Survivor Luperon
30 July 2009 | Luperon, DR
Connie Rosenthal
Cleaning the growth off the dinghy
There are tribes, challenges and rewards, so it must be Survivor! In the cruising life there are the usual challenges, but add in the location of Luperon and it's GAME ON! There are currently 3 or 4 tribes or teams; Team Te Oigo, Team Selkie, Team Wanderlust, and Team Sandy Annie. The challenges are varied. One is getting diesel or gas which entails loading the dinghies with jerry jugs, traveling to the muelle (dock), shlepping the jugs either by walking (usually) about a mile or two to the gas station and then getting a motoconcho or gua-gua back...or walking back. Occassionally a team will get really lucky and get picked up by a kind soul. We feel that is like having immunity. Another challenge is cleaning the dinghies. First we offload as much as possible from the dinghy, then we grab our bucket of cleaning paraphenalia and drive the dinghies to the beach. The engine has to be removed, the dinghy turned upside down and the scraping begins. Barnacles and other assorted sea critters are rigorously removed. Care must be taken in our case especially, since we have a soft-bottom dinghy. We must ensure that the blades stay flat so as not to puncture the dinghy (major points off!). Then the scrub brushes come out and the appropriate chemicals are applied to get the green algae off. Dinghies are uprighted, engines reattached and we're done. So far, no one has been voted off and we're pretty close in points. We're still waiting for Jeff Probst to show up and give us some rewards!