Luperon, DR
19.54.031N
70.56.897W

About 2:30 am there was a kiss in the night. Thank God it wasn't us; it was MTNest and Moon Goddess. Poor Terri and Mike had been exhausted when they arrived and it took them half a dozen tries at two different locations with two different anchors to get one to set. So when they bumped Moon Goddess in the night, Terri was in no mood to reset the anchor. They started off trying to untangle their anchors but ended up just rafting together for the remainder of the night. Dale and Roger went over first thing this morning to help them untangle and reset the anchor. So far its held. After discussing the situation ad nauseam we decided that they probably didn't drag but instead bumped because they were closer to the mangroves where the current passes by quicker than in the middle area. Moon Goddess was further in and probably didn't turn as quickly as they did when the tides changed. Anyway, they're untangled now and hopefully it won't happen again.

Mike had fun the with interaction by saying that after they rafted up he heard a lot of moaning and groaning but when he went topside, he found that with all of the bumping and grinding during the night, the two boats had produced a little one between them (the dingy had wedged itself between the two boats). Mike is quite the jokester and I look forward to having them in our little group heading south.

I finished making my rain catcher and we've decided to put it on the back suspended between the two arches. This way the cockpit protects it some from the wind while the arches support it. I hope it works this time. We've missed a couple of opportunities to replenish our water supply. Also, with this one totally devoted to catching water, I can make sure it stays clean and not have to waste water by waiting for the rain to wash it off first.

The rest of the day was spent reading and baking an hors d'oeuvre for our cocktail hour on Doc-No-More. Elaine had also invited MTNest, Moon Goddess and Meridian Chaser. We figure that there will be about 9 boats trying to catch the next weather window. Moon Goddess and Meridian Chaser are monohulls, so we won't be left in the dust by Doc-No-More and MTNest which are catamarans.

Tomorrow we are all going shopping in Santiago. If you can't do anything else, go shopping.