Sightseeing in the DR

After being here for a week now we are learning our way around Luperon. Where to find the bakery, finding it open is a treat.

Yummy pastrys

Where to find good food...

Patula's had great food

We ended up buying one of these mugs.

And in general, finding new things to photograph.

Thats one heck of a security system

Pink house is a typical home here.

Meat market or family pet just killed? Hummmm

Nice shower and way to flush a toilet and wash your hands in one bathroom.

Gate we have to go through by the immigrations trailer.

We did rent motorcycles with Dave & Tanya from s/v Dea Latis and toured a bit of country side. We saw beautiful rolling landscapes

And even had two encountes with cattle moving from one field to another.

They seem unaffected by the motorcycle sounds. Guess they are use to it. Our first stop was the Church of the Americanos, I think was the name of it. It is the site where the original church was built for Columbus. I guess you can tell I really need to research this all more. Spanish is not my strong point so I really need to sit and do some reading. But anyway here are some pics we took of the grounds and church. It was really quiet lovely.

A papaya tree

We then went to La Isabela that Columbus founded during his second voyage in 1493. He named it after Queen Isabela I of Castile. There were small parts of the ruins left on site and the museum held different items found. It was neat but written all in Spanish so hard to interpret, well, hard to understand, well basically I looked at the artifacts.

Cool old graves

One of the old settlers on display

Afterwards we took the bikes out to the beach and found a little shack to park and find a shady spot to have a couple cold beers and some fries.

Saw some locals out spear fishing, this is what they returned with. Hummmmm first off the season for lobster is over, and second, not one of them is legal size. Guess thats one reason why fishing around these parts is not so good. They were quickly cooked up and served up to the locals, one of which had a uniform on as a government person. The enforcer is the consumer....

For about the first 15 minutes of us sitting there these two chickens were hanging in the tree upside down. Dirk said it was to keep them sleeping.....every so often one would flit about but for the most part they were quiet. about 10 minutes later a guy comes by, Dirk tells me not to look and before I know it they are drained and put on the table behind us being defeathered and chopped up into a pot. Not something you see everyday but it is the way of life here. Guess the treatment here is actually alot better than the treatment to our food in the states. At least these guys are all free range chickens, not kept in cages and the method of killing them is alot more humane. Still, I dont want to see it.

Soon it was time to head back to Luperon but one more stop to photograph the harbor before fueling up and returning the motorcycles. At $10.00 a day its a heck of a bargin.

Luperon harbor where we are moored

More to come....

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Luperon, Dominican Republic

We arrived in Long Cay in hopes that we would leave the next morning with a small weather window that had appeared. Well as quickly as it opened, it closed. Well....we already checked out of the country and legally we had 24 hours to leave but with the now closed weather window we weren't sure what to do. Guess we would wait it out. Its not like this island has anyone on it and the only people we see around are local fisherman and conch man going out early in the morning and returning late in the evening in their small fishing boats. I wanted to at least walk the island but as Dirk reminded me and we do try to play by the rules is that we were already checked out. We shouldnt be able to get off our boat. Days passed and the weather just would not cooperate. Where we were anchored wasn't to pleasant either as the swells from the ocean would wrap around and hit us on the side. We had two choices, suck it up or check back into the country. We elected to suck it up. I was even hoping for a day to float around in the water alongside the boat but it was far too rough for that even. Finally after 5 days we found a very small weather window. Dirk spoke with Chris Parker and he said that if we didnt take this window we may not see another one for at least a week and that one was questionable. Decisions, decisions.....we decided to go for it. We both knew ahead of time that the trip was not going to be pleasant. With the winds blowing the last several days we knew the seas would be at least 5 to 6 footers ontop of swells. Plus the wind was still blowing in the 16 to 18 gusting to 25 ish knots. Well after leaving Long Cay before lunch we arrived in Luperon 22 hours later. We were worried that we would arrive to the harbor before daylight but as we were getting close to the island the sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon. I do remember reading in a book about being able to smell The DR before seeing it and it was so true. It smelled like fresh farmland and manure. Not in a bad way either, it smelled like earth. Im not sure what I was really expecting but the more that came into view as the sun rose the more surprised I was. This vast land of rolling mountains coming out of the sea was amazing. I have seen mountains before, but always by flying over them or driving to them and you see the landscape change as you go. Here it was Wham! Hello, in your face, Im here type of a mountain. After living in flat areas all my life, traveling in the Bahamas where its all flat, its nice to see terraine.

