Samana

 On the morning of March 11, Keith traveled into town to get a despacho, which would allow us to leave Luperon and head to Samana.  Dominican Republic is the first country we have visited that uses this method of tracking. Essentially, every time we want to move the boat, from one port or anchorage to another, we need to visit the Armada office to get a clearance document.  You are supposed to request a despacho within two hours of departure…so as soon as he returned to the boat we dropped the mooring and headed out. 

This was another 160 mile trip, so we planned for about 24 hours underway. Conditions were nice, with 2-3 ft waves from the NE so they were hitting our port bow for a fairly comfortable ride. Once again, currents pushed us a little faster than we expected to travel so we had to make an effort to slow down.

This is a welcome sight after being at the helm in the pitch dark. We were warned that getting fouled in a fishing net was a high probability, as local fishermen float nets near the coast. The advice was to stay deeper than 500 ft, because they usually anchor the nets in water 200 ft deep or less. We tried to stay in deep water to avoid nets, but before dark I saw two different nets, each in water 800+ ft deep😳

Once we made the turn into Samana Bay, the sun came up behind us. Luckily we were close to our destination, because ‘red sky in the morning’ usually means bad weather is ahead.

Even with that beautiful sunrise behind us, strange fog banks hugged the mountains surrounding the bay.

We weren’t the only ones coming in from an overnight passage. When we arrived, there was a line of boats waiting for the marina to open. We hovered outside for about an hour before they were ready to receive us.

 In the background of this picture you can see an anchored cruise ship. There is no cruise ship dock in Samana Bay, but they shuttle passengers to the town for whale watching excursions, and to the national park to see caves.

Once in our slip, I took our documents binder and proceeded to the marina office to check in...

In the marina office I had to produce our passports, insurance information, and our boat documentation. From there, I was sent next door to the immigration office 🤷‍♀️ (we are already checked in to the country).

For the immigrations officer, I had to produce our passports, boat documentation, and paperwork showing we checked in at Luperon👍. Next I was sent to the agricultural officer, whom did not speak English, and ‘fast tracked’ my paperwork by blindly stamping papers with information he thought was most plausible (he entered incorrect information in 3 blanks on the form😬). Finally, I was sent to the navy officer, where I had to produce our passports, boat documentation, paperwork showing we checked in at Luperon, AND our despacho…

I handed over all requested documents, and the conversation (luckily he spoke English) went like this…

Him: everything looks in order, I just need your despacho

Me: this is my despacho

Him: this is not a despacho

Me: 😳 this is my despacho

Him: this is not a despacho, where is your despacho…

Me pointing to the word despacho, at the top of the form, did not provide resolution to this problem🤣

Even though he spoke English, it felt like we were trapped in a loop of confusion caused by a language barrier!

Poor Keith…in the meantime, Keith was concerned that I had been gone for almost 2 hours, and had issued an APB with the resort front desk (which had nothing to do with any of this process), and they had personnel looking for me😂. Keith finally found me in the Armada office (because he was sticking his head in every unlocked door) and the previous conversation (between myself and the navy guy) was reenacted between myself and Keith…where is our despacho…this is our despacho…

Finally, officer Sheppard (the navy guy) got ahold of the Luperon navy guy, and after I received a stern talking to, it was agreed that the Luperon guy would create an actual despacho and send it to Sheppard. As it turns out, the form we had was a ‘pre’ despacho (given by an immigration official), which Keith was supposed to take to the Armada to get the real despacho. Sometimes our learning curve frustrates other people😂

After a few days of R&R, we decided it was time for a road trip, and rented a car for 3 days. Santo Domingo here we come!

DR has very fertile soil, and they grow a LOT of food. We passed several paddies (flooded field used to cultivate rice).

Only on the road for an hour when this happened. Thankfully, the car contained everything needed to allow us to quickly get on our way.

I had been trying to capture a picture of a whole family on a motorcycle, but had never been fast enough with the camera.  Since we passed this family, a few minutes before our flat, Keith reminded me to get the camera ready👍. Yep, there’s a total of five!

Santo Domingo is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas. It is the site of the first university, cathedral, castle, monastery, and fortress in the New World.

Parque Indepencia (Independence Park) 

The Altar of the Homeland, is a white marble mausoleum in Santo Domingo, that houses the remains of the founding fathers of the Dominican Republic: Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, and Ramón Matías Mella, collectively known as Los Trinitarios. These men were the leaders in the war of independence against Haiti, which began in 1844 and ended in 1856.

