Awakened to tears in my. Eyes!

Wednesday 03-092016

Our luck with marinas is holding but I'm beginning to worry.  The folks here at Pescaderia Marina are doing everything they can to make sure we enjoy our stay, including loaning us the owners truck for a quick trip to the store.  Maybe it had something to do with Sally wanting to buy toilet paper. 

 We ate at a restaurant next door and had a wonderful meal of grilled, fresh (caught that morning) mahi-mahi in a garlic, onion, butter and wine sauce, absolutely divine. The fresh seafood market here at the marina has fresh caught snapper, mahi-mahi, tuna, grouper and live lobster.  We walked to a bakery and then to a fresh fruit/veggie market that we couldn't find.  The bread we bought made up for no fresh fruit.

At dawn I was in never-never land catching tuna while sailing when Sally woke me and asked if I wanted to read something funny.  How could I not want to, so she handed me the iPad and I laughed till I cried.  One our fellow cruisers that we met in Long Island, Bahamas  but is 2 slips down from us now, wrote a blog about some of his experiences.  This dude is certifiable!  His childhood experiences were similar to mine except he was the one making siblings laugh  and I was always the one sent to his room for laughing at the dinner table.  His blog site is: latitude43.com.  and you should read everything on the site, including "who we are".  If you are too self centered and victorian to read a few curse words then you might not enjoy, if you have even a small sense of humor you will love it.

I included a few pics of street scenes around the marina.

PR at last . . . thank God almighty PR at last

March 4, 2016

Friday morning after getting up too early to see how to exit the marina, I decided to wait and start the engine at sunrise.  When I started it the alarm didn't stop buzzing so I stopped the engine and went below to find the problem.  My pretty, red almost new engine was now covered in oil.  I had changed the oil the night before and I didn't notice the new filter was defective.  When the engine started the filter blew off and I lost a gallon of oil on the engine and bilge.  I only had one quart of oil extra and one more filter, when I asked my neighbors for oil, Steve  reminded me of the the oil I removed at the change so reinstalled it.  Not good but on these islands you can't go to the corner auto zone to get more oil.  I will change again in PR.

As we were leaving the bay a couple of whales surfaced to send us off into a gorgeous morning.  We had a decent motorsail down to the Northeastern tip and then had to go out to avoid some large treacherous shoals called the hourglass, from their shape. The shoals are where the strong ocean current 5,000 ft deep run into rock cliffs 200 ft deep.  The effect is an ocean in turmoil. It was after 2000 hrs when we were skirting the north edge of it in 700 - 900 ft of water when I noticed a very large fishing boat on our course.  I tried to ease closer to the shoals the get south of him but he changed course too. Each time I turned even a few degrees the waves got much worse, breaking over the bow.  After about 30 minutes of this dance I turned due north and let the larger boat win.  It continued into the shoals and in his spot lights I could see a huge net trailing him so we went another mile out before turning southeast toward PR.

As we turned to head into Pasceveria Marina four of five more whales surfaced to greet us and a pod of porpoises dove under the bow but we too quick for me to get any pics of them.  One of the whales turned on its back and clapped flippers.  The marina was having a regatta and we had to motor through it, making sure not to interfere with the race.  The USCG helicopter did a flyover of the starting line.

pics  whales at Puerta Bahia, whales midway down D.R.,  whales in PR slapping fins,  regatta

whales....whales

Regatta at Cabo Rojo

drying the laundry at Bahia Mar  luxury hotel.yes really

Jerry's take on Nassau

            Early in January

We motorsailed to Nassau channel and arrived in rain/light fog and decided to anchor over close to Oprah's house.  We had winds up to 30 kts during the night (Georgetown clocked 105 kts and several boats damaged).  I left the chart plotter on through the night and by morning it looked like Salvidor Dali's ghost painted the screen!  

We went to town in the dinghy walked to the telephone company to buy a bahama chip.  The Tmobile service was fine for texting but for teathering the computer for wifi it is useless.  I didn't know to turn off all the apps in the background so I used 75 % of my data the first night.  I will not be able to send pictures with that card so Sally is starting a blog that will include all my emails, pictures along with her thoughts and comments.

From Nassau we motored across the yellow banks which is filled with shallow coral heads.  Sally did as all the guide books recommend and stood on the bow for a hour or so when we were crossing the most dangerous part.  The bad weather made most boats hunker down in Nassau so when the weather broke it looked like D Day on the English Channel, the water was filled with all types of boats from megayachts to 16' skiffs, motor & sail.  We always had a dozen boats in sight, each on a slightly different heading.  We made it to Normans Caye to anchor so I could give a Budwieser (I cheated him and used Bud Lite he will never forgive me) toast to Norman Gainey in Canton,MS, I believe the islands namesake.  I'm sure he had been here because there was a huge pile of crushed stone on the island

Time pressing on and ready for Puerto Rixo

February 29. 2016

Yesterday afternoon a Dominican national stopped me on the dock and we talked for about 30 minutes or so.  He was from here, educated at North Texas State and married a girl from just SE of Sherman, TX.  We had lots to talk about and he seemed reluctant to end it as did I. Later after dark when Sally & I were walking to the shower in the hotel we passed his dock front condo next to the hotel and were invited in and asked if we wanted the best and coldest beer we had ever experienced.  I very, very reluctantly agreed, followed him into his beer vault (yes, under combination lock) where he had beer in a freezer.  It was not frozen but several drink mixers were which I don't understand and it did not freeze when he opened it like american beer does.  It was absolutely the best tasting beer ever to cross my taste buds.  The beer is Presidente and the man is president of the Brewery.  Sally and his wife hit it off and we had a wonderful visit with them in a luxury condo you won't believe.
Sunday morning, they asked if we would like to join them in their motor boat to go see the humpback whales play.  He had to break my arm again!  the boat is a 40' cc with 3 - 300hp yamaha's.  On the way out he showed us the house his father built on the foundation of the original Spanish fort that guarded the entry to this bay.  We watched whales for a couple of hours and headed back.  They had to go back to Santo Domingo for work but I promised him several times to stop to see them our way back from the Virgin Islands.  Gonna be a hard promise to keep!

