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.