Hispaniola

March 31^st 2013

Position 19° 19.474’ N
                69° 35.516’ W

Samaná, Dominican Republic

We entered Marina Puerto Bahia by 10:00. We were again met by the officials and the dock master with his staff who helped us to dock and tie up. Our slip was on the main dock right in front of the marina and hotel building. Marina Puerto Bahia is again, like Ocean World, a resort, it is either owned or was financed by the Don Q rum distilling family we aren’t quite sure, either way it is impressive. The complex is stunning and is run under the Bannister Hotel banner. The Dominican Republic is an emerging nation and the contrast between the life in the interior and the small coastal enclaves where development has taken place is dramatic. The country has obviously recognized the tourist dollar and further development will continue. Please visit this beautiful country and see it, meet the warm friendly people and sample their life before it is gone. Hispaniola is big with one third of the landmass occupied by Haiti to the west with the eastern two thirds being the Dominican Republic. Everywhere is lush and fertile, the country produces much of its own food and everything is available at very affordable prices. We took advantage to do some re-provisioning while there. The check-in process was a little complicated as we, wrongly, had obtained a despacho to Puerto Rico when leaving Ocean World on the north coast and therefore had officially left the Dominican Republic and here we were back again, actually having never left, The officials were sympathetic when I explained the shelter we decided to seek due to weather and only charged us the minimum they could to re-enter. So here we are still in the Dominican Republic, life is good, we are in a beautiful marina having arrived here without a single ‘cough’ from Stonewall Jackson so we are figuring that the fuel problems that were so crippling when coming from the Bahamas have finally be resolved. 

This five star facility exudes a relaxing atmosphere, the aura created by the linen drapes is all but hypnotizing, they hang from the foyer openings throughout the reception area flowing in the breeze, luxury sofas with their over abundance of cushions adorned the space and are scattered throughout the area opulently. An accompanying well stocked cocktail bar provides gourmet coffees and libations. The whole setup is just plain fabulous. The bonus to this gem is that all the facilities are available to us as marina guests all for the outrageously low cost of .90c per foot of boat length, in our case $37.80 per day! 

Another Kadey Krogen trawler, a 48’ model, was in the marina; while I was up in the Pilot house of ‘Partner’ a lady walking on the dock spotted me and walked to our finger dock. She introduced herself “Ann Miller from ‘Ann Louise’, she was from the other Kadey Krogen. Her husband Bill was, not uncommon on boats, in the engine room doing jobs! Ann invited Lavinia and me to stop by their boat, just a little farther up the same dock, to meet Bill and see ‘Ann Louise’. When we travel many things have to be stowed in order that they don’t become missiles or crash and burn in the pitching and rolling conditions a small boat encounters deep sea; they all have to be unpacked and made usable again so, we tidied up ‘Partner’ after her 18 hours at sea and later in the day after we had done the chores and explored the area a bit, we walked over to ‘Ann Louise’ and asked “permission to board”, it was granted and there began a good friendship. Bill and Ann are mid fifties retirees who built their boat in 2007 so she is bright white and sparkling new, beautiful. The 48’ is just like our 42’ to look at just bigger in all areas. We talked and talked and found that they were heading for Trinidad the same as us. It didn’t take long for us to agree to buddy up for the crossing of the Mona; a little company is always comforting on a long passage. We enjoyed a drink with them and super, Bill cooked up a quick but very tasty bowl of quinoa, a little hot sauce and vegetables; it was great! When we said “good night” we had already set up a date for the following evening for us to return the complement and have them over to ‘Partners’.  

The next morning the dock master Pedro asked if we would mind moving to another slip in the marina, on the same dock but on the other side, the owner of our slip was returning. By mid morning we were ready and began the move. Oh no! The engine failed again as we were moving within the marina, always a scary event, I managed to restart and after two more failures managed to enter our new slip without hitting anything! The marina staff gave a sigh of relief, they were running from dock to dock as we were drifting, in readiness to fend us off and avert the impending collision. The rest of the day was spent going over and over the fuel system trying to find the cause of the engine stopping…I couldn’t find anything wrong, this is the worst scenario as it is always better to find something! I continued to start and run the engine each day to see if it would stop again, it didn’t!

Las Terrenas, DR

During our stay the four of us hired a car and one day drove to a small town on the north coast of the Samaná peninsula which was settle by mainly French and some Italians in the late 70’s and early 80’s…Las Terrenas developed into a tourist destination for Europeans. What a great destination, once there one begins to experience a little piece of Europe in the Caribbean but all at DR prices! We encountered a great French restaurant where we enjoyed a fabulous, perfectly prepared lunch which cost us under $4 per head and the restaurant was right on the beach facing a coral reef protected lagoon with the open Atlantic Ocean beyond…a tough life right? The town has now become a hotspot for the more affluent people of Santo Domingo, the Capital, who can drive to the town in 2 hours on the new recently constructed highway. An international Airport also serves the area now. As I said before please visit DR soon before everything changes too much. The scenery on our way was breathtaking, Hispaniola is a mountainous island with towering peaks and fertile vales and valleys, population is sparse and although there are cars now there are still many horses and mules used for transportation…life is slow. 