I will have to send another email with more pictures cause most recipients email reject more than four pics

rainbow on Kite Beach

infinity pool at Bahia Mar

jerrys love affair With DR

March3, 2016








February 29

I decided the boat wasn't quite ready to leave with the armada that left this morning.  By staying I will be able  to completely repair the damage and brace the boat for the next onslaught from mother nature.  I re-installed the wind generator and restructured the solar panels on the davits for reinstallation tomorrow morning.  If I can complete those and reinstall a rear chock that was ripped out at Ocean World then we may ease over to the south shore of the bay and explore the Los Haitises National Park there.  It is reported to be the most beautiful site in the caribbean (reported by the Dominican Republic) and no one we've met has disagreed including world travelers. The winds pick up to about 15 knots a little after noon and then some pretty good swells & gusts so I must hurry.    We will probably anchor overnight and return here.  If not tomorrow then the next day, but we are going to see the park.  Will have spot on.

The pics are of the Puerto Bahia Marina here, which is about a mile west of Samana and the other pic is looking East from the marina.  The marina charges $1/ft/day and has 2 restaurants, 4 bars, 2 pools, plush showers, free spa, gym, free laundry, free wifi and other luxuries we haven't found yet, oh, did I say 4 bars?   I may have found home, just watch the election!  The hotel attached to the marina charges about $175/night and have whale watching and charter fishing boats at the dock along with scuba diving boats.


Just follow this link to see my location updates:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0eIMbKUvmhzIvqZ462GQIbChZ3F2R6XFu


If the link doesn't work, try copying and pasting it to your browser's address bar.

Just sitting on the Dock of the Bay in Paradise Samana DR

February 28, 2016

Yesterday afternoon a Dominican national stopped me on the dock and we talked for about 30 minutes or so.  He was from here, educated at North Texas State and married a girl from just SE of Sherman, TX.  We had lots to talk about and he seemed reluctant to end it as did I. Later after dark when Sally & I were walking to the shower in the hotel we passed his dock front condo next to the hotel and were invited in and asked if we wanted the best and coldest beer we had ever experienced.  I very, very reluctantly agreed, followed him into his beer vault (yes, under combination lock) where he had beer in a freezer.  It was not frozen but several drink mixers were which I don't understand and it did not freeze when he opened it like american beer does.  It was absolutely the best tasting beer ever to cross my taste buds.  The beer is Presidente and the man is president of the Brewery.  Sally and his wife hit it off and we had a wonderful visit with them in a luxury condo you won't believe.
Sunday morning, they asked if we would like to join them in their motor boat to go see the humpback whales play.  He had to break my arm again!  the boat is a 40' cc with 3 - 300hp yamaha's.  On the way out he showed us the house his father built on the foundation of the original Spanish fort that guarded the entry to this bay.  We watched whales for a couple of hours and headed back.  They had to go back to Santo Domingo for work but I promised him several times to stop to see them our way back from the Virgin Islands.  Gonna be a hard promise to keep!

I will have to send another email with more pictures cause most recipients email reject more than four pics

How did we get here!

Thursday February 18, 2016


We left Caicos bright early to cross the banks, sun was out and water was crystal clear. We could see coral heads but had plenty of depth,maps we Approached Ambergris Cay we anticipated the depth and roll of the big Atlantic. Sailing all night the wind picked up and neither of us got any sleep.



And it was the day after my birthday
Jerry bought me a right of passage necklace! a Whale tale made from the stone of the DR

As morning came we could see the mountains of Dominican Republic. What a majestic sight. And you could actually smell dirt.
Having left the desert is,and of Caicos what a change. And we actually had a cell phone signal from 10 miles out.
We came into Ocean World which has one of the most intimidating entrances we have seen.,there are breakers to,your right and big channel markers.
we got checked in easily and to our slip and ready to begin the DR adventure.

We were lucky to meet another couple who wanted to rent a car and see the sights so off we went to Luperon first. That is the town where most of the cruisers stopped. It is now a little smaller community as other marinas have opened.

We rode into the mountains and on. To Puerto Plata. That is the industrial city close by.
One of our other stops was the mountain where there is a
Christ the Redeemer statue, snd that was the most beautiful view of the day overlooking the mountains, the beaches, and the ocean. Breathtaking.

Next day on to Santiago and it,was Sunday and festival Day.

Next day was fun on waterfalls with guide to help,U.S. Walk on the slippery rocks.

We left Ocean World and sailed an all nighter to Samana Bay.  And this was our first experience with the whales. I could only exclaim as the came up and down and gave us a show.

On to marina with a luxurious hotel that we are allowed to use. This is the nicest place we have ever stayed. And I am not sure how I will pry Jerry from this location.



Our next stop will be Puerto  Rico. And back on US territorial soil. Jerry says Cheetos again!
This passage will take us,thrum the Mona Passage which can be treacherous waters. Our departure date will be carefully planned.