Escondido to Samana

February 26, 2014

At 4 a.m., trying to take advantage of the smooth water and low wind, we left Escondido heading towards Samana.  Samana is another stop over on our way to Puerto Rico.  It’s an official “exit” where you checkout with the local government.  We pulled into the harbor at about 9 a.m., not a long trip by any means, but the highlight was another whale sighting.  It was awesome to see!  It’s whale watching season in Samana and we hope to see more.  We did see lots of little boats taking out a lot of tourists to go see the whales.  Whale watching must be big business. 

After we set the anchor, we put D-Time in the water and started off towards shore to “check out” with the local Commandante (the government official).  On our way in a guy named Chico met us with a navy person in his boat saying he usually comes out and does his paperwork on arriving boats, but he wouldn’t make us turn around, we would just take care of the paperwork in town.  We were like, what?  We’ve done the paperwork, we just need to get our passports stamped and check out of the Dominican Republic.  We are met at the Government Dock by Chico and half a dozen navy guys (government guys), none of whom speak any English except Chico (who is NOT navy).  We all walk a block to the local Commandante’s office and we tell them our purpose for being there, to get our passports stamped and checkout.  They take our paperwork from Luperon, enter our passports into their system and spit out another piece of paper for us.  Then they tell us, that will be $10 U.S.  We were like, what?  Luperon Commandante told us not to pay any more money to anyone, we were set to leave the country after we checked out.  We explained this to Chico, who told the navy guys, who decided they had better call in THE Commandante and we were told to sit and wait.  By this time I’m “just give them the $10 and let’s go” but we had to wait.  THE Commandante shows up, we explain what we were told in Luperon, lots more talking amongst the navy people and I’m like “just give them the $10 and let’s get out of here!”  Daniel pulls out a $10 bill and I show it to them, they usher me back to another office, give me the departure piece of paper and say “ok”.  I said, are you going to stamp our passports?  “Yeah, yeah, we will do that at the dock”.  So we walk back to the dock where D-Time was located and there are NO navy people around, no one to stamp our passports – at this point, who cares?  We hop in D-Time and get out of there.  Happy to be leaving and with a bad taste in our mouths about Samana.

We rested a little, did some laundry, and then about 5 p.m. got some diesel and headed off towards Puerto Rico.  It is going to be a long journey to get to Puerto Rico, but I’m ready to put my feet on some U.S. soil.

 

 

Sousa to Escondido, Dominican Republic

February 24, 2014 – February 25, 2014

We actually ended up leaving at 2:45 p.m.  We were sitting in the cockpit and a couple of “glass bottom” boats kept coming up next to us, I mean almost touching our boat, filled with people.  It was strange.  Some people jumped out of the glass bottom boat to do some snorkeling.  There was a guide on board and as he came near our boat and he told us that our anchor was getting close to the reef (which is why they were coming around the boat – duh!).  I actually heard the anchor dragging and had just gone up on deck to tell Daniel when the guide did the same thing so since we had to leave by 3:00 anyway, we just went ahead and pulled up anchor and left. 

Knowing that the seas were not going to be too favorable, Daniel took off slow from our anchorage spot.  We motored the rest of the afternoon, the night and all through the night to arrive at Escondido.  On the way we saw a whale!  That woke us up – really neat to see a whale.  We also went by Cabarete which is supposed to be the best wind surfing beach in the world and it must be so because we saw about 25-30 windsurfers out trying the wind and waves.

Escondido is a small cutout in the extreme rock walls and mountains, like a little cove.  We pulled in here at about 11 a.m. on February 25^th.  It is gorgeous!  The mountains and steep rocks are all around us, there is beach, I’m calling Carla’s beach, because no one else is on there and no one else is around.  It has lovely rock formations, caves even, right next to and as part of the beach.  This place is beautiful.  We will be here until the wind dies down again, until probably about midnight or a little later, and then we are headed towards Samana.

Luperon to Sousa, Dominican Republic

February 24, 2014

We left Luperon at 3:00 a.m. this morning, ultimately heading for Samana on the coast closest to Puerto Rico but it will take us a couple of days/nights to get there.  Everyone says you should try and take advantage of the “lee” which is a time of night when the winds calm way down.  So, that is why we left at 3:00 a.m.  The winds out at sea were 20 knots, with gusts to 25 knots so when the lee hit, the winds close to the coast drop to about the 10 knot range, which is very doable.  So we motored 6 hours and arrived at Sousa and as we are trying to drop anchor, one boat with some scuba divers and a driver come by and tell us we will need to move, we are really in the way of the scuba divers.  Fine, so we move a little closer to shore and see huge coral head.  We are trying to get around it, without hitting and damaging the coral head (and the boat) when a large flat bottom type boat (that looks like a piece of junk) pulls up.  I’m thinking, they want to sell us something…Daniel is concentrating on keeping us off the coral and I’m on the bow looking for coral.  They just don’t leave and won’t leave us alone.  Our broken Spanish is not that great, as you know, and their broken English was even worse.  After much back and forth with the language, throwing out words we both understand “commandante” “despacho” “papers” we realize, this guy might be for real, so we start really paying attention.  We “checked out” in Luperon with the local commandante last night and we are heading towards Samana.  Well this local, commandante, doesn’t want us staying in his waters – he wants us to continue on to Samana.  The daytime winds are picking up and it just isn’t a good time to go but he keeps insisting.  Daniel explains that we are very tired and would like some rest so the local commandante has agreed that we can stay, for 6 hours.  That would be 3:00 p.m. local time.  I’m thinking we are going to be having some engine trouble and can’t leave until the lee sets in again, but we will see.

