Luperon, DR
19.54.031N
70.56.897W

To go, or not to go. That is the question. Whether tis nobler to leave and possibly get your butt kicked or err on the side of caution and become another semi-permanent citizen of Luperon.

Last night when we went to bed, it seemed the decision had been made that the window we were hoping for was too short to go from here to Puerto Rico with any kind of safety margin. By that I mean that you look for a weather prognostication of a day for the seas to flatten out, 2 days to cross and another day of good weather just in case the area of calm is going through faster than you anticipated.

This morning, the forecast we had was for one day of good wind and sea, followed by a rougher day followed by two and a half good days. Another forecast was just plain ugly, the third and fourth were somewhere in between. After a little conference, we changed our minds and decided that although it wasn't perfect, it would probably be another 10 days before we saw another opportunity to go.

Dale and Roger made a visit to the Commandante's office to pay the fee(?) and checked us out of the harbor with the other various and as sundry offices. We ran by the other boats who had shown interest in leaving with us and let them know we were preparing to move. One said it was a Friday (superstition says that you don't start a trip on a Friday) and to top that, it was a Friday the 13th; nope he'd stay. Another said they were leaving but on Saturday (same reason?) and the last was non-committal. We called a local guy to come scrape off the barnacles and we talked with some people on a boat that had come through Samana who said that although they had to pay the entry fee again, the officials were polite and they didn't feel threatened in any way. Also, just to be on the safe side, Dale and I took a dingy ride out of the harbor to the ocean itself and looked. The seas appeared to be flat and the winds seemed to be calmer outside of the harbor than in. OK, a go it is!

We scurried around, paid our tab at the marina bar, said our good-bys and readied the boat for an open ocean transit. This involves putting the hammock, books and dishes away, and bringing out the jack lines, tethers and harnesses. Also, since we anticipated crossing the Mona Passage (much like crossing the Gulf Stream,) we put the dink up on the bow of the boat. Once everything was secure, we hoisted our anchor, washed off as much mud as we could and departed Luperon about 4:15 pm.

By 5:30 pm we were back and re-anchoring in roughly our same spots. We had threaded our way out of the harbor but once past the cape to the east of us, the seas and wind picked up considerably. We were only making 2.9 kts with both the wind and swell directly on our noses. We weren't going anywhere fast. After a couple of 10' waves a lot closer than the 10 seconds predicted, Doc-No-More declared that this wasn't any fun. Our boat was doing fine as long was I was hand steering but if we used the auto-pilot, we would be bashing through those same waves after dark. So, we chalked this one up to a character building exercise.

What we didn't realize though, was that we were providing the evening's entertainment for the barflies. Some had actually crossed over the hill to watch to see if we cleared the cape. Then we really entertained them when it took Dale and I three attempts to get our anchor to hold in this muddy goo. We ascended the hill to a round of applause and glad handing welcoming us back from our voyage. We took our licks and started a new bar tab.

Now that we sit here in dead air doing circles over our anchor, I wonder if we gave up too soon. We know that sailing is better done at night in this area to use the lee of the island to shelter you from the wind and waves. I also know that this is a tricky harbor to enter and although I just saw a boat do it, I certainly wouldn't want to try to come in here after dark. So, we'll sit here and ponder what we may have learned from the experience and wait for the next window to come through. Hopefully, it will be before we become Luperon semi-permanent citizens.