Voyage Of Symbiosis: DR To PR

Parguera, Puerto Rico.

This will be a difficult blog post to write -- so much has happened since I last wrote here, which was prior to my computer going into an endless reboot cycle thanks to the latest Windows 10 update.

... After leaving Luperon in mid-March, we had a problem just a few miles offshore. A hose popped off our exhaust and sea water poured into the bilge. We turned around and headed back into port, while our friends and would-be traveling companions, S/V Neko, went on to Samana on the Dominican east coast.

The fix for the exhaust problem was relatively easy, but we had no desire to go back into the thick of it for what would likely be 30 hours of motoring without first stress-testing the repair. That meant losing a narrow weather window and remaining in Luperon for some time, which turned out to be another two weeks. This ended up giving us some more time to get to know the local people in town, as well as the marina folks.

When we came back into the harbor, another boat was already in our old slip at Puerto Blanco Marina. So, we decided to grab a mooring ball, like dozens of other boats there. The first and second mooring did not look good on close examination, but we finally found one that seemed OK (little did we know!). Many people dive on moorings to check them out. That's a great idea when it's possible. However, not only are we not great snorklers, but the visibility (the "viz" as divers say) in Luperon is not very good. In any case there are, shall we say, a number of "floaters" about.

A few days later our mooring broke free and Symbiosis drifted up like a lost puppy to the marina, where we happened to be having a drink and chatting with friends. We dropped everything, rushed to the dinghy and sped out to the boat. She had (miraculously) not hit anybody on her way in and made a soft landing in mud near the mangroves. With help from some fellow cruisers, we managed to get Symby off the bank and back out in the harbor. We had heard of other moorings breaking here, but had naively thought it wouldn't happen to us!

Rushing out to the boat after it snapped its mooring. Photo courtesy Kaylee Jones.

Our unexpected extended stay in Luperon allowed us to meet a whole new group of cruisers who came in on the weather window we originally had planned to leave on. Among them, Ken, Danielle and 7-year-old Kaylee Jones aboard S/V Aqua Vida and Frank and Diane on Utopia. Kaylee, who has been cruising with her family for several years now, is a very bright, boat-schooled young girl. She's very social and is obviously learning much through her family's adventures. New Yorkers Frank and Diane, on their Caliber 39, have been cruising for a few years now. We also got to better know Joyce, She and her partner, Sarah, lived aboard their boat in the harbor. Among other things, "Joy" was instrumental in helping start "Dogs & Cats of Luperon," a sort of SPCA for the area. Sadly, a few weeks after leaving Luperon, we learned that Joyce suddenly passed away,

When we departed for the second time for Samana, we were in a group of eight boats -- Aqua Vida, Yarika, Sailicious, Wandering Star, Vagabond, Pepper, Magic and Exit Stage Left. Of the eight boats, there were a number of incidents. One lost an anchor and rode that paid out unexpectedly just a few miles out of Luperon. Apparently, a windlass pawl had not been properly set. Another boat was experiencing overheating problems; two more had issues with dirty fuel. We (thankfully!) had no mechanical problems, though we very nearly hit something big at night, sailing at 6 knots. It was not on the charts and should not have been there! I caught a glimpse of a large white object resembling a buoy. I surmise that it broke loose from its mooring and was simply drifting about out there. Scary!

Leaving Luperon.

The next morning as we rounded Cape Samana, Humpback whales spouted off our bow. Aqua Vida, a few hundred feet in front of us, got the best show. I took photos from the bow pulpit:

The Luperon to Samana run is one of the thorniest of thorns on the thorny path (along with crossing the Mona Passage from Hispaniola to Puerto Rico). Even so, we got the weather window right and all went well. It was lots of motoring/motor-sailing, but we did have about 6 hours of very nice night sailing.

Once in Samana, we stayed at a marina for a few days and then crossed over to Bahia de San Lorenzo at Parque Nacional Los Haitises. Beautiful spot. The limestone formations remind me of the west coast of Thailand.

Bahia de San Lorenzo.

Exploring the Mangrove River at Los Haitises National Park.

The crossing from DR to PR (via the Mona Passage) turned out also to be uneventful. We did have a very nice 12-hour sail from the time we left Samana in the evening until daybreak, Also caught a good-sized Skipjack Tuna -- probably our best fish to date. We finally arrived the next evening about 10 p.m. for a 28-hour run from Samana to Boqueron.

Tuna sushi

For all the hassles we expected to experience with customs and immigration in the DR, most never materialized. Although different cruisers had different experiences, most encountered no problems or demands for "tips." One individual in Luperon demanded a tip and a Czech couple were charged for an interpreter in Samana even though they speak perfect English. For us, the bigger headache was in our home country. Puerto Rico ended up taking a whole afternoon because of Homeland Security red tape!

Currently we are enjoying ourselves in PR. We visited a coffee plantation, did some shopping and re-provisioning and are, generally, taking it easy.