Luperon, Dominican Republic

February 23, 2014

I never would have thought, or even believed, I would someday be spending my birthday in a foreign country.  It’s pretty cool – I have to say.  Daniel made breakfast this morning and then we went into town to find some wifi so I could chat with the family.  I don’t need presents, I just need to hear from the family.  I was able to FaceTime with all of our children and their families and I was able to talk on the phone to my parents and Daniel’s mom.  MagicJack is a wonderful thing, just saying.

After that, we had lunch in town and then as we were leaving in the afternoon heading back to the boat, we decided to check in with the local officials to see how we go about getting our departure papers (despacho).  Well, again, they don’t speak English and we speak little Spanish so it took about 30 minutes and a lot of guessing at each other words but we were finally given our despacho – but then we had to go through immigration again, to check out with them.  They opened their doors, filled out some more papers and then told us our passports would get stamped when we left from the last city in the Dominican Republic we plan to visit, which will be Samana.  So, okay, we take our despacho and head back to C-Time.

C-Time and some wonderful german chocolate cake!  You see, german chocolate is my absolute favorite and as I was walking around this morning, pouting because I wasn’t getting my cake this year, I turn around and Daniel is stirring and mixing…I peek over his shoulders and see a german chocolate cake mix!  The wonderful man has been hiding the cake mix (and icing) somewhere on this boat for just this day.  Married almost 32 years and he still surprises me.  Can’t wait to see what he has up his sleeves for our wedding anniversary in 2 weeks, he mumbled something about taking me on a trip to the Spanish Virgin Islands J. 

Picture Time - Mountains of Dominican Republic

"Hotel California" in Jarabacoa - not bad for $25 a nite (yes, Daniel swimming)

"Overlook" for the waterfall - looks very reliable, doesn't it?

Waterfall!

Gorgeous mountains of Dominican Republic

Some typical homes

We must have gone through on laundry day, everyone had wash out

Front porch of our rustic cabin

Our rustic cabin in Constanza

Mountains and beautiful valley in Constanza

Our "police escort" to the grocery store in Puerto Plata

Puerto Plata

Daniel brought my birthday cake mix with him from the States and I didn't know it until this morning when he was in the galley making my birthday cake - pretty great guy, huh?

TRIP INTO THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MOUNTAINS

February 20, 2014

My birthday is coming up and in celebration my husband is taking me on a trip :-).  Ok, so we are already on the trip of a lifetime - but still, my birthday is coming up and we will use any excuse to expand the adventure.  Our Kiwi friends, Mark and Amanda, wanted to go up into the mountains of the Dominican Republic and asked if we would like to join them.  It happens to be Amanda's birthday as well, so let's have a birthday party!

We left C-Time at about 10 this morning and Mark and Amanda had arranged with their mooring ball owner for us to rent a car from a local person.  We were to rent it and drive it for a couple of days.  We figured a local Avis person or something.  We stand on the street in Luperon and a man named Franklin pulls up in his Ford Explorer with his 12 month old son.  He tells us, in broken English, to get in.  We figure we're going to a car lot.  We drive about 8 blocks across town and Franklin stops.  He said, "You pay me now".  So we paid him $100 U.S. for 3 days in a relatively new SUV.  Franklin then says, "Ok, bye" and walks off.  I'm like, really???  We are all standing there with our mouths open and after we got ahold of ourselves, we started the car and drove off.  First stop, buy 10 gallons of gas at a cost of about $55.  Then we headed towards Santiago.  The traffic in Santiago was as crazy as driving in New York City or even, Bogota, Colombia!  Mark did an exceptional job, but man it was some crazy driving.

We stopped for lunch and then headed on to Jarabacao.  It's up in the mountains and is supposed to be a resort destination.  We stopped at the information center in town and the lady helped us find a really nice hotel room for $25 a night.  The place (Hotel California – no kidding) had a nice pool, beautiful gardens, a cemetery next door and chicken cages.  It had roosters that crowed all the time.  Crazy!

We then went into the downtown area to hunt out a place for dinner.  The town was full of drivers, mostly motorcycle or moped drivers - I mean it was full of them.  You would try to cross the street and would have to wait for a dozen of them to pass.  And it wasn’t just the two-wheeled drivers, it was what they would have on their vehicles that was a bit odd.  We saw some two seater, two-wheeled vehicles with 3 or 4 people on them or we saw some with a washing machine, lumber, you name it. 

