We have met several cruisers here at the marina. The marina is actually quite empty. There are only about five sailboats and two powerboats here that are transient. There are also about a half a dozen boats obviously left here for the long term with no one aboard and another four or five that are local boats docked here permanently. We went to the grocery store today. One of the local markets will pick you up at the marina, take you to the store and return you to the marina at no charge. It is a very nice and large store but the ride into town had Sue white knuckled all the way. There are lots of motorcycles mixed in with the cars, buses and large trucks. I saw several motorcycles with ninety pound liquid propane bottles strapped across the back. These are over four feet long and full, weight over a hundred pounds. It is also common to see three riders on one bike. I believe I may have mentioned the LP bottles on motorcycles in a blog when we were in the D.R. in 2008 but it still amazes me. All this traffic weaves in and out and I find it hard to believe there aren't more accidents and acts of road rage. There are lots of horns.
Today is April first and I'm tempted to pull an April fools trick but decided against it. Our last ten days here have kind of a joke. Anyway, another boat left today at 10;00 am in the rain for Cabo Samana on the NE coast of the D.R. They are headed on down into the Caribbean. We just helped them tied up again. They said the north swells were huge and the wind chop on top made it worse. Five hours out and back and they both looked like they had finished a twenty four hour passage. Transmission update: (drum roll) The transmission left Destin today for overnight delivery to Amerijet in Miami. It's now Friday and the transmission is at Amerijet in Miami. Unfortunately the next flight isn't till Tuesday but at least we know it's on the last leg. The long range weather forecast for the SE Bahamas (that's where we will be traveling) is for mild weather for mid to late week next week. With no bad luck that's when we well be on our way to Georgetown. We do have some new neighbors in the marina over the weekends. Three large (100ft+) boats spend the weekend here. Two are from the Turks & Caicos Aggressor fleet. These are live-aboard boats that normally go out for a week with SCUBA divers on them to dive around the T&C islands. For two months around this time of year they do week long cruises for whale watching in the waters between the T&C and the north coast of Hispaniola. The Republica Dominicana and Haiti share the island (2/3 & 1/3). We are still only getting about one transient sailboat every two or three days and as one arrives one leaves so the marina remains relatively empty. We have gone to lunch at the grill near one of the shows and have watched the parrot and sea lion shows. The sea lion show is the source of "Who let the dogs out" through the speakers twice a day. Anyone that has spent a day in the marina will remember that little feature for years to come. There are 104 slips here and still only about 16 with boats. We talked to some of the whale watching boats and it seems to be a good year for whale watching. Picture is a lame choice. Unchained trapped in a marina.