We departed Samana at 2:30AM on Sunday, March 17th (St Patrick’s Day). There was a bright moon to help guide us past the anchored boats and out of the harbor. The seas were calm with light winds on our bow. We would motor all day.
As we passed Cayo Leventado outside the harbor we noticed another boat pulling anchor and getting underway. Later on they called us on the VHF. They were a new Leopard 48 named “Sarabi” and were also headed to Cap Cana marina. We said that we were stopping at Punta Macao for the night and would make it to Cap Cana the following day.
Cap Cana was about 80 miles away, too far for us to comfortably make in one day. But Sarabi was making 7 knots (bigger boats go faster). Punta Macao is a small harbor on the east coast of the DR 55 miles away. We pulled into Punta Macao at 2:30 in the afternoon.
The beach at Punta Macao was crowded with beachgoers (see todays photo), all playing loud music. The local officials came out to our boat on a fishing skiff full of large mahi-mahi and small black fish that I did not recognize.
The officials checked our paperwork, using their cell phones to record the documents and to take selfies on our boat (strange!). They said before we left in the morning I had to visit the Coast Guard station to check out. I asked if they would be open at 3AM when we would be leaving. Somewhat astonished, he asked again what time (his English was marginal) and I confirmed that we were leaving at 3AM. At this point he said that everything was in order and we were done! Guess they did not want to get up quite so early!!
As the sun set, the crowd on the beach thinned out taking their music machines with them. Our anchorage became quiet and serene.
The following morning we were up early again because we had one last cape to round. Cabo Engano is the eastern most point of the DR and we needed to be around it by 8AM before the trade winds picked up. The cape effect here is especially strong.
The morning lee gave us light winds and small seas so our journey to the cape was smooth. As we began our southward turn around the cape with the easterly winds we were able to raise our fore sail for the south bound leg to Cap Cana Marina.
East of Cabo Engano is a large “shallow” area know as the Hourglass Shoal. At around 100 deep, it is shallow only in relation to the extremely deep Puerto Rican trench just to the north. The combination of extreme deep water adjacent to the shoal makes this a treacherous area to sail due to the currents and confused seas. But between the shoal and the DR, the water is calmer and that is where we were sailing. We had a brief rain shower and a beautiful rainbow between us and the island. However there can be some strong currents there along the coast and fortunately we had a favorable current pushing us along. We were making over 7 knots with very little wind and arrived at Cap Cana Marina just after 8AM!
Cap Cana Marina is a first rate facility surrounded by a condominium and private home community. After Juan, the marina concierge, handled all of our customs and immigration paperwork we arranged for Ricardo (one of the dock hands) to drive us to a grocery store. The Supermercados Nacional in Punto Cana (the adjacent community) was in a very upscale shopping center and it was huge with a fantastic selection of high quality produce at extremely reasonable prices. We filled our cart and the bill was $42 (2100 pesos). Quite a pleasant change after the shock of prices in the Turks and Caicos!
The next day was all rest and relaxation. We went to the pool side restaurant for lunch and spent the afternoon around the pool and beach area.
Pool and Beach at Cap Cana Marina
Sarabi was docked close to us and we visited with them trading stories. We both wanted to leave early on Wednesday morning, March 20th, but the security officers normally start at 8AM. Juan was aware of the issue and said this is a common request from cruisers leaving for Puerto Rico and promised to do his best to get the officials in earlier. As it turns out, a large cruise ship, the Celebrity Equinox, was arriving on Wednesday and the officials would have thousands of passengers and crew to process that day, so they agreed to start with us at 6AM.
Sarabi was planning to make the entire 77 mile crossing of the Mona Passage in one day, so they checked out first. I listened as they went through the paperwork so there would be no surprises when it was our turn. Everything went smoothly. Again the officials made photo copies of our documents with their smart phones and again started taking selfies. This time Karrie offered to take their photos and ended taking several including some group shots. We thought it somewhat bizarre, but they seemed to be having fun with the selfies. We had our International Despacho by 6:30 and shoved off from the dock by 6:45. Only 35 miles SE to Mona Island in the middle of the Mona Passage.