We never actually saw anything "resort" about the town, like you would see in Charleston or Hilton Head, it was more like a town on the Mexican border.  Lots of noise, lots of people, lots of crazy driving - and no one really getting anything accomplished.  Don't get me wrong, the scenery is beautiful - the mountains are wonderful to see.  Just different.

Feb. 21, 2014

(Day 2 of Trip into the Mountains)

Constanza

We went into town this morning and found a quaint place for a quick breakfast and then we were off again - heading towards the town of Constanza.  Our first stop along the way was a beautiful waterfall.  It was about a 25 minute walk down the mountain and probably an hour back up but the waterfall was gorgeous.  They filmed part of the movie Jarrasic Park at this waterfall.  After huffing it back up the mountain after seeing the waterfall, we were off again towards Constanza.

We went through a small town and saw an open restaurant and decided to stop for lunch.  We had a very typical lunch of small pieces of fried chicken, lots of rice with a small serving of beans in a bean soupy type mixture that you're to pour over the rice, and a slaw type salad, all for about $3.50.  It's really quite good.

Constanza is up in the mountains with a lot of very fertile soil around and the locals take advantage of it and grow lots of different things.  We stopped at one roadside market and bought some “fresh from the fields” strawberries.  There are little roadside stands everywhere full of all kinds of fruits and vegetables. YUM!  We finally made it to Constanza and it was a small "resort" town, not too much unlike the one from yesterday.  We went searching for our hotel and were told we needed 4 wheel drive to get there.  Thank goodness we had it!  It was up, up, up a mountain to about 4500’ elevation.  The lodging, once we arrived and checked the place over, was a bit rustic but it made up for it in the view!  The mountains are right out our door and they're just beautiful.  I mean, it was a nice cabin we shared with Mark and Amanda, we each had our own bedrooms but the electricity worked sporadically (not at all this morning).  There was no hot water in the shower, only cold ice water from the mountains and the toilet wouldn’t flush – until Daniel fixed it.  After that, it wasn’t bad at all.  The lady that owns the place, Emma, is a bit flamboyant to say the least.  She speaks very good English, as she used to live in the States.  She would tell us stories from over the years and her arms were waving and she was dancing – it worked though – Emma was a great hostess.  She made us a Cuban dish that literally translated means “dirty clothes” – pulled beef with mashed potatoes – and it was delicious.  We were the only ones staying in her cabins that night but that was fine, she took really good care of us.  She had Manuel (her helper) build us a campfire and we spent a while sitting by the campfire.  After Manuel, who spoke no English, got the fire going and we all sat down, joined us at the fire, with a shotgun in his lap.  We were all taken aback a bit and couldn’t ask Manuel what in the world was going on (rebel guerillas in the mountains? mountain lions, what???) since he didn’t understand English.  You could have heard a pin drop as we sat by the fire just staring at each other, and the shotgun.  Emma soon joined us and we questioned the purpose of Manuel and the shotgun and she told us, it just seems to make visitors feel better when he has it.  Ok.  Manuel smiled a lot, so I wasn’t really threatened by it…much.

Emma is big into animals. Dogs, horses, donkey, birds, chickens, iquanas, you name it - she has it.  She proudly boasts that she has 23 different species at the place.  It is really cool, temperature wise, too.  We brought jackets and needed them.  Totally different from being close to the ocean.  

February 22, 2014

Constanza to Puerto Plata to Luperon

Emma made us a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and bread with strawberry jam…and coffee.  We said our good-byes and took off back over the mountains heading home to our boats.  We really were missing them.  The mountains of the Dominican Republic have a lot of poor people with small shanty type houses but they are clean and proud people.  They are also very welcoming and kind to strangers.  If we ever got lost or needed directions, all we had to do was ask and they were most happy to help. 

On the ride back through the mountains we decided to try and take a route back that would have us detouring Santiago.  The traffic was just awful our first time through and we really wanted to skip it if we could.  After a few wrong turns, we ended up on a very new “interstate”.  It was like any interstate we had back in the U.S. except at about every overpass we came to, there were guards there that would stop us and make us leave the interstate.  We would see people driving on it, but they made most of us leave the interstate.  It was weird.  Finally, we tried to explain to the guard that we needed to continue on, we were heading towards Puerto Plata.  He didn’t understand English and as we were trying to explain in our broken Spanish that we just wanted to continue on, another driver pulled up and stopped and explained (in Spanish) that he wanted to go to Puerto Plata.  They let him through and we yelled out “Puerto Plata” too, and just followed him.  We saw people walking across the interstate, we saw people biking on the interstate and eventually we came to a toll booth and had to pay about a $1.50 to keep going.  We were happy to pay.  So, we kept going.  We finally came to our “off ramp” but it was blocked with orange cones.  We weren’t allowed to actually exit.  Weird.  We are all thinking, we really need to exit here…if we go further we end up in the wrong place heading the wrong way.  So Amanda happily hopped out of the car and moved the orange cones so we could drive through.  She put the cones back, hopped in the car and we went down the exit ramp and kept on our way.  Yea, Amanda!

