It is week 19 of “our” adventure and one important point we
have learnt and are STILL learning is, “it is all about the weather/wind” –
naturally. If you want to enjoy yourself, study the weather carefully, but like
most aspects of life particularly Mother Nature, it is not an exact science.
There are so many variables.
The next part of our journey would involve us going east
along the north coast of the DR to Samana which is on the NE of DR. This could
involve sailing when the katabatic winds were blowing – usually at night and it
may involve anchoring off at one of the four main anchoring areas for a “brief”
time before heading off again. We knew it could take us up to 3 days to get to
Samana. It all depended on the winds and the swells. We had to decide once we
were “out there” actually sailing to see how the conditions were.
Sunday morning we thought that there was a possibility of
leaving the Ocean World Marina, at Puerto Plata that afternoon at about 1.00pm,
sailing to Sosua and anchoring off at Sosua (week18) for a few hours and then
leaving at midnight to get to the next anchorage.
We were ready to go but when lunch time came, the winds were
still rather strong which meant the seas would be choppy, so we spent another
night at the Ocean World Marina.
I was quite happy about this as I had picked up some bug or
other and wasn’t feeling 100%.
People had warned us about allergies here in the DR. I, having
not suffered from any allergies didn’t think this would be an issue. Well one
never can tell!!!
We were hoping to travel together with John and Linda (Blue
Moon).
head for Rio San Juan.
The plan was to anchor there for a few hour before sailing
through the night arriving (Monday night) Playa del Villa (Beach of the Villa
or Villa on the beach) midmorning (Tuesday morning).
In
the DR, every place/marina/anchorage or go to you have to get a despacho from
the navy to say you can set out to your next port of call. It costs $20US for this.
A Navy Official comes on board, if he feels like checking your boat for drugs,
he is “free” to do so before he fills out
and signs the clearance form for you to continue. You have to
let them know where your next port of call is.
After getting our despacho, we were out of the marina by
10.45am heading for Samana.
On the way we passed Sosua, Caberita – places we had visited
in Week 18. We were now seeing them from a different view point.
The winds as expected in the afternoon, began to increase and
they were on the nose which meant motor sailing – yet again!
I had started to feel quite sick again and whatever I had,
had in my stomach, I fed to the fish. My head was pounding like I had an
almighty migraine and I just felt like curling up and dying. Of course Mel wouldn’t let me. I was of no
use what so ever. I just managed to help with the anchoring when we arrived at Rio
San Juan at 6.30pm. I had a quick shower and was horizontal again.
We (Mel and I) pulled up the anchor as planned at 10,00pm,
after Mel had had some time to eat, shower and cat nap. While we were pulling
up the anchor, Mel became a bit concerned as the anchor was not coming up as
expected and we thought we were stuck until the morning when he would have to
dive to retrieve the anchor. We did lots of reversing backwards and forwards
until the anchor did eventually come up. There were a few tense moments. All I
can say is thank goodness we have microphones and headphones, which we use
whenever one of us has to go on deck while the other is helming as we can
communicate clearly and properly (most of the time) to each other without
getting all upset and confused by what each other has to do etc. They have been
an extremely good buy and well worth their weight in gold. An essential sailing
“tool” to keep “family” relationships intact.
It can be quite entertaining to watch other crews/couples who
don’t have microphones and headphones anchor in difficult or trying
circumstances. The hand signals can be entertaining for others to watch but not
for the person who has to interpret them.
While we were struggling with our anchor, so were Blue Moon
and unfortunately they didn’t have as much luck as we had as they could not get
their anchor free so were forced to stay until the morning.
We were tempted to re-anchor and stay behind with them but
they insisted we get on our way, they would join us in Playa de Villa ASAP.
Mel and I had a good sail. Yes, we actually sailed! At times
doing 6knots and it was pretty comfortable and enjoyable. I was still feeling
awful and as if my head was ready to explode. Nothing seemed to be working and
I was still feeding the fish with whatever I had in my stomach which wasn’t
much by now. I didn’t even feel like having any tea!!! That was when Mel really
started to get worried and even thought about turning back to Puerto Plata to
seek medical help. I said we were to press on as I was convinced I would start
feel better “soon”.