Sun was rising and this was what I saw.

We knew once we got in from the other rat pack emails that we would need to contact Papo on the radio and he would show us to our mooring ball. He would lead us to deeper water to anchor but for $2.00 a day for a mooring ball you cant beat that. Dirk hailed him on the radio and he told us he would meet us in the cut in 5 minutes.

Papo and brother Freddie leading us in.

PaPo and from What I gathered was his brother Freddie soon came out to meet us and we followed them into the bay and up to the mooring ball where they took our lines and fed them through for us. Ha, look at that, we were right behind Dea Latis whom we had traveled with a bit a couple years ago. We also noted other boats we were familiar with as being part of our pack heading south. Yea, we caught up....

A rainbow appeared shortly after we made it into the anchorage.

Pabo then headed into town to retrieve some of the officials to check us in. Not sure who they all were, but soon Pabo returned with 5 men, one in military uniform, two others seemed to work for him as they are the ones that had the forms and were filling out papers and writing out stuff. The other two were probably just lookers on that caught a ride to see. Pabo also joined the group as our interpreter. Men were all business till I broke out cookies and cokes then all hands were in, they were not shy and helped themselves. After the cookies and cokes were gone and paperwork complete they left and we were told to then go into town to see immigration and customs. Found the dinghy dock and walked past the fishing fleet before finding the trailer.

The wait area outside of customs

We filled out more paperwork, paid our $93.00 entry fee, passports were stamped and we were told to go next door for agriculture and immigration. The office was bare except for two desk and a couple chairs. No computers here, its all done on paper still and you need to have your own pen. No lights, no a/c, well there was a lone wasp that occupied the trailer. The ag guy was sitting outside as it was cooler there than in the office and he filled out a paper, asked if we had any fruits or veggies on board which we replied yes to. He asked where we bought them and then said $10.00. We paid and he said he would come to our boat in the morning at nine to look around. We were also told that the tax person and immigrations man was not in, come back tomorrow. Oh well, we tried to get it all done today but what can I say, it was after all Easter Sunday, we should just be glad they were there at all. Afterwards we went in search of food and found the marina our friends had told us about. They were having a BBQ starting at noon so we headed over. We found several cruisers/rat pack that we had been cruising with were there also and we combined tables so we could all sit together. Dirk and I both ordered the grande Presidente beers that we had heard so much about.

The Rat Pack

We had heard about how cheap food and beer was here and for 860 pesos which is about $18 or 19 dollars we both had big plates of food With grilled chicken, grilled veggies rice and a 24 oz beer a piece. Afterwards we hung out just a bit before heading back to Renegade for some much needed sleep. It was still early so we ended up taking a 3 hour nap, waking at about 5 pm. By 8:30 we were back in bed watching a movie and soon after that sound asleep till after 8am the next morning. I got up, made coffee and expected the agriculture gentleman to be here at 9Am, 9:30, no man, at almost 10 he showed up and looked at the basket with 5 onions in it and another basket with one apple and 3 oranges in it. Asked again where I bought them and said okay, I could keep them. Asked if we had any animals and we said we have a cat. He asked for paperwork on the cat and I had his folder open and Dirk was digging through the other papers we keep in another folder. He asked if the cat ever got off the boat, we said no and he said no matter we were done. No need to show any papers. As he left he saw the garbage bag on deck and took it to throw in the International garbage bin.