On to Puerto Plata.  It is a nice little village on the coast and we would like to look it over, but it’s getting late and we need to get lunch, get to the grocery store and back to the boat before dark.  We pull over in the downtown area and hop out and start looking for a local restaurant.  Daniel and I are standing on a street corner just looking around when a local policeman asked if we needed help.  We mentioned that we were looking for the “supermercado” (grocery store) but evidently we weren’t saying it right because we finally said we were looking for leche (milk) at a supermercado.  He smiled and said, follow me.  Mark found Amanda and brought the car around and Daniel and I hopped in.  We had a police escort to the grocery store.  J  We found lunch inside the grocery store, we loaded up on groceries and we high-tailed it out of there back to our boats. 

Mark had to return our “rental car” while Daniel went with some random guy in his dinghy to get D-Time for us and our groceries.  Mark said he pulled up to where we were dropped off by Franklin and asked a bunch of guys sitting around if they knew where Franklin was, and one of them said “I’m Franklin” (which was NOT the Franklin that rented us the car).  Mark gave the guy the keys and well, someone has the car – we hope it is the guy that actually owns the car.  In the meantime, Daniel gets D-Time and takes me and our groceries to the boat and then gets Mark and Amanda (and their groceries) to their boat. 

For dinner tonight we had fresh from the field strawberries, fresh from the field mandarin oranges, mango, grapes, apple and strawberry jelly on top of some kind of twisted bread.  Delicious! 

We had a fabulous few days in the mountains of the Dominican Republic but as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz says, “there’s no place like home”.  We are glad to be back on C-Time. 

 

Luperon

February 19, 2014

Today has been a day of waiting.  Daniel saw Paco (the mooring area guy) first thing this morning.  We told him we wanted 40 gallons of diesel delivered and he said, no problem.  I will be back in an hour.  We waited and waited.  Apparently “an hour” in island time means something different than we think, so we wait.  Lunch time came and we really wanted to go into town for some local food so Daniel called Paco on the radio and asked him to just deliver this afternoon.  So we headed into town for lunch.  We went to a place called Robert’s Upstairs.  We had to walk up some stairs to get there.  We were the only customers in the place.  Daniel pulled out his Spanish and ordered us fried chicken with rice and beans, and a nice side salad.  It was delicious.  We were able to watch the lady (and her mother?) prepare the food about 20 feet from us.  It was like a kitchen with no walls in the corner of a restaurant.  As I sat there waiting on my pictures to download to the blog I was watching the locals walk/ride by.  I saw, and have never seen before in my life, a man, riding a motorcycle going at a pretty brisk speed, pulling a horse, which was pulling a donkey.  No lie. 

Picture Time!

Luperon anchorage, after the rain this morning.

Luperon - "Customs and Immigration" are the first trailor and the one with the SUV parked in front of it is the Agricultural Dept. 

French Cay

Coast of Dominican Republic

Downtown Luperon.  Goats? Sheep?

"Dinghy jungle" at Luperon.  Daniel had to climb over some just to get to ours.

Our anchorage at Luperon, Dominican Republic

Our "private" island, French Cay, Caicos

Look closely.  The dark areas are what I have to "watch" for when we are going along.  Could be coral, rocks. This is just a sample of what to watch for - easiest to see when the sun is overhead.

This fella followed us from Provo, Turks to about half way to French Cay

Luperon, Dominican Republic

February 18, 2014

After 12 hours of wonderful sleep last night, we got up this morning and had some boat projects to accomplish before we started the day.  Daniel washed off all of the salt crystals that were all over the boat and D-Time and I stayed inside and defrosted the freezer.  The freezer has to be defrosted every so often and well, that’s taken care of for a while.  After that, there was an announcement on the VHF radio of a local “swap meet” for cruisers and “southern BBQ sandwiches”.  Well, it sounded interesting so we went into town to investigate.  When we arrived, we told them we were there for the “southern” BBQ and wanted to know what made it southern.  Apparently the cook was from Louisiana/Mississippi – and that was good enough for us.  She asked where we were from (said we had an accent ??) and I said Alabama, originally, and she told us that her daughter wants to go to the University of Alabama.  Really, we’re in the Dominican Republic and we come across a girl that wants to go to ‘Bama?  Crazy.  I had carried my “Alabama” tote shopping bag and had an extra with me.  After I spoke with the daughter about her desire to go to Bama, I shared one of my tote shopping bags with her.  She was so happy for the treasure. 

