Feb 12–28 Dominican Republic
The night sail from Mona Island to the Dominican Republic was a little rolly, but otherwise uneventful. We checked into Punta Cana Marina the next morning for a rest and to check in with Customs and Immigration. Wow, what a process! At least 10 people assembled on the dock in front of our boat. None of them spoke english except the guy from the marina who spoke a little and acted as a translator. Jim gave them our passports and boat papers and they all went to work filling out forms and writing in their notebooks. Eventually one came forwar with a receipt for $30 US. Ok, no translation needed, we paid that. After a while another came forward with a receipt for $63 US. We had no idea how many more were coming or what was really going on. An hour later after one more receipt for an agricultural inspection and the actual inspection, where 4 guys boarded Opus and started opening lockers and cupboards, they all went away and we were allowed to hoist the flag of the Dominican Republic and go ashore. There we were on the immaculate grounds of Punta Cana, an all inclusive luxury resort on the SE coast of the Dominican Republic. The resort looked like paradise. Unfortunately it turned out to be the marina from hell. We had to tie up bow in and crawl off the bow. The surge was so bad that after one night a fairlead had been ripped out of the toerail. We were lucky cleats hadn't been ripped out too. To top it off, they had no ice and the only beer available was $7.50 US a bottle at the restaurant. That's where Jim drew the line.
We moved to Cap Cana Marina the next morning. The marina was like a dream, very protected with no surge, a 20'x5' "finger pier" for each slip so we could tie up along the side, $0.38/foot/day, unlimited water $2 a day, 30 amp metered electicity, showers, free self service laundry, ice delivered to the boat and a mini-mart on site with reasonably priced beer, soda and snacks. Yeah, this would be more than an overnight stop.
The resort that the marina was in may not have been quite as posh as Punta Cana, but it was still amazingly beautiful. $1-1.5 million apartments, well kept grounds, 3 pools, several white sand beaches and several restaurants. We laughed every time we went out for a walk to think that we were staying here for less than $12 a day. After a day we decided to stay for a week.
The first week was a busy one. With water and electricity and a huge concrete dock to work on, we got lots of boat projects and cleaning projects done. Jennifer stayed busy with school. There was a strong steady wifi signal, so we got caught up on emails and business we needed to do on the internet. Linda even ordered Turbo Tax and completed the tax returns. After a good days work we'd relax at the pool or the beach.
We'd made a huge dent in our to-do list after a week and were feeling good about that, so good that we decided to treat ourselves to a second week here as a vacation. We still got more boat projects done and Jennifer continued to make great progress on school, but we took a lot more time to relax and enjoy Cap Cana. We went to the beach or pool for awhile every day. We visited with some of the people that lived here and the crews from some of the mega yachts and fishing boats in the marina. Everyone had interesting stories. The resort even had an interesting story. It's beautiful place with >85% of the units sold, and staff moving around to serve that many people. Yet less than 5% of the units are occupied at any point in time. It was almost like a ghost town and we had the whole place to ourselves.
As usual Jim ventured into town to do the grocery shopping. Hitch hiking turned out to be more effective than public transportation. He found a large supermarket with reasonable prices about 20 miles away. The currency here is the peso with 36 pesos = $1.00 US. A backpack full of groceries could easily cost over 2000 pesos! Kind of a shocker until you get used to the conversion rate.
Humpback whales mate along the east coast of the Dominican Republic between December and March. We've been out day sailing a couple of times to look for whales. We caught a Cero Makerel, which is good eating, but saw no whales. We'll have to keep looking.
Feb 1–11 Puerto Rico We sailed 20-40 miles per day along the southern coast of Puerto Rico in February. Puerto Patillas and Cayos Caribes, near Boca del Infierno, were very quiet stops with only 1 other boat in each anchorage. There was a nature trail at Cayo Caribes that we all hiked one morning hoping to see the big iguanas Jim spotted the day before.
Salinas was a big busy anchorage and a good business stop. We picked up a package that Jim's mom had mailed - a new single sideband radio receiver so we could get weather and tax documents so we could do our taxes (can't sail away from that!) Our Lenovo laptop computer finally died of corrosion, so Jim spent an afternoon at an internet cafe loading the navigation and weather software on the little Acer netbook. We all went to the bakery/deli/mini-mart that we remembered from our stop here 1 1/2 years ago. Jennifer and Linda filled up on chocolate covered pastries. Jim went for the ham, egg and cheese sandwich. Then of course we did the usual business too - laundry, groceries, water. No fuel needed this time. The motor hasn't been on since we passed the breakwater outside of Palmas Del Mar Marina 5 days ago.
The next two stops, Punta Jacinto near Gilligan's Island and La Parguera, took us through the weekend. These are two big weekend hangouts for the Puerto Ricans. They're out in force with their wind surfers, kite surfers, jet skis and power boats. They always bring their music and plenty of food and drink with them.
Monday morning we rounded the SW corner of Puerto Rico and sailed into Boqueron. It's also a weekend hang out for Puerto Ricans - kind of a college hangout. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday it's party time, but Monday it's all closed up so the business people can rest. We did manage to find one restaurant open on Monday when we went into town. Linda and Jennifer had tostones - thick tomato stew with meat served in little cups of smashed plantains. Ok, not a good description, but it's a tasty Puerto Rican dish.
Bocueron was our first stop in Puerto Rico 1 1/2 years ago. It was a very welcome site then after crossing the dreaded Mona Passage. Coming in this time it was one of those ports where you feel like you're coming home to a familiar place. We all had vivid memories of being here before: who we were with (the whole "South Bound Group"), what we did and where things were located. We knew just where to go to get Jim new Crocs, Jennifer new flip flops, and replace our American flag. The empanadilla shop opened back up on Tuesday and we were there a lot for food, drink and internet. In 2009 we weren't buying souvenirs, but this time we felt like it was appropriate to have Miguel, the local street artist, paint a picture of Opus on a t-shirt for each of us. They're so clean we are afraid to wear them!
By Wednesday night the weather was right to start across the Mona Passage. We took the southern route and made a stop at Mona Island halfway across. It was a rolly sail, but far easier going west than it was going east. About a half hour after leaving Bocheron in the dark, a power boat zoomed up from behind and shined their lights on Opus. It startled Jim and had him worried for a minute until he shined our spotlight on them and realized it was a US Customs boat. They probably thought we were smugglers. When Linda and Jennifer popped their heads out in the cockpit to see what was going on, they got the idea that we were just a family out sailing. The girls must have looked pretty innocent because Customs didn't even bother to board us.
We arrived at Mona Island around daybreak the next morning. Jim had to wait for the sun to rise higher in the sky before he could clearly see the range markers and make his way safely through the cut in the reef. Once inside, we took a mooring ball in the anchorage and rested. Mona Island is a limestone island with high cliffs along most of the coast. There are a lot of caves in the cliffs with stalactites and stalagmites that you can see right from the boat. The water is crystal clear and there are reefs close to shore. They call Mona Island the Galapagos of the Caribbean because it's so isolated that there are species of animals there that aren't found any where else. One of them is a large iguana with horns on it's head and nose, kind of like a rhinoceros. There are a few people that live on the island while they work for the National Forest Service, but otherwise it's uninhabited. We hiked on the island one afternoon and saw the iguanas. Some of the workers offered us coconut water and jelly from a young coconut. They were having the same thing on their lunch break.