Turks and Caicos

Our sail from the D.R. to the T&C’s was a fast broad reach. We arrived at French Cay, the outer edge of the Caicos Banks at 6:00 a.m. after Ron spent a couple of hours hove to waiting for light to cross the Bank. The Bank surrounding the Caicos averages about eight feet deep spotted with coral heads and this is why we needed daylight to pick our path through the twenty miles to get to Provo.

The blues and greens of the water here are absolutely amazing similar to the Tobago Cays but far more expansive. The clouds over the islands take on a green hew reflecting the large lagoons below. Our plan is to only stay here briefly before we head to the Bahamas.

Today we ventured off in the dinghy for a 35 mile round trip to Little Water Cay, a preserve for iguanas. Here we were given a guided tour and some interesting facts about iguanas. Next stop was the only Queen Conch farm in the world for a tour of the operation. Over 40 million conch are harvested annually in the Caribbean, with 3 million coming from the T & C’s. This farm markets about 1 million annually, exporting most to Florida. They also reseed the local banks with a ½ million each year.

Next stop the Bahamas

Dominican Republic (4)

We left Luperon early on the 18th and headed up to El Castille for the day. This is the site that Columbus first chose as the first city of the New World. Many people died here from Malaria and so they moved the remaining inhabitants to Santo Domingo. We had an interesting tour of the site, though little remains. In the 1950’s Spain wanted to send some archeologists to view the site so the dictator at that time ordered the site cleaned up. Something was lost in the translation and the cleanup was done with a bulldozer. We were able to see where Columbus’s house was located as well as the church and the cemetery. The highlight for the girls appeared to be an open grave with the remains of one of the early inhabitants.

It was a good anchorage and even though the snorkeling wasn’t great the girls had a great time being towed around on the tube and shell hunting on the beach. We pulled up anchor while watching a glorious sunset and with Autumn & Mya attempting to capture the “Green Flash” on their video camera. Mya took the helm and appeared to be quite comfortable at the wheel. On route to Puerto Plata and Ocean World Marina, we were treated with the company of some dolphins playing in our bow wake for short while.

Alex’s friends Mya and Autumn were great to have on board during our stay here and we were sad to take them to the airport. All of the girls seem to especially like our time at Ocean World Marina and Marine Park. They made many friends among the staff. This especially worked in their favour with the Dolphin trainers as they were able to have a freebie Dolphin Encounter.
The main language spoken here is Spanish and we appreciated having Autumn assist us with our pronunciations or help us find the right word (she is taking Spanish in school). Many individuals here at the Marine Park speak 3 to 5 languages and some speak up to 7.

We found the Dominican Republic to be quite an interesting place with wonderful nature, amazing history and very friendly people. The D.R. Peso is valued at 32.00 to $1.00 U.S. dollar. The D.R. has been the least expensive place in the Caribbean. One thing that we found amazing is that most of the islands we visited do not grow a lot of their own produce. Puerto Rico, Dominica and the Dominican Republic are the exception to this.

The trip to the Turks & Caicos is about 135 miles and we estimate it will take us about 26 hours. We understand that the diving and snorkeling in the T&Cs and the Bahamas is absolutely amazing and I for one am really looking forward to this.

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

We left the boat at the anchorage in Luperon under the care of some fellow boaters and ventured off to Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo is the oldest city in the New World (Western Hemisphere). Christopher Columbus landed in the Dominican Republic on his first voyage to the new world and thought it was so beautiful, he was involved with the formation of this first city. His son Diego Colon moved here and brought his wife as well as many of her personal friends from Spain. We stayed right in the Colonial Zone at a lovely B&B and spent time exploring the city. Included in this first city was the first cathedral, first university, first hospital and many more firsts. This group shot was taken in front of the palace of Diego de Colon (son of Columbus). This next photo is of the San Franciscan Monestary. The monument that the girls are standing in front of is the Faro de Colon. This was built in celerbration of the 500th anniversary of Columbus´s first voyage here in 1492. His ashes are entombed inside. We also toured a very interesting series of sinkholes and caves called the ¨Three Eyes¨and walked through the beautiful cathedral and around the town.
This fun picture is of the girls feeding the pigeons in the square adjacent to the cathedral.

Luperon, Dominican Republic

Leaving the harbour at Ocean World was very fun for all of the girls. Mya and Autumn were quickly introduced to one of the girls favourite activities, bow riding. Bow riding is where we sit on the cross beam between both hulls while the boat rides up and down as we head into the waves. This only lasted until we turned to head up to Luperon and then it wasn´t long before our newcomers were feeling the effects of being at sea.