After lunch, we went walking through the town and saw a couple of pigs running around “downtown” and about 5 sheep “grazing” on the lawn of the town square.  The town really did shut down from 12 – 2 for “siesta time”.  It was interesting.  We found one very small produce store we went into to purchase some fruit and vegetables.  Did I mention the native language is Spanish?  I’m only on level 1, session 3 of my Rosetta Stone Spanish language course and Daniel’s high school Spanish is just a bit better than my Rosetta Stone Spanish.  There we were faced with different fruits and vegetables and didn’t know what to pick.  I saw a pineapple, I recognized it, and Daniel said – let’s try something local.  Okay, I said, but what is what??  I asked the lady and the man, apparently the owners of the store, what everything was and they told me, in Spanish.  Uh oh.  I called our son, Brian, for help but he quickly reminded me that he teaches ENGLISH to people who speak Spanish.  I called our daughter-in-law, Sonia, and thankfully she was available.  Via FaceTime, I took her through the small store and let her talk to the lady behind the counter.  Apparently, Daniel and I had already picked up and paid for a papaya and another “fruit” (that actually turned out to be a pumpkin!).  After Sonia quit laughing (she said you don’t even know how to cook the pumpkin vegetable), she helped us pick out a bapana and the papaya and we happily left the store.  [Note:  Once we got the papaya home, I had to place another FaceTime call to Sonia to ask how to cut up/serve a papaya.  It was delicious!] After we picked out our fruits, the lady behind the counter held up an extremely fresh chicken, skinned, by it’s neck, and asked if I wanted to buy one?  (My chicken comes in a package and wrapped in plastic, no thank you.) 

One thing I forgot to mention about our arrival yesterday, when the commandante came on board C-Time, he kept telling us that this is a very safe place to be.  We thanked him for the information.  He proceeded to get off our boat and said, do you have an extra rope?  I need one to tie to my boat, it was stolen.  Not by someone from here, someone from somewhere else.  We felt like it was a “tip” and gave him an extra we were going to dispose of anyway.  Then we went into town and as we were leaving the dinghy dock, Paco (the guy that runs our mooring area) saw us and told us that, it’s very safe here, no problems at all.  We told him thanks for the information.  Then he offered us a ride into town and we said, sure.  We hopped into the back seat of his truck and there on the floor board is a sawed off pump shotgun.  We were like, I thought you said it was safe here…he said, oh, that’s not for Luperon, that’s for when I go somewhere else.  Oh, boy.

Luperon, Dominican Republic

February 17, 2014

We arrived in the Dominican Republic at about noon today.  Did you know there are mountains here?  I didn’t know – what a surprise when the sun came up and clouds moved away – mountains in Haiti and Dominican Republic.  It is a beautiful country, the part we’ve seen from the coast anyway.  We called on the local VHF radio and Papo (local guy in the mooring area) came out in his boat and showed us to our mooring for the night.  He helped us hook it up and everything.  The price:  $2.00 per night.  WOW!  A “cheap” mooring ball in the Bahamas was $20.00 a night.  After we were all set up with our mooring ball, the local “officials” then came and made an “inspection” of our boat.  Three men came on board, 1 of which spoke a medium amount of English.  We’ve read that the main person, the “commandante” comes aboard expecting a “tip”.  Seriously.  We just came 30+ hours on awful seas, he could have whatever he wanted as far as I was concerned.  But I thought I would try the old fashioned way.  I took out some cookie dough and made some fresh chocolate chip cookies.  A dozen.  There were none left after the three men left.  They each got one of our precious Coke Zeros, too.  They filled out their paperwork and then proceeded to walk around the boat and had us open lockers and storage areas for them to “inspect”.  The commandante was very interested in the food I had in our refrigerator.  Oh brother!  Anyway, we passed inspection and then had to go ashore to clear customs.  Imagine 4 small buildings joined together with a desk and 1, maybe 2, chairs in each tiny building.  We had to go into each, meet with an “official” – some spoke English, most didn’t – and fill out basically the same paperwork and give them more money.  $63 for our boat to come in, $20 to the commandante for his entrance form, $20 for 2 tourist visitor cards, $10 for an agriculture card (even though our cupboards are bare with no agricultural products) and another $20 to somebody for something. 

After our wallets were cleaned out, we walked into town searching for food.  We found a local phone company and I purchased a SIM card and a data card for $17 U.S. and then we went and had a wonderful lunch (with fresh banana milkshakes) for 2, for $7.00.  Nice, inexpensive place.  We hope to stay here a week as another weather front passes.

French Cay, Caicos to Luperon, Dominican Republic

February 16, 2014

After a weather report check this morning, we raised the anchor and began our voyage towards Luperon, Dominican Republic.  The sky was blue, the waves were small, the wind was coming from the right direction – it was going to be an amazing trip.  We are, at present 9 hours into the trip and that weather guy still didn’t get his report correct.  Instead of the promised east wind at about 10 knots and 2-4 seas, we’ve had the wind from all different directions and usually about 15 knots, plus.  The seas have been more like 3-5 feet with occasional 7 to 8 foot waves thrown in just for “fun”.  I can’t believe we are doing our next 24 hour passage only 3 days after our first and I am having almost as much fun as I did the first time.  Oh, I forgot to mention, we have a 1 ½ knot current “against” us so instead of a 24 hour passage, we’re looking more at a 30 hour passage.  Mark and Amanda are still traveling with us, of course, but their boat is a bigger boat than ours, with more sail coverage, so they’re running faster than us and are presently about 3 or 4 miles ahead of us.  That means, I can’t see them in the distance anymore, they are just out of view.  We can still chat on the VHF radio and we do, checking on each other every few hours or so.  It’s nice knowing they are nearby because we have not seen another boat all day.  We did see a helicopter fly a low pass over us, but other than that, nothing, nada.  Just me, Daniel, Auto and C-Time.  Who’s Auto?  That’s the name we gave to our auto-pilot.  We could not make any portion of these voyages without him.  He is wonderful.  He doesn’t talk back, just does what we say and takes us where we want to go when we don’t feel like steering and most times takes us in a straight line when the seas won’t allow our steering to come anywhere near a straight line.  I did just pop us some popcorn in the microwave for a nice afternoon snack, so I’ll go up top again and enjoy the popcorn and the impeding sunset.