This is where we must throw all garbage from outside the country. Seems a great place to keep it, right next to the water where when it gets full they burn it then keep on adding. Since we wanted to check out town, exchange some money for pesos and eat we loaded into the dinghy and headed to the dock. We still needed to visit immigration and get our tourist cards and pay for the port tax. Back to the trailers we went and paid $20.00 for two cards and then paid the tax lady $10.00 for port tax. What that goes for we have no clue. Guess its to pay for the use of the water to float your boat in. Anyway we left there and asked a gentleman how to get to a bank and how to buy internet. Communication here is by speaking slowly and hand gestures. Even then the message doesnt come across easily. Darn it, where was my english to spanish dictionary again? Thats right, on the boat.....we finally got the jest of what he was saying and he us,so we went on our way down the street.

Reminds me of what Cuba might look like

We managed to find the internet place and signed up for a couple weeks. Very cheap at $18.00 for two weeks I would say. So now we are settling in, catching up with everyone and enjoying the culture. So many things are planned such as going to the 27 waterfalls at Puerta Plata and a day trip on a motorscooter or motorcycle which everyone uses for transportation around here. I saw 3 grown men riding on one and another man with what looked like a freezer on the back of his. At about $10.00 a day rental for one you cant beat it. Stay tuned and I will update as we go along.

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Providenciales Turks & Caicos

We left our anchorage at 4am in the dark of night and set our course to Provo. About 7 of the boats from the Rat Pack was in Sapodilla Bay anchored. About 12 miles out we were told that we would need to check in with Provo Radio. Apparently Provo Radio is like DEA, search and rescue type all in one. They basically monitor radar and watch all traffic coming into their waters and traveling through and out. We called in to let them know our intentions and he said to radio them back when we anchored as he had some questions. We did call him back once we anchored amongest the other pack but he told us to stand by and never came back. Oh well. We did our part.

This was our route from Mayaguana to Providenciales

Our plan was to leave first thing in the morning to head over to Long Cay or Six Hill Cays. It would be a full day to get there across the banks and then the following day we would stage at Big Sand Cay for our jump to the Dominican Republic. We did not check in to the country and just flew our Q flag which is standard protocol. We pulled anchor at sunrise and started our trek south east. The winds cooperated at first but then we began taking them more head on. They were light so no biggie. Dolphins even came by to play in our bow wake.

We were about 4 hours into the trip when Dirk noticed one of our shrouds seemed a bit too loose. He did all the rigging on this boat so he knew how they were adjusted. We put the sail down and looked again, still loose, so he got his gauge out and measured the tension. All of them seemed loose. This wasnt good....he went below and discovered that our compression post was beginning to mushroom out and collapse. This was really not good. We talked to others on the radio and called marinas but with this being Sunday no one could really help us. Our only safe option was to turn back and return to Sapadilla Bay, wait till morning and try to hail marinas on the radio to see if there was a boatyard. We ended up being anchored by s/v Victorias Ghost who had also left with the group still sitting in the anchorage. Later that evening they radioed us and told us they were waiting on a new water pump to come in as on the way down theirs began to leak. They were renting a car in the morning and asked if we would like a ride around town to pick up groceries and since they were heading to the Caicos Marina and shipyard to check on the pump we tagged along to see if we couldnt talk to the boatyard to see if they could help us out. First order of business though was to properly check into the country. Dirk went to customs as soon as they were open which was an hour late this day. Guess they had a good weekend. He then returned to the boat, picked me up and we proceeded to head into the beach where we would leave our dinghy for the day. We did some running around and thank goodness they drove as it is the British way of driving and cars. Steering wheels on the wrong side, drive on the wrong side. More than my brain can handle......we ran lots of errands, ate lunch and checked out the boatyard. Yes they could help us.......we would wait a couple days before heading in as some bad weather was coming and we wanted to be in a secure place for that. Didnt want to spend anymore money then this was already gonna cost us. We also stopped at an IGA, wow, this was the first real grocery store I had been into in months. The selections were overwhelming, the deli section made me drool. Some items were more expensive than the Bahamas such as butter, same brand almost $3.00 more. Most items were cheaper. We bought some needed items and headed back to the boat to start thinking about this compression post issue. On the way back we noticed a new boat in the anchorage and we stopped in to say hello. They had just come from the Dominican Republic and were heading north. The following morning we talked to them again and managed to do a swap of some Caribbean charts for an older version of the ICW charts and some Caribbean charts. They also gave us a very nice Dominican Republic courtesy flag. Nice swap all in all. A day later we motored the hour to the marina and tied against the wall. The following morning we would have the fabricator of the new compression post come by to take a look. In the end Dirk and he worked a solution to the problem that would not require us to remove the mast. Whew, that saves alot of labor and money not having to rent a boom truck at $150.00 an hour.

