Luperon, Dominican Republic February 15, 2014 81 nautical miles

We made our dinner, then, about an hour after sunset, we raised the sails with a precautionary reef in the main, and headed southeast. The first half of the night was a very pleasant beam reach in 15 to 17 knots of wind and 4' swell on the beam. Around 11pm the wind began piping up, the seas too. By midnight we had a steady 20 knots of wind and the seas were up to 8' and were very confused as the northeast swell was crossed by the southeast chop generated by the wind coming from 110 degrees. It was a rough ride and with that wind we were barreling right along, on a very close reach. Some of the waves were breaking, leaving big patches of foam, and the spray was flying in the full moon. Sherri was in no mood to enjoy the wild scene and was in full agreement when I talked by radio to another catamaran that was crossing with us, Magpie 2, when Laurie said she wasn't enjoying this as much as she thought she would. Nicely understated.

The wind and the seas began to lie down a bit as we came nearer the mountainous coastline of the DR, aided by the katabatic night wind that pushes back against the tradewinds, and by sunrise we had the island in sight. We entered the entrance channel to Luperon by 8 am and had the anchor in the mud of the bay by 9.

This is an extremely well protected harbor, backed on all sides by hills or mountains, lined with mangroves, with the small town of Luperon at the head of the main bay. It's another of those places where there are lots of boats with heavy bottom growth on chain and boat, green moss on the decks and a bachelor (male or female) living aboard. Most of them have sailed a long way to be here, at some time past and here the living is easy and cheap. The town is friendly, but pretty rough in appearance, although it's plain there's money by the nicer houses around the hills above the bay and outskirts of town. There are several gringo bars that are extremely simple; thatched roof on pole frame, tables and chairs, small bar, maybe a small kitchen, wifi (required), friendly staff.

The weather pattern is interesting. We are in the tradewind belt here, so the wind always blows from the east, usually around 20 knots. It might vary NE to E to SE, but always E. This island is big enough that it develops what is called a "night lee". Meaning that during the day, the sun heats up the land, drawing the air up from the coast, increasing the tradewind component along the coast. But sometime during the night, as the mountains cool down, the cooler air begins to descend the slopes and pushes back against the tradewinds. The effect is varied according to how hot it gets each day and how hard the tradewinds are currently blowing. Sailors working east to Puerto Rico and the eastern Caribbean from here have learned to wait here in Luperon after crossing from the Turks and Caicos until some weather event stalls the trades and gets them to 15 knots or less for at least three days (this is usually caused by a huge low coming off the Florida coast). Then, during the secon d night of moderated winds when the normally big seas have settled a bit, they head east along the DR north coast from here, hugging the land to keep within the night lee, which extends out from shore as much as several miles, depending on all the above conditions. For a boat of our speed, it is a several night trip, and you anchor in one of the small bays along the coast during the day when the night lee ends and the trades take back over.

In the harbor itself, the night lee effect is particularly noticeable, because the daytime trades are accelerated coming over the hills from the sea, so the mornings start out calm from the night katabatic winds, then as the land heats up, the easterly trades blow across the harbor at 20 to 30 knots. At sunset, the wind suddenly drops and within an hour or so blows gently down the hills from the opposite direction. Every day the temperature is in the mid-eighties, at night in the seventies. It never seems hot during the day because of the wind.