7:00 a.m February 17, 2014 – trip continuation to Luperon

“Oh what a night!” and not in a good way.  The seas did not get any better, just worse as the day / night went on.  I didn’t want you to think I exaggerated my description above, or anything else I write below, so I asked Daniel this morning, as we are motoring, to describe our trip thus far.  He said:  “A long time friend of ours…actually a friend of 3 days now…said just yesterday ‘usually if it starts out bad, it improves.  If it starts out good then it worsens’.  We started yesterday with flat seas and 15 knot winds and 45 degrees off our bow and sunny skies.  Those perfect conditions deteriorated throughout the day and well into the night ending in 7 foot confused seas and 20 knot winds, straight on the nose.  We were able to sail for the first 18 ½ hours of this voyage but after that C-Time had had enough.  We had to motor into rough seas the remainder of the way into Luperon.  Total trip time will be over 30 hours.” 

See, I didn’t exaggerate.  At 2:00 a.m. this morning I finally decided that the boat ride we are on right now is just like the “Tilt-a-Whirl” at the fair.  You can’t get off of it and the ride just keeps going on and on.  It’s a bit of a terrible feeling to know that you’re so far from land and if you’re not happy with the weather/sea conditions, too bad, you just have to deal with it.  No way out.  I would say we managed fine but really we “endured” and C-Time and Auto held up much better than both of us.  The seas were so rough and confused that to just walk down the 5 steps into the galley would literally take minutes to accomplish.  You would have to hold on and wait for a lul in the waves.  Then hurry down the steps but hope you didn’t miscalculate the waves or you could land on your “bum”.  At one point in the night we had a line come loose that was hanging from a halyard close to the cockpit.  Daniel was still moving slowly with his bad back so I said I would go.  The ever safety minded engineer agreed I could go, but only if I put on my life jacket (you know, the new one I got the Annapolis Boat Show that I had only worn once up to this point).  I put on my life jacket and it has a safety lanyard attached to it.  Daniel said, attach the safety lanyard to something before you step out of the cockpit.  I stepped out, attached the safety lanyard to the life line and then proceeded to fix the loose line.  It just took a minute – not a big deal.  I got back in the cockpit and turned around to unhook my safety lanyard from the life line and that was when I realized, I had not hooked the safety lanyard to ME.  Uh oh.  New lesson learned.  Always hook to me AND the life line.  Oh brother, I’m such a novice!

We should hopefully be in the Dominican Republic in time for a late lunch today.  I’m ready!

Providenciales, Turks & Caicos to French Cay, Caicos

February 15, 2014

Today I thought we were spending the day in Providenciales but things change.  Always – just be flexible.  Daniel was still suffering with his back and really woke up not feeling like continuing on so I gave him another dose of medicine and then took advantage of the wifi in the area to FaceTime with all 3 of our sons and their families.  I also had time to call both our Moms and FaceTime my friend, Blenda, so it was a good way to spend my morning.  I had about decided after all of that catching up that I would take D-Time into town and walk around.  I haven’t actually touched solid ground since we were in George Town, Bahamas and I was itching to touch some.  About that time Mark and Amanda came on the radio to let us know their plans to move a little further south to position themselves for a bit of a shorter passage to the Dominican Republic.  The next few days, weather wise, is perfect for moving on, but the weather window is really only good for the next 2 days.  After that, wherever you are, you are most likely stuck for the next 6 days.  Since our next stop was the Dominican Republic, I woke Daniel and shared Mark and Amanda’s plan.

Daniel shook off the medicine and started looking at weather and charts.  We decided that Mark and Amanda had a great plan and asked if we could follow.  Daniel really couldn’t steer much right now because of his back, so since I would be doing the steering, I asked Mark and Amanda if we could just “follow them”.  They were wonderful about it all and said, no problem.  So that was the plan, we took off just after noon and about 3 ½ hours later we dropped the anchor at French Cay, Caicos.  A really cool portion of the trip was a dolphin that followed us, did circles around the boat and followed us some more.  We saw him for more than half the trip.  I was a little sad about leaving Providenciales but French Cay made up for it.  A tiny little island in the middle of the Caicos Banks.  We were the only humans on/near the island.  It was totally wonderful.  Amanda and I went ashore and walked the beach, I really, really wanted to touch the land and walk around and she was sweet enough to keep me company.   It was a wonderful break.  Lots and lots of shells on the beach and lots of birds on the island.  I did a little bit of snorkeling, too.  Really nice afternoon at French Cay.

