Luperon, DR
19.54.02N
70.65.913W

Dragging in the night? It was sprinkling last night when we went to bed, so we buttoned the Palace up so that we wouldn't have to get up during the night. We both remember hearing it rain once or twice and the winds picked up but nothing out of the ordinary.

This morning about 7:30am I awoke to hear a woman's voice outside my window telling Dale that if we hadn't anchored so close, we wouldn't be dragging into them. In fact, we hadn't dragged at all. Instead, the winds had shifted to the west and the scope we had let out for the more common northerlies and easterlies, now caused us to swing closer to her (we weren't crazy about how close we were swinging into them either.) Courtesies dictate that since they were here first (they've been here for 3 years,) we would be the ones to up and move; but only a few more feet away; just enough so that we didn't have to hear her casting dispersions in our direction when we swung in their direction.

Doc-No-More didn't fair as well. Two other catamarans took turns swinging into them from midnight on. One (with no one aboard) had actually hit a sandbar and was no longer swinging in conjunction with the rest of the boats, so everyone near it, either hit it or had to maintain a watch to increase or decrease their anchor chains to allow for him not moving until he floated free with the rising tide. The second catamaran (with 3 small children aboard) had dragged and was continuing to drag well into the morning. They ended up re-anchoring directly behind us after we moved. As soon as they could, Roger & Elaine also moved over by us. Of course, the anchor nazi reprimanded both catamarans with regard to their anchor sites and forced them to move further away from her. She may not get hit during the next couple of days, but she certainly isn't making any friends either.

As well as having winds coming from an unusual direction (those who we spoke to today said that the wind inside the harbor was worse than during hurricane season), we apparently had 5.5" of rain (you could have fooled me.) The run-off from the surrounding mountains have made the harbor look like a sewer (now we see what other boaters were complaining about.) Trees, branches, leaves, garbage that wasn't contained, and some that was, bag and all, has all washed into the harbor. The water is as muddy as the ICW ever appeared to be. Pretty gross. We had to be very careful dinghying in to the barbeque today for fear of fouling our prop. Hopefully, this will eventually wash out with the tide or settle. Right now, it's just going back and forth.

We're hoping to take another tour inland to Santo Domingo this coming week but I'm not willing to leave the boat during unsettled weather. I am also not willing to take chances crossing the island without reliable transportation or lodging if we want to spend the night. We might have to wait to see the capital on our return trip.