We arrived at Luperon after a great sail with winds averaging about 25 knots. Luperon has a history of being a tricky entrance with at least once per week someone going onto a reef. We managed to go through without any incidents. The anchorage is a murky mangrove inlet, well known for being a good spot to hide out during hurricanes. There are many cruisers that make it this far and never seem to leave.

The town of Luperon is small and definitely not a tourist destination. The residents are very friendly and the prices are the best we have experienced so far. Our first excursion from here was a waterfall tour with Jose. This is was quite the amazing place. There is a series of waterfalls, 27 in total, that you hike past or through with assistance by the guides up to the top one and return down river either jumping or sliding. We were all equipped with helmuts and life jackets and were told to wear shorts and shoes. The girls were definitely up to the challenge, but for me I was pushing my comfort envelope. We were not able to take a digital camera with us, so I appologize for the lack of pictures.

We have also introduced the girls to snorkling, though the visiblity was not as great as we have experienced. Mya and Autumn started off a little awkwardly but were quick to hone their skills.

Mya and Autumn have gone and interviewed a number of residents in Luperon and are building an inventory of shots for their video. They are both very outgoing young ladies and it will be very interesting to see the results.

Next stop Santo Domingo, the oldest city in the new world.

Ocean World, Confresi, D.R.

Our moorage in this new marina close to Puerto Plata included admission to the Ocean World Marine Park. This was our closest place to bring the boat to get to the airport and we were pleasantly surprised with what they had to offer. So before we headed off with all of the girls to “experience” the D.R. we spent the day here watching shows and playing with the animals. The girls snorkeled in a giant aquarium, had their picture taken with the dolphins and hand fed and swam with stingrays and nurse sharks.

The staff of the complex are very friendly, it didn’t take the girls (referred to as the Spice Girls by numerous staff) long to get to know a number of them. They even were invited to a special dolphin training time and were allowed to pat Boomer. They have also been invited back to a free swim with the dolphins, so they are working on us to return here.

Now if you think traveling around the Caribbean with two good looking teenage girls was interestng you can imagine what it is like with four. "BOY MAGNETS"!

Next stop Luperon. It is about a 17 mile sail up the coast.

Samana, Dominican Republic

Our first landfall in the Dominican Republic was the town Puerto Santa Barbara de Samana and here we first experienced a number of things that appear to be unique to the D.R. First of all instead of going to customs and immigration to clear in, we were visited by the official entourage. This included Joe the freelance driver/interpreter and representatives from the Port Authority, the Comandancia, Customs and Agriculture. After completing the paperwork with these guys, paying port fees and a small tippance we headed off to Immigration to complete the paperwork and pay more fees.

The exchange in the D.R. is 32 R.D. Pesos to 1 U.S. dollar which makes most things quite inexpensive. You still have to be clear when provided with a price that it is in Pesos and not U.S. dollars as some will try and slip that past you.

Scooters or motorcycles are everywhere and it is not uncommon to see three people aboard and occasionally four (all adults). In addition they have motoconches which are a motorcycle/rickshaw. We took a ride in one of these coming back from the market and it made for an interesting trip. The ride was a couple of kilometers and the cost for four of us was 40.00 Pesos or $1.30 in total.

To our pleasant surprise we were joined in the anchorage by Cliff & Orma on Skylark from Port Moody. Ron spent the day happily assisting Cliff resolving an overheating problem on Skylark. Orma and the girls and I headed off and Orma introduced us to shopping and bargaining in the D.R. and also assisted us with Spanish. We celebrated the day and our 32nd wedding anniversary with a delightful Chinese dinner on top of the hill overlooking the town and harbour.

After exploring the transportation options to pickup Mya and Autumn in Puerto Plata, it became clear to us that we should sail to Puerto Plata rather than drive, bus or taxi. So after only two days since crossing the Mona (145 nm & 31 hours) we headed off again to Puerto Plata a distance of 125 nm. Ron and I have worked out a watch rotation and these long runs are becoming more comfortable all the time. We passed through many tuna schools and hoped each time that we might attract one of the yummy beasts and eventually we did. We are not sure exactly but we think we caught either a big eye or a blackfin and even though we didn’t eat him till we stopped in the marina, he was very tasty. Our trip up started off quite uneventful until just before sunset, we eyed some very black clouds ahead. Within the next few hours we were surrounded by wind, rain & lightning. Luckily we took our sails down only minutes before the gusts were up past 35 knots. Just after this we heard a couple of unusual noises and discovered we had hooked a long line of fishing floats on the starboard leg. As we were running only the port engine at the time, Ron pulled out his knife (gift from Michael on Gava – thanks) and managed to release the rope from us. Without any damages except some unneeded stress we continued on our way.