Picture Time!

This was George Town where Daniel had to ferry the diesel cans - all filled up, mission accomplished!

This is the dock Daniel had to park at and where we filled up on diesel at the Shell Station (in the background).

This was the "entrance" into the dock area where the grocery dinghy dock and diesel dock were located.

Close up of the entrance

Our anchorage in George Town, Bahamas

Our first "squal" on our way from Attwood Harbour to Turks & Caicos

The waves were so high on our 24 hour passage from Attwood Harbor to Turks & Caicos that I took this picture as I was sitting on one side of the boat and if you look at the angle of my view, instead of seeing ocean, the swells were so high that I was only seeing sky!

Early this morning, one really pretty rock outcropping greeting us as we came into Provo, Turks & Caicos

Providenciales, Turks & Caicos

Well, we made it to Providenciales, Turks & Caicos.  It was a 24 hour passage, literally.  We left yesterday morning at 7:30 a.m. and we did our preliminary customs clearance at about 6:30 this morning.  Then it was another 9 miles up the channel (about an hour and a half) to our anchorage.  It was kind of weird, we were outside the Providenciales channel waiting on the sun to come up - there are a lot of rocks and you have to be on the lookout.  Anyway, Provo Radio (the local authority) called "the boat at a certain latitude and longitude".  After almost 24 hours with little sleep, we weren't making the connection but finally figured out that they were calling us.  We went through about a 20 minute discussion, relaying information about us and our boat, as we were doing circles getting ready to come down the main channel.  The guy finally cleared us and we made our way, with me on the bow again watching for rocks, to our anchorage and dropped the anchor.  We "preliminarily" cleared customs but now we had to lower D-Time and take it into town to clear the official customs house.  Daniel took D-Time and all of our papers and headed for town.  When he got back, about an hour later, soaking wet from the waves and his docking spot (he was told to dock next to the large container ships), we had cleared customs.  I took down the Q-flag and sent up the Turks & Caicos flag.

Somewhere during the long night Daniel did something to his back and basically threw his back out. Thanks to our friends, Walter and Victoria (who were kind enough to give us some medication before we left), Daniel is laying down and feeling no pain right now.  I, on the other hand, couldn't pass up these gorgeous waters so I have been snorkeling.  Just saw 3 sea turtles - really, really cool!  Our daughter-in-law, Sonia, the biology girl in our family, went crazy when she heard about the sea turtles - she was ready to come join us on the trip. 

 

Providenciales, what I've seen of it so far, is a pretty town.  There are lots of rocks, rock walls and I understand it is a great place for snorkeling and diving.  I had big plans to go into town and to the grocery store but when I found out it was an hour walk to the store, I think I will put this shopping trip off and wait for the next major city or possibly buy groceries tomorrow when we stop for diesel. 

 

Every day is different and every day is a blessing and a wonder.  I say this after spending 24 hours on the passage from heck.  Good news, I never did pull out the Dramamine.  Our friends Mark and Amanda, the couple that was going along with us on the 24 hour passage in their boat, commented that the wave condition was a pretty big mess, not a good situation at all and the weather forecast just did not hold up.  I told them since they have 10 years experience, I feel better knowing that my complaints were justified.  It was a long, long, long night.

 

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, especially to my sweetheart.

 

Attwood Harbour, Acklins Island, Bahamas to Providenciales, Turks & Caicos

February 13, 2014

We met a really nice New Zealand couple in our anchorage last night, Mark and Amanda, and we found out that they were heading the same way we were this morning so we decided to keep an eye on each other today as we travelled.  We have big plans to go from Attwood Harbour, Acklins Island, Bahamas to Providenciales (Provo), Turks & Caicos.  It’s going to be a long day with us most likely arriving in Providenciales sometime in the morning.   Before we left the anchorage this morning I received a very nice video (via text) from one of my best friends,  Blenda, that showed me all of the ice and snow they are having to deal with in South Carolina.  I’m sorry you guys are having a rough time and hope it warms up for you soon.  If it doesn’t, come see us, we’ll share paradise with you J.

Daniel listened to the weather forecast this morning, like he has every morning, and the winds and seas were going to be a little rough as we started but they were supposed to be more favorable as the day went along.  So we raised the anchor and took off right behind Mark and Amanda.   After we had left the harbor I asked Daniel to give me a “reading” on what he felt like the conditions were – he said we were “screaming along at 8.2 knots with an ocean swell of 7’ and wind waves of 4’ on top of that”.  My “reading” on what I felt like the conditions were “oh my gosh, take me home!  I feel like I’m in a freaking washing machine – where’s my Dramamine”?  Thus far, I have muddled through without the Dramamine (I even heated up last night’s leftovers for lunch) but the ocean swell has turned into 8 to 10 foot waves.  These are the roughest conditions we have been in yet and I must admit, not a lot of fun.  Mark and Amanda are just out of sight now, but we are still in touch via the VHF radio. 