The view of the marina from the boat. Its very small but its used for dive boats to base from and boats having work done.

My view while I did laundry

Basically what Dirk and the gentleman that helped did was first to jack up and brace the mast after loosening the shrouds just a bit. Once the weight was off they cut the compression post above where the rusted area was making sure there was good post left.

At this point the guy left to start fabricating a new boot and plate while Dirk worked to grind off the bolts and prep the post for the new boot. He was able to save many hours of paying these guys over $100.00 an hour that they charge for labor. Once he removed the old post he took it over to the shop and short time later we had the new boot and post to trial fit.

This is the bootm of the old post. You can see where it started failing.

New parts to trial fit.

Dirk was able to get the part back to him in time for it to be compleated that day.

The new section of compression post installed.

Well that was a lot less painful then we thought at first. Dirk spent the next day tuning the rigging and making sure all was a go while I did another load of laundry. We would wait a day or two before leaving as there was a weather window opening to head to the DR. Alice from the catamaran behind us Wild Vanilla was going into town, had a car and asked if we would like to tag along. I said sure as it would give me a chance to re supply my fruits and veggies once again. We stopped at this box store called Sunny's and were happy to see some really good prices. We bought a few case lots of stuff that we would use and they also had a non case area too. Then it was onto the IGA one more time for last minute items before returning to the boat. The following morning Dirk let the marina know that we were checking out and to call customs as they would come there to clear us out. Out intention was to clear out then head out the channel of the marina and instead of taking the hour back to Sapadilla Bay, just anchor close to the island which would save us time heading across the banks the next day. Next morning we arose early and made our way to Long Cay where we would stage for our crossing. The winds were not playing nice, 18 to 20 knots, gusting to 25. It was cloudy on and off which made it hard to see the coral heads one must dodge the 38 miles to get there. At one point while I was at the helm of course we heard a small thump as it was too late for me to turn once I figured the dark area was not a cloud. No harm done thank goodness, but from then on I avoided all dark areas, clouds or not. It took us so long to get here as the wind of course was coming from the wrong direction that we finally made it into the anchorage as the sun was setting which isnt good. There are so many coral heads in these parts and most of it is not charted. We crawled in and set the anchor then Dirk took the dinghy around looking at all suspect areas around us to make sure we were clear. We were.....time for a sundowner after that day. The boat was very salty as we took so many waves off the side that they would splash up and over. Oh well, not doing anything tonight and we would be on the move again tomorrow anyway. Or would we?

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On Our Way South

As we were waiting on weather to leave we met up with several other cruisers that were headed out also. We kept in touch via radio and had a couple meetings on our different destinations and routes. We would meet at Chat and Chill beach, charts, ipads, and notebooks at the ready. We would come to be known as the Chat & Chill Rat Pack.

On the 15th of March we finally pulled anchor and headed out the South cut with our sights on Rum Cay. To get to Rum you have go to the north end of Long Island. We would have liked to stop at Long Island but we were on crunch time and it would have to wait till the return trip. It was a long day as it took us about 11 and 1/2 hours to make the run with the wind almost directly on our nose.

