We are in Luperon in the Dominican Republic (DR) and we love it here. We met a lot of people who do not like Luperon just like the people from the catamaran “Bad Kitty” who followed us from Sapodilla Bay in the Turks and Caicos. Is it because most people do not like the confrontation with people living in poor circumstances with little public service of fresh water, sanitary sewer systems and electricity? At the same time many people here are without work and living in poverty. It can be very depressing, but the people are so friendly and a lot of things happen in the street for instance when you pass by and greet the people you directly create a bond and if the language was not a barrier you could share many stories with them. We went to the home of a street vendor to drink coffee and of course to buy a couple of bracelets that one of his sisters makes. We had a great time with his mother, two sisters and his little niece (see the pictures). The area around Luperon is beautiful and reminds us of the Puncak in Indonesia. We are sitting in the cockpit of Island Girl and look at the beautiful lush green hills around us. In the morning before the trade winds start blowing and at night after the winds die down it is so peaceful and quiet; it makes us so very content. In other words Dorothy and I are back home in the tropics that we have missed so much.
But how did we get in this paradise especially with the statement from Chris Parker, the cruisers weather guru today in his e-mail weather report for people who want to sail from the Bahamas to the DR:
“I don't see any opportunities to move unless you're comfortable with wind (and resulting seas) not far below GALE Force. Suggest finding something to do where you are, and hope for some opportunities for desperate folks to move after Fri11...with better opportunities for all folks to move by about Fri18.”
We made it just before the door closed. It was rough, both the wind instead of predicted 15 – 20kn, a sustained wind of 25 with some gusts up to 30kn and waves accordingly. I do not know how to measure the wave height but I know for sure some of them were over 10ft.
We left Sapodilla Bay on Tuesday to take fuel in the South Side Harbor and left this marina early in the morning to sail the Caicos Bank to Cockburn Harbor in South Caicos. It was a long 45 miles with the wind on our nose and short angry waves. We dropped the anchor in Cockburn Harbor at 6.00 PM just with the last sliver of light. The next morning after a visit to the local library for internet connection and some weather information of our son Robert on the phone we checked out with customs and had the anchor up at 10:45 AM. I told Dorothy that the Turks Channel out of the coast should give more flat seas. As described that was not the case and she reminded me the rest of the day and night many times about this statement. We sailed for 80 miles with average speed of 6.5 kn, close to the wind. However, when the trade winds kicked in that did not work anymore and we had to continue on the engine with sometimes speeds less than 3 kn. The boat was rolling and in many cases jumping the waves. It was a long and tiring night. We arrived in Luperon around sun-up. This was recommended so you could see the shoals in the dark muddy water. I could not and grounded Island Girl and gave the “commandante” and his group who pulled us off the mud bank the chance to give him a “present” against common advice. But he allowed us in the country. After visiting the Department of Tourism, Immigration, Agriculture and Port Authority we are now legally in the DR for the next 30 days. When we returned to Island Girl after a short walk and a nap, the catamaran “Bad Kitty” came in with about the same stories without the rolling but with big slamming with the flat middle part of a catamaran. We have always loved to sail The Bahamas with its beautiful water in the banks and nice but dry islands, but to see the coast of Hispanola with its lush green mountains in the morning sun is a new and very impressive experience. And that is what this trip is all about, doing new things like Dorothy drinking beer for the first time in her life when we had lunch in a local restaurant in Luperon. We are going to visit many places in the DR, a country with so much history and hope to write about it in our next blog.