We had a squal come up just a little bit ago, we took all the cushions down below and everything else we didn’t want to get wet and I put on my life jacket.  This is the first time I’ve worn it since we bought it at the Annapolis Boat Show last year.  That’s how big the waves are.  Daniel laughed.  It’s 4 p.m. now and the winds are starting to be a little bit more favorable but they’re still about 12-14 knots and the ocean swell is still a bit nauseating.  Daniel has been amazing steering us and raising and lowering sails (as needed) – I’ve been too “green around the gills” to be much help. 

I’m posting today a little early because once we leave Bahamian waters my hot spot will not be working and I’m not sure when I will make it to town to get another phone card for the Turks & Caicos.

Attwood Harbour, Acklins, Bahamas

Feb. 12, 2014

We stayed in our anchorage today – which was absolutely wonderful.  After you go and go and go – it’s nice not to go anywhere.  Simply enjoy being where you are.  I enjoyed it more than Daniel did today.  I spent time cleaning the boat but mostly, I went swimming, snorkeling and lying in the sun.  Daniel spent most of the day working on our income taxes.  After I got finished relaxing for the day, I made Daniel a red velvet cake for Valentine’s Day.  I know it isn’t for 2 more days but I’m not sure when I will have another day in port for baking, so I took advantage of it today.  Actually, it was just a white cake mix with a lot of red food coloring added, but it was the thought that counts.  Continuing to head south, tomorrow.

We've been feeling pretty good about how well C-Time has held up.  Some friends have been telling us of all the things that have broken on their much newer boat, so we're feeling pretty fortunate, especially since C-Time is 16 years old.  We're just holding our breath waiting for something major to break.

Rum Cay to Acklins Island

February 11, 2014

We had a long day ahead of us, a long sail – about 79 miles for today.  To accomplish that many miles we had to leave our anchorage at Rum Cay very early this morning.  I wasn’t sad about leaving it, it didn’t offer a lot of protection from the ocean swell and we rocked and rolled most of the night.  Daniel was up and dressed and in the cockpit – ready to go at 2:30.  I, on the other hand, rolled out of bed and grabbed a flashlight and headed for the bow of the boat.  Since we anchored in about 9 to 10 feet of water last night and the tide was down another foot or two this morning, I got to take my flashlight and shine it on the water looking for coral heads and/or rocks.  Picture me, half asleep, in my gown, on the bow of the boat.  I saw no reason to get dressed – it was just the fishes that were going to see me and I had big plans to go back to bed.  So I was on “watch” for about 15 minutes while Daniel backtracked using the “cookie crumb” trail on the chartplotter.  After we were well clear of the hazards, I threw a Coke Zero and some pop tarts at Daniel and crawled back into our soft bed.  Daniel did an awesome job steering the boat and when I got up at sunrise, I rewarded him with bacon and eggs (I’m not all bad). 

Winds were favorable for us to sail for about 4-1/2 hours, and motorsail the rest of the time.  Ocean swells were about 6 feet and weren’t bad at all.  The wind during the middle of the day kicked up some moderate wind waves, but they didn’t last long.  We watched a squal sitting over Crooked Island for a long time, but it never threatened us.  All in all it was a perfect sailing day.  Other than the cargo ships in the shipping channel, we never saw any other boats until we reached the anchorage.  We were pretty much the only 2 people in the world for a whole day - but we finally pulled into beautiful Atwood Harbor on Ackins Island.  It is a remote location and there were only 4 other boats staying here with us.  There are no houses around and I didn’t see anyone on shore.  Really quiet place, tonight.

BBQ! (Also, George Town to Conception Island – make that Rum Cay)

February 10, 2014

The best part about today was lunch, our BBQ.  Daniel had purchased a whole beef brisket from a place close to his work (Steel Horse) that made incredible BBQ beef brisket.  I pulled out part of it today and we had it for lunch.  In the middle of the ocean, munching on delicious Carolina BBQ, life doesn’t get much better than this.  Now don’t get me wrong there were other wonderful little moments today like the gorgeous sunrise in George Town, the calm seas we are traveling on from George Town and reading a good book.  Unfortunately, reading the good book, led to me getting sleepy which lead to me falling asleep.  Hey, we were 2 hours from shore and I needed a little nap.  I could see land, we would be arriving at Conception Island soon.  I fall off to sleep and wake up 45 minutes later and I can’t see land.  What happened to the land???  Oh, Captain…shouldn’t we be closer to land than this?  Where is Conception Island that we have been heading towards all day?  I should have never taken that nap.  When I got up, I found “we” had decided to skip Conception Island (we’d catch it on the way back) and head for Rum Cay instead.  It was only 2 hours further and with the wind out of the …..blah, blah, blah….we would save time tomorrow if we went straight to Rum Cay.  No more naps for me, I might end up in Cuba.