The ruins from several forts are scattered around the city, and open for exploration. At different times in history, twelve different fortresses were built to protect the city.

This canon is aimed at the marina😬

This is a downtown marina in Santo Domingo. It is designed in a Med moor (Mediterranean mooring) fashion, which means you pick up a mooring line to tie to the bow, and back the stern in to the dock. There are no piers or finger piers. Also, they keep a floating fence across the entrance to keep floating vegetation out of the marina. If you want to get in, or out, a person will row out to open the fence.

Anchor from a Galleon, sunk off the coast of Samana, in 1724.

The historic architecture is beautiful.

At no time were we uncomfortable with our surroundings, but it was nice to see several vehicles driving around the city, which appeared to be dedicated to ‘Tourist Protection’.

This statue of Christopher Columbus includes his ships, which appear to be coming out of the base. The pedestal also contains the figure of Queen Anancaona, leader of the Taino Indians.

The cultural energy was wonderful!

Cathedral of Santa Maria la Menor is the oldest existing cathedral in the Americas. Construction began in 1504 and was completed in 1550. 

I wanted to peek inside, and get a quick picture, but the man at the door wouldn’t let me in…again, the language barrier hindered my understanding as to why. A nice lady walking past was kind enough to stop and interpret for me. It seems the church was getting ready to hold a mass, and we were not allowed entry because we were not dressed appropriately. Shorts are not allowed, but if we wanted to attend mass a nun could bring us appropriate clothes to wear🤣. Once she explained that a picture was all we wanted, we were allowed to step inside for a moment.

This is a taxi stand…yep, a motorcycle taxi stand😬

During our drive back to Samana we passed numerous plantations.

Palm 

Coconut 

We ended up staying in the marina for a week, before leaving to visit the national park. We were certain to get the actual despacho this time👍. I’ll fill you in on our park adventures in the next blog post.

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Right Hand Returns to Luperon

 Our boat has spent a significant amount of time in Luperon. However, at that time we were not the owners, and her name was Miss Teak.  In fact, Luperon was the farthest the previous owners made it on their quest to reach Brazil. Additionally, they lived on the boat, in Luperon, for several years before a health emergency forced them to return to the U.S., and leave the boat there.  They tried to sell her from Luperon, but eventually gave up and hired a captain and crew to bring her back to Florida…where we found her in 2013.

This is the story we were told, by Captain Al himself.  He always dreamt of cruising to Brazil on his own boat. Apparently, his wife was not very keen on this idea. Finally, he laid out the ultimatum that he was going with or without her (as it had been his dream his whole life).  She reluctantly agreed, and they started south. Everything seemed to be going well…until their crossing to Luperon. 

Whatever happened in the ocean was such a bad experience that they both were in fear for their lives. Once in Luperon she declared that she would never go anywhere on the boat again, and this time he didn’t fight her. The boat remained tied to a dock in Luperon for about 5 years😳

I tell you this story, before sharing our experience, because this seed planted in my brain certainly played a role in our decision making for this crossing.

On February 27 (one day before our cruising permit and visas expired in the Bahamas) we left Great Inagua at 4:30 a.m. for a 200 mile crossing to Luperon.  The forecasted conditions were pretty good with 3-4 foot waves at a 7 second period.  If those conditions held true, we could easily make this passage in 30 hours (at 7 mph) and arrive in Luperon around 10:00 a.m.

The first few hours went well, but conditions rapidly deteriorated and we found ourselves in 5-6 foot waves (with a very short period). These waves were steep and stacked, and right on our nose.  It’s similar to jumping over a curb to smash into a Jersey wall…over and over, and over again. Our original plan was to navigate the yellow line to Luperon. However, these conditions slowed our speed to 5 mph or less, and caused us to change course, to be able to ride over the waves at a longer angle (minimizing the crashing), which would add miles!  Looking at these numbers, it was very possible that our arrival would be after dark, which would require us to endure a second night in these conditions, as entering Luperon in the dark, for the first time, was not an option. Also, conditions were forecast to get worse on the afternoon of the 28th…so we could very well be setting ourselves up for a Captain Al scenario😳

Time to weigh our options…we were 55 miles from Cuba(red line) not an option…65 miles from Haiti(purple line) NOT an option! We could return to Bahamas, but this wasn’t a great option, because extending all of our permits would cost $900 dollars, and we would have made no progress, at all.  So the winner…we were 90 miles from Turks & Caicos, and the direction change gave us a nice angle to ride over the waves. It cost a total of $155 for us to check into, and out of T&C, with a 7 day cruising permit. This worked out perfectly, because the next weather window was three days out.