The numbers are where I sent my spots from. Each leg is approximately 4 hours

We all set anchor in Rum to settle in for a good night rest while several other boats elected to bypass Rum and keep going to Mayaguana and even others shooting directly to Puerto Rico. Seems bypassing Rum may not have been a bad idea as the next morning as we were pulling anchor we all complained how rolly the anchorage was and how no one got any sleep. Our next leg would be an overnighter to Mayaguana, 27 hours in fact. During the daylight hours sometime Dirk was able to hook and get into the boat an intact mahi. No sharks sharing with us this time.

The day drug on and soon the sun set to a complete black night. We all kept ourselves awake with radio chatter checking in on each other and playing dodgeball with the big cruise ships and freighters that seem to pass too close. The moon finally rose right before the sun and soon we began to see land. Of course once we spotted land it was still many hours till we reached our anchorage. At one point I was sitting staring into space when I thought I saw a splash in the water, my eyes were tired so I wasnt sure what I saw. I then saw it again but only saw a couple shots of water being blown into the air. Hummmm, I turned to Dirk and said I think I see whales, sure enough, we were in the migratory waters of the humpback whales. Very cool but scary too. I have seen the videos of whales encountering sailboats. Anyway we radioed the boat behind us as we knew they had two kids aboard and wanted to make sure they got to see them. They were closer then us and saw one breach very close to the boat. By this time we were close to our anchorage and could see some of our pack already anchored. Looking at the display you could see the boats that have AIS as it looks like a parade.

Once we had the anchor down we settled in for the evening. We decided that we wanted to stay an extra day and check out the reefs here as this is one of the furthest and most unvisited islands in the Bahamas. There arent too many residents here as it is usually used for a fishing village. A buddy boat Tangent also decided to stay a couple days extra too.

This shows our route from georgetown to Mayaguana

The following morning Dirk and Andy from Tangent along with their son Drew took off in search of something to hunt. It was a productive morning as they returned with a 20 pound Nassau Grouper. They went to the outer reefs and so had to get the grouper carefully while being watched by 3 reef sharks. Quiet the excitement that I could care less to hear about. After they moved on and couldnt find any lobster big enough they decided to return to the boat.

A bit later in the afternoon I asked Dirk to take me to walk the beach. I only found one seabean and pretty much no shells. Oh well....so on the return trip to the boat we spotted some small coral heads that we thought might be fun to snorkel. We went down and low and behold there were several lobsters sitting in holes just waving. Not the place we thought we might find them but sometimes you never know. Soon Andy and his son Drew who had been hunting some small corals came by to see if we had any luck as they had not spotted anything. They were in the water in a heartbeat once they saw we were finding lobster. We ended up with a nice addition to the grouper.

Two slipper lobster and two spiny

The following day the guys decided to have one more hunting day as we would leave the following day. Another grouper, this one about 12 pounds, and a few more lobster were added to the freezer. That would be the last of anything we could stuff in the freezer.

We decided between us all that we had enough seafood to have a feast with. That evening we headed over to Tangent ahd had lobster balls, lobster dip, seared Mahi, and grouper fingers. Wow, it was all delicious and we all stuffed ourselves. The next morning was spent cleaning up the decks, raising the dinghy and getting the boat prepped for the short trip to the Southeast anchorage where we would stage for our crossing to the Turks and Caicos. That evening we pulled into the anchorage, set the hook and Dirk dove in to check the anchor. While checking it he found a conch laying right under the boat so he picked it up and proceeded to make his last conch salad. It was early to bed as we had a 3:30am wakeup to make the trip south. But not without toasting the last of the Bahama Islands with a cold Bahaiman Kalik.

Turks & Caicos, here we come.....

The Q flag is ready

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A Link to Dirk Playing The Sax on the Beach

http://youtu.be/NyNXsrSuiYI