We are currently secured in the Ocean World Marina just off of Puerto Plata with Alex very happy that her friends are safely on board, catching up on what she has missed at home while filling them in on all then new things she has been experiencing.

PR to DR (Mona Passage)

Boqueron, Puerto Rico

We left Boqueron, P.R. at half past midnight to cross the notorious Mona Passage with a send off by a large pod of dolphins. Alex was sure we had a killer whale beside us when a large dolphin surprised her by coming up right beside the boat and giving a large blow. We were heading for Samana, Dominican Republic, a distance of 145 nautical miles under a partial starry night with light southeast winds and a low 3 meter N.E. swell. For a distance of this size we calculated an average of 5 knots and estimated we would take about 30 hours arriving at 6:30 a.m. We lucked out with near perfect weather conditions though a bit shy on wind for Ron´s liking (he hates starting an engine). The highlight of the crossing was the catching of a black fin tuna. After shaking off a number of barracuda on the last couple of crossings, Jenessa was very pleased we had broke our dry spell. We will leave Samana tomorrow late day to head up to Luperon in time to meet Alex´s budds, Mya and Autumn. The Dominican Republic is home to this hemisphere´s oldest city, Santa Domingo and lots of other historic and wonderful natural sites. It appears that there are many amazing things to see and do here as well, so more later.

Puerto Rico (Part 2)

Puerto Rico has been a lot of fun and I think we could spend many months here and still not see everything. We spent one day at El Yunque, which is the largest tropical forest in the United States. It has a first rate interpretation centre, where we learned a lot about the forest and about the delicate balance between the health of the tropical forests and our environment. We also learned about how vanilla, cocao, brazil nuts and many other things are produced in the tropical forests. We hiked to one of the waterfalls, though because of its accessibility and popularity, it wasn’t quite like the ones we experienced on some of the other islands.

Our destination the next day was the underground river and cave system at Rio de Camuy and the world’s largest radio telescope at Arecibo. We arrived at the caves at around 12:30 to discover that 10 bus loads of school children had arrived before us. It was an easy decision to head off to the radio telescope and come back after the hoards had left the caves. The radio telescope is a very large dish nestled in a huge crater in the hills of northwest Puerto Rico. Scientists use its 20-acre, 1000 foot diameter dish to research the Universe. It used to be a U.S. government research centre but was transferred to Cornell University and the National Science Foundation to be jointly administrated. Because it is a working telescope the general public could only view it from a viewing platform attached to a visitor centre, but it was still an amazing site. In the visitor centre there was a short movie showing the workings of the dish and some very good displays and hands on activities. We learned about meteorites, comets, the planets, galaxies and more.

Back to the caves for a 3:30 departure on the trolley; they use the trolleys to take visitors down the switchback road that actually appears to be a giant sink hole. At the bottom we departed the trolley and walked for about an hour through parts of the cave system. The caves were quite wonderful. Some of the rooms were like being in a giant cathedral and other trails led us passed fascinating stalagmites and stalactites. We passed through a portion where hundreds of thousand’s of bats lived and both girls had to hold their noses till we were through. We were able to look down at the river Camuy which is the world’s third largest underground river system and up through giant sinkholes which are collapsed caves.

Our next stop was Gilligan’s Island. This is a series of small mangrove islands that are in a park half way up the coast to Boqueron. The snorkeling here started off pretty much like many others, actually with less life than others but it improved rather quickly. We were joined by this amazing little fish (still to be identified) who insisted on accompanying us on our circumnavigation of one of the islands. Even when we had to get up and walk through parts that were too shallow to swim, he stayed with us, usually right in front of our masks. Other highlights were the upside down jellyfish that looked like plants growing on the bottom. They had appendages that looked like leaves in colours of white, green & blue. We saw our biggest barracuda yet in a shallow pool and drifted with the current through a mangrove pass between two islands. The mangrove roots provide wonderful habitat to a very large variety of fish.
We are currently in Boqueron and readying ourselves for a midnight departure. The crossing to the Dominican Republic is about 145 miles and if all goes according to plan and the weather cooperates we will be in Samana by noon Monday. The Mona passage can be a nasty crossing especially for those coming south from the D.R.