm to do and we had calculated that at 8 knots we would get in about 18 hours and at 6 knots 24 hours. We left at 1130 am thinking this would be good timing. What we didn't plan on was doing 9 knots and above. Now don't get me wrong, I like the T shirts that say "Sail fast. Live slow" but our problem was the Dominican Republic Navy, who control the coasts don't allow boats entering or leaving their shores between 6 pm and 6 am. At this rate we would be in at 3 am, not good, I do not want to upset the constabulary. So we double reefed the main, dropped pretty much no speed; partially furled the jib, dropped ½ a knot. Still not slow enough so we totally furled the jib and got the speed down to 7.5-8 knots. That was going to have to do. We were past the hourglass shoal just before sunset so we knew we were ok there and the sea was not excessively rough. As we approached the Coast of the DR the winds lightened and our speed crept down to the point we were doing 4 knots but we decided to wait for sunrise to shake the reef out, we were cruising after all.
Samana Bay where we were going is a large bay at the top of the DR known for the Whales that come in here between Jan and March, to birth. That was the other reason for slowing down we did not want to come across sleeping whales at the entrance.
We approached the bay and I (Glenda) went forward to change the courtesy flag over, I looked up to check what the banging was to discover that the radar dome had come off the mast and was swinging around attached only by its cable. We had heard a bang about 5 minutes early but thought it was the jib on the lifelines, which we had just furled and so we dropped the main and I prepared to go up the mast to secure the radar dome when the cable gave way and it tumbled to the deck, luckily not going over the side. All 8 rivets holding the bracket on had given way! So we packed it away raised the main and jib and continued on our way.
Unfortunately we saw no whales at the entrance into the bay although we had seen some along the south Puerto Rico Coast before we went up to Mayaguez, via Boqueron.
We decided to use the Marina instead of anchoring in case we could get the radar fixed back on. This is an expensive marina at $52US a night, but for that you are in a resort. We have 2 horizon pools, lots of people offering to get us drinks (that you pay for), a spa (massage style, not a bubbly pool), free wifi, HOT SHOWERS!!!, laundry and more. Well somebody has to help the economy. We checked in and Jay was informed that there was a small 2 lap regatta on over the weekend and you 2 free nights if you entered it. Red rag at a Bull!
Around DR you cannot move your boat without asking permission of the Navy chap for your region. Across the bay from us here on the south coast of the north peninsular there is a huge rainforest, mangrove national park, Los Haitises.


It is very hard to get to and is mainly done by boat, at the navy chaps discretion. We asked to go and was informed his boss said we could have one day but he knew that was hard for yachts so he gave us 2 days. Whooppee! Now I am not sure if we got it correct but we took that to mean 2 nights which was actually 3 days. Any way we headed over to this amazing place which contains a number of different habitats and consequently has a great diversity of mammals and birds.



There are caves and caverns containing pictograms and petroglyphs, and an interesting Ecotourism resort hidden the other side of the mangroves.


We were the only boat there other than the odd tourist boat that came around the coast during the day.


Very quiet except for the bird noises, and there were lots of them. The main birds we saw were herons, turkey buzzards, which at first I thought were eagles, brown pelicans, and a few others I have not identified.


We came back to the marina on the Friday to free cocktails for the start of the "regatta". The next morning we were given nice long sleeve regatta tops and headed out for a 2pm start. There was supposed to be 6 monohulls and 3 multihulls competing, the multihulls turned up but only 3 of the monohulls turned up. Needless to say we were first monohull across the line and almost lapped one of the other boats that seemed to go in some very funny directions, I presume they didn't like to heel. The multi hulls started 5 minutes after us and on the very last leg I couldn't get the jib inside the lifelines but we didn't worry, so we got caught by a Catana 48 cat, which passed us just before the finish line. Then it was back to the marina for paella and more drinks. I have to say I hate this not drinking when there is all this free alcohol around. The partying, band and presentation started at 930pm, Island time so that was 10pm start. We got a nice trophy to say we were the first monohull but we missed out on the 4 litres of Chives Regal. It hurt our pride but I can't drink it and Jay doesn't like scotch so no real loss.
We have decided to stay another night (paid $52US, Jay is cringing!) as we had a late night and I have been up since 4am downloading maps for the Bahamas. There are some strong Northerly winds coming down so we will not be heading to the Bahamas, Great Inagua, until Thursday or Friday. We have decided to move along the coast of DR a further 200NM, to Monti Cristi, leaving tomorrow morning at 6am. The Navy chap has just said he would meet us at the boat then....or 0630am, presumably island time that means 730am, oh well we are in their hands.