We both slept up in the cockpit which is always enjoyable
when the seas and swells are pleasant and it is always so special to see the
changing colour of the skyline as the sun rises over the sea.
The landscape was also amazing as we sailed along the coast
line. It is so lush and mountainous. The rock and cliff formations were also
wonderful.
I had noticed a lot more birds flying around which was
something I had felt a bit of a disappointment in our travels so far. I hadn’t
seen as much wild/marine life than I was expecting, particularly bird life.
to get to our next destination.
There were local fishermen around who didn’t bug us as we had
expected. It was a lovely anchorage. The swell wasn’t too great so we were not
rocking and rolling, it was comfortable.
I was horizontal for most of the day while Mel slept on and
off during the day trying desperately to feed me and to give me cups of tea,
which I was still not interested in.
At about 5.00pm, it was good to see Blue Moon anchoring off
close by. They had managed to get somebody to dive down to retrieve their
anchor and set sail for Play de Villa. They had a good sail seeing dolphins,
porpoises and even pilot whales along the way.
We left Play de Villa as planned (Wednesday morning 4.00am)
and headed east to go around Cabo Samana, then SE, S and then eventually West
into Samana or St Barbara de Samana.
We motor sailed! There was absolutely NO wind!!!! The seas
were as flat as a pancake. It was quite incredible!!!
BTW – I was STILL feeling awful, my head was STILL pounding
AND I was still feeding the fish!
Mel and I prefer anchoring off somewhere and our first choice
is not to go into marinas. Yes you have lovely facilities etc. but it can at
times, be very pricey and you actually don’t feel as if you are getting the
true feeling of the place you are visiting. Well in the DR, we had to be
cautious although “they” are getting their act together, there are still far
too many cases of theft from yachts and harassment from people keen to do “odd”
jobs on your boat when you anchor off somewhere. We felt we had been rather
luck so far with the anchorages we had been too, along the way.
We use a few points of reference, Active Captain and Safety
and Security Net, which give you updates and reviews of a place. Samana has had
a bad reputation for theft, particularly of dingies and out board motors.
We
had also heard of a new marina called Puerto Bahia, that was amazing and very
cheap – anything $1US per foot is
considered very cheap.
We (Passages and Blue Moon) made a bee line for Marina Puerto
Bahia and arrived there just before 11.0am.
The
marina was lovely – a 5 star resort, with a spa, lovely swimming pool,
restaurants, art gallery, great showers and loos. It is amazing what you
appreciate when you don’t have it all of the time.
I was grateful to be horizontal again. Mel organised and
sorted out everything so when he came to check on me to see if I wanted to go
for a swim to try to bring my temperature down, the boat was back to its normal
tidy self.
While sailing, the boat gets a bit messy as things seem to
slide all over the show despite having fiddles and special compartments for
everything.
refreshing!
By late afternoon, the wind was howling and we had an
almighty thunder storm which was good as Mel said it meant he didn’t have to
wash the boat down.
At the marina, the attendants also do odd jobs, like clean
and polish boats, clean the hulls and the stainless steel – all chores Mel and
I had been in the process of doing whenever we stopped off somewhere but we
hadn’t quite got round to finishing everything off. Mel organised for the
attendants to wash, clean and polish the boat, clean the hull and the
stainless. Passages looks like a brand new yacht!!
John and Linda (Blue Moon) were keen to try the Italian
restaurant at the marina. I wasn’t up to having any food so Mel joined them and
another couple, Ron and Nancy on Mandalay, which is another Island Packet but a
MUCH newer model and it is bigger, it is 44ft.
Linda had said all along that I was suffering from allergies
and that I should try one of her tablets. I was desperate to feel well so I took
one of her allergy tablets and my goodness, did my nose start running and the
pressure on the side of my head start reducing! It was amazing and wonderful! I
even felt like a cup of tea – Mel breathed a HUGE sigh of relief.
Thursday morning, I felt almost back to my old self although
I did feel weak which is not surprising after not eating for almost 5 days and
only feeding the fish. We went for breakfast at the hotel which I enjoyed and
then I treated myself to a lovely relaxing massage at the spa while Mel went
into town to investigate.
