Denny up for 23 Hours
11 April 2014 | Luperon, Dominican Republic
Becky/83 degrees, 25+ knots of wind, cloudy
We left Caicos at 7 am in 25 knots of wind, gusting to 30 sailing in a reach (wind from out side). We had a reef in the main (no jib) and was sailing 5-6 knots. The waves would hit us from the side and spray the cockpit. After Denny getting nailed by water a few times, he got on his light weight rain coat. When it was time for Denny to rest, he tried, but it was too rough and he felt sick, so he stayed up. He only got a few hours of sleep when we arrived in the morning at Luperon. You sure can't miss it with tall mountains and beautiful homes on the hillside. Luperon bay is full of boats moored to buoys and a few anchored. Going into the bay you could see it got shallow in places and we found one of them. The bottom is mud, so we came to a slow halt. A couple of nice men came by and helped us get moving again. Then we ran aground again, they were right there to help us. Before we anchored, the officials were in their boat waving at us, they wanted us to take a buoy, but we wanted to anchor. The customs officials were four guys, came onto our boat and inspected it. All was good. Then we went ashore to five different offices: customs office ($10 each), immigration ($43 for boat), agriculture ($5 each), marina ($10 total), and ministry of tourism ($20 total). Each time he went in, he filled out paper work and gave them money. Because they spoke Spanish, Denny really isn't sure why we paid all that money to all those different offices!
After checking in, Bev, Lew, Denny and I went in search for a restaurant. Lew had gruper, the rest of us had chicken. All meals came with a salad, rice and beans. We also all had a 22 oz. beer. It was delicious! The total bill came to $22. Then we walked the town and found some ice cream - yumm!
Life is good on Kokomo
Becky