We were anchor down in Sapodillo Bay (star on left/west) around 11:30 p.m. on February 27.  On the morning of the 28th, Keith went ashore to check us into the country, which was a horrible 6 hour experience…to make matter worse, he had to return the next day to check us out, because you had to check out within 24 hours of leaving, and we weren’t leaving until March 2.

On March 1, after a slow check out process, we had a glorious cruise for 50 miles across Caicos Bank.  We anchored at Six Hills Cay (the star on the right/east) in preparation for our departure the next day. This time we were only facing a 120 mile crossing, and the conditions were MUCH better!  

Three humpback whales swam parallel to us for about 15 minutes!

During this trip we had trouble going slow enough, and arrived well before dawn. We had to stay offshore until it was light enough for us to see the entrance.

It was a fantastic feeling to enter this harbour after a fairly easy passage!  I was certain we made the right decisions when we changed course! After being in the Bahamas for three months, the green was explosive, and there were sweet floral smells coming off the land…so exciting!

We picked up a mooring (which looked questionable) in the derelict section of the harbor🤣

Luperon is a poor fishing town that depends a great deal on the money cruising boats contribute!  The people were wonderful, and for the most part very honest. One morning Keith and I took a walk through the side streets. Many houses set up a little window shop to sell candy, muffins, coffee…etc. we stopped to get two corn muffins. I didn’t understand how much money the man was asking for, as 328 days of Duolingo does not prepare you for all of the possible number combinations🤣. I placed a 100 peso bill (equivalent to $1.60 US) with a questioning look, and he held up two fingers.  That seemed expensive for two muffins, but I didn’t want to insult him so I placed a second 100 peso bill on the table. He openly laughed and shook his head. He pushed the second bill back to me, took the first and returned 80 pesos in change😂 two muffins actually cost 32 cents.  After that experience I used my phone opened to the calculator app and asked them to enter the amount…this was a perfect solution!

There are always ruins to explore

Plantains are everywhere…in fact, it is difficult to find bananas. It looks like people have been picking the fruit from the lowest part of this bunch, which hangs over the sidewalk. This was the first time we noticed the flower.

People here use motorcycles to move everything!

It became apparent that a few men were working on Miss Belkis. We aren’t sure if they are trying to make her sea worthy, or just livable, but they carried quite a bit of lumber out to this boat.

Eggs are super cheap! This flat of 30 costs less that $2.50

This is a common taxi option here, and I was excited to try it out. We decided to take a trip to La Isabela, a town about 8 miles away.

This was a great way to see the countryside!

Small homesteads milk their cows, in the morning, and put the milk cans out on the street. Motorcycles drive by and pick up the milk cans😮

Traffic jams are rare, but they do happen😂

This is the site of the first settlement of the ‘New World’ established by Christopher Columbus.

After the initial discovery, Columbus returned with 17 ships, 1,500 people, livestock, seeds, and tools to establish the first settlement.

The thatch structure currently protects the original foundation of Columbus’ personal residence.

Like most first settlements they were challenged by hurricanes, crop failures, mutinous sailors, and indigenous hostilities. This settlement was abandoned after five years, when Santo Domingo was established.  We were told, in later history, a government official told the mayor of the area to clean up the site to prepare for a tour by dignitaries. The mayor misunderstood the instructions and bulldozed all stone structures. This mistake cost the mayor his life😮

This is a burrowing owl. It lives in the hole under those rocks.

There are many original roof tiles that remain at the site. The tiles were made by using the upper thigh to mold the clay…clever!

This was the view from Columbus’ home.

A few days later, we rented a car for a trip to Puerta Plata…

Again, the countryside was amazingly beautiful.

We did all of the ‘tourist’ stuff, but didn’t fall for the ridiculous prices they are apparently getting from cruise ship passengers! 

🤷‍♀️ I have no words for this

There was a nice garden, and we did pay a guide to tell us about all of the plants…interesting!

Our real reason for traveling to Puerta Plata was to visit the 27 Charcos (waterfalls).  While this is definitely a huge tourist attraction, we timed our arrival when there were no cruise ships at port.  You had to hike up to the top (only 7 falls were open on the day we were there) and ‘ride’ down by way of slides and pools.

It was GREAT fun!!

The next leg of our journey included another overnight passage from Luperon to Samana. I look forward to giving you those highlights in the next blog post…

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