We were in two minds whether to stay here until another good
weather window or whether (excuse the pun) to go across the Mono Passage with
Blue Moon while we had this good weather window.
We were keen to visit Santo Domingo the capital of the DR but
the Mona Passage has a bad reputation for being unpredictable.
The Mona Passage is the stretch of water that lies between
the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. It has a section off the DR known as the
hour glass shoal which rises from the Puerto Rican trench of over 3000m deep to
less than 100m, the Equatorial current flows west through the trench and some
of it passes over the shoal, causing steep waves – similar to a washing machine
affect .It also has the Atlantic Ocean and its swell trying desperately to
filter through this “narrow” stretch of water. Added to this is the possibility
of afternoon thunder storm that come off the Puerto Rican coast line.
Over the next 5 days, the weather forecast for the Mona
Passage was calm waters, less than 10knots and swells not more than 1 – 2
metres. PERFECT!!! This would mean we would have a very easy sail. Mel didn’t
even mind if we motor sailed across the Mona, as long as the passage was a safe
and comfortable one. It would take us between 24 - 36 hours, depending on the
winds of course, to cross from Samana to Mayaguez in Puerto Rico.
We decided that we would take this perfect weather window
opportunity and leave the DR and head for Puerto Rica.
Blue Moon were keen to sail with us so we planned to leave
Puerto Bahia Marina by 4.00pm on Friday afternoon with the possibility of
arriving at Mayaguez either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
Friday morning Mel and I went into Samana as Mel was keen to
show me around the town, so we caught a ride into the city centre and spent
about two hours walking around.
quirkiness about them.
We caught one of these motorcycle taxi’s back to the marina
and started preparing for our sail across the Mona.
At
4.00pm, we were heading out of the marina and on our way to Puerto Rica. As is
always the case heading east against the prevailing winds, we were motor sailing.
As night fell, we started seeing LOTS of little lights dotted
all over the horizon. These were small fishing boats! For the next 2 – 3hours
we dodged the fishing boats that had lights and hopefully the ones that didn’t
have lights dodged us. When we put the radar on, we could see twice as many
fishing boats than what we could see lit up in front of us.
With the winds, Mel was keen to head as far east as possible
during the night and then head SE in the morning when the easterlies started
blowing.
We made a huge berth far away from the hour glass shoal so we
didn’t have to experience the chop although it was very interesting the
different “swells” of the sea at the different times of the day.
We were still motor sailing right up until mid-morning
Saturday when the winds turned in our favour and we actually managed to sail
for about 2 hours until the winds died down to less than 2 knots. We thought of
being “naturalists” (yachties that don’t use any modern equipment but just rely
on the wind) but that meant we would be bobbing along for the next 14 – 16
hours!! So we put the engine on which meant we would be in Mayaguez by about
8.00pm that night.
Mid-afternoon, another yacht identified us on their AIS, and
asked for a radio check. They identified themselves as “Gemini” and they were
on their way home to the USA via the Turks and Caicos. They had spent the last
16 years circumnavigating the world and were now on their last leg home. We
chatted to them over the radio for about 5 mins. It is always amazing to hear other
people’s stories and tales about their adventures. A common bit of information
most of the experienced yachties tell us over and over again, is to wait for
the right weather wind and only venture out then.
Late afternoon we saw some pilot whales frolicking in the
distance.
We had lost sight and radio contact with Blue Moon as they
didn’t go east as far as we did before heading SE to Mayaguez.
We tried a few times and after about our 5th
attempt we managed to get hold of them BUT they were in trouble!
They were in the Mayaguez harbour when they ran aground.
We eventually managed to talk to them over the radio, once
the US Coast Guide had established that they were all fine and not taking on
any water.
We entered Mayaguez harbour at around 8.00pm and saw how they
were listing so once we had put down anchor and secured our boat, we started
taking down the dingy so we could assist them.
While we were doing this, one of the many local boat
authorities(US Coast Guides contact them) came over to see if they were okay
and to help them, which they did so there was no need for us to assist.
What a night! By the time Blue Moon were “safe” we were all
exhausted and fell into bed.
That is how week 19 ended! More to follow in Week 20.
Sending lots of love
Captain Salty Sailor Mel – the Sailing Nut and Admiral
Caryn/xx