We visited the town of Samaná which was about three kilometers from the marina, we thought it looked a rough town, it bustled but it was broken down and in need of much infrastructural renovation. The Dominican Republic is an immerging third world country but the people are among the happiest, engaging and proud we have encountered so far, we loved them.  


Our visit to DR was coming to an end it was time to prepare to go to sea and cross the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico. Both Bill and I use a weather service provided by Chris Parker, as do many other cruisers in this part of the world. We had been listening to his forecasts and studying his daily e-mails, we saw a weather widow approaching on the 3^rd and 4^th of March which would give us the best shot at a crossing. It seems there are few if no smooth crossings of the Mona, even HT remarked “maybe a 4’- 6’ sea is the best we can expect”. Bill and I made the decision to go but with a plan to fall off to Punta Cana, another resort marina complex on the southeast coast of the DR, if the weather window closed on us. The distance to Punta Cana was approximately 80 nm with another 80 nm from there to PR. We set off from Marina Puerto Bahia in the late afternoon intending to hug the coastline of the SE DR over night rounding the infamously notorious Cap Engano until we were off Punta Cana and then we would make the decision to either continue to cross Mona or fall off to the marina. The first 80 nm leg started at 16:00 hours and as the night progressed all went to plan until, yes, Stonewall Jackson quit again. What could it be…I first went to the fuel filter on the engine as the Racors all looked perfect, sure enough there was air in the filter, in its self not a problem as it is easy enough to bleed the air out, but where was it getting in? I bled the air and tightened all hose clamps and fittings I could see in the hope I would eliminate the culprit. When we stop the boat she always lies in the troughs of the seas and we were experiencing 7’ – 10’ swells with 4’ -6’ seas on top which are fine while underway but not when one is wallowing at a dead stop in their troughs. It would be too bravado of me to say it is not frightening, it is! The intermittent stopping continued about every 10 – 15 minutes and was becoming impossible, Lavinia was becoming distraught and me just plain tired and whipped. We decided to abort and go to Cap Cana and like our wounds. Bill came on the radio, all was well with them, I told him what we had decided, his reply was to reconfirm his companionship and that he would stay with us if we wanted to try to cross to Isla de Mona, which is a small island half way across the passage, where we could anchor in comfort and effect some repairs. After another talk HT and I decided to go for it…we did have some more stoppages but each time I torqued the central filter bolt a little more in the hope that was the source of allowing the air into the filter, it worked! We were able to continue to Isla de Mona without further stoppage.  

Inside the reef

Our friend's boat 'Ann Louise' a 48' Kadey Krogen

The approach to the Island is straight forward but then one must transit a reef entrance to gain access to one of the prettiest reef protected anchorages we could imagine. The places we are experiencing are breathtaking and of course can only be accessed, in a lot of cases, by boat, this is one of them. We feel privileged that we can experience this place with its gin clear water and spectacular cliffs…enjoy the pictures. 


 There were three mooring buoys in the small lagoon provided by the Department of Natural Resources who maintain a base on the island; it is part of Puerto Rico. We rested, ate and took a nap, after 4 hours in this most idyllic spot it was time to leave. We had timed our departure so we could arrive in Salinas, our port of choice on the south coast of PR, in daylight. Good practices always say enter an unfamiliar area in good light. We are becoming pretty good at reading the water now and know the depths just by the colour and shades of the water. Our two little

Paradise!

white ships headed towards the SW tip of PR on a course of 141° M. During overnight runs HT and I keep watch and it has now become established that she mans the 19:00 – 22:00 and 01:00 – 04:00 and I do the 22:00 – 01:00 and 04:00 – 07:00. Lavinia is getting the hang of using the radio now and seems much more confident in effecting a course change. She is also comfortable with using the radar and depth finders…she’s getting it! She was very worried at the beginning but I told her it would all unfold and the practicality of actually doing it would soon give her proficiency. Being only two months into our cruising adventure she is doing just fine.

Isla de Caja de Muertos

As we approached the Puerto Rican coast we received protection from the ENE wind and the seas calmed dramatically we also started to pick up some east flowing current along the south coast of PR which enabled us to slow the rpm’s a little so as to adjust our arrival time. We rounded the islands Isla de Caja de Muertos just off the coast of our entrance course to Salinas right at sunrise. The approach to Salinas was easy and uneventful. Wow! As we worked our way along the channel towards the anchorage, what a lot of boats; Salinas is a popular destination for cruisers and has grown to have most of the facilities we boaters are looking for including an amazing number of restaurants and ‘watering holes’. It is a small town but is close to the metropolis of Ponce and only an hour’s drive from San Juan. Once anchored we called the customs and immigration office to report our arrival, we have what is known as the Local Boaters Option, theoretically allowing US Citizens and registered boats a hassle free entry into any US territory; almost right! We found out that apparently Salinas is not an official port of entry, Ponce is. The immigration officer, customs and agriculture officials wanted to inspect the boat. After two phone conversations they agreed to come from Ponce to us and at 13:00 it was agreed they would meet us in the Salinas Marina office. After a little officialdom everyone relaxed and our entry to PR was completed by the Immigration official saying “Welcome to Puerto Rico, this is your home”, I said to Lavinia how nice it was that he said that as it set the scene for us to feel comfortable in this a separate island but just as American as the US mainland…  

More to come from Puerto Rico...