Thursday, March 12, 2020

At Sea 
Along the Dominican Republic
19.43.075N
69.59.971W

Dale was able to hear our weather guru clearly this morning and downloaded our weather information so that we could meet the others up at the marina office.  I got a sneak peek before they arrived and we found the conditions acceptable.  We also decided that if things deteriorated, we would pull into Samana at the far eastern end of the Dominican Republic and wait it out. 

The others arrived and we were anxious to catch up with Tim on Never Say Never as he had found a melted glob of wires belonging to his alternator wiring harness on his port engine the evening before preparing for departure.  Dale loaned him his electrical connection box with accoutrements and had offered assistance last evening but as it was found late in the day and would take the better part of the evening to repair, Tim declined the assistance but accepted all the pieces and parts.  Well, we thought all the pieces.  Apparently, there was a relay that he had to locate today but being fluent in Spanish, he was able to find one in an auto parts store.  But I digress.

In spite of the reasonably good forecast, Louise and Robin, on Zandolee, decided that they wanted to take short hops across as Robin doesn’t sleep on transits and they thought it best to break it up with a stop in Samana.  We were actually rather surprised when Tim and Rosie agreed that they wanted to break up the trip, so that the boys would have a chance to get off the boat each day as well.  OK, so we’re on our own. 

Leaving Ocean World, Dominican Republic

The decisions were made that we would leave at noon and they would leave around 2pm; that way all of us would arrive at our destinations in daylight hours.   Dale checked us out of the marina, customs, then immigration but we had to wait to get our “Dispatchio” from the Coasta Guarda until they came down to the boat.  I busied myself securing the interior as best as I could, checking our waypoints and then made a quick lunch waiting for the Navy to arrive.  Once all of the paperwork was completed, we cast our lines and slowly (so Dale could put away all of the lines and fenders) made our way to the marina entrance and out into the channel.  We had anticipated that the exit might be a bit bumpy as every once in a while, we could still see waves cresting the breakwater walls but it actually wasn’t bad at all. 

As we had been advised, the later we went, the better the conditions.  This proved to be accurate.  We stayed anywhere between 1-5 miles off the coast and made our way east.  The swells were well spaced, so no matter the size, they were easily traversed; simply up and down like a cork.  We tried to hail the other 2 boats when we saw a squall approaching but it was about the time they were trying to leave so they didn’t hear us.

That squall ended up being the worst part of the day.  We didn’t get any rain but the winds and waves were most decidedly confused and nasty.  We were motor sailing at the time, so it really didn’t matter, as we just slowed down and took the pounding.  If it had continued that way, we would have pulled into Samana.  However, as soon as we got on the other side of the squall line, the wind and seas subsided and it was a very pleasant trip along the northern coast. 

I did win the “I Spy with my little Eye” game this time.  Dale is usually the one who can spot a boat on the horizon before I can even focus.  One was 3 bundles of . . . something . . . that I didn’t want to touch looking terribly illegal (could have been a homemade fishing float and my imagination took over) another was during the night when what I thought was a shadow became more clear as a large round fender.  Finally, the one that gives me nightmares, was a large metal channel marker buoy off on its own across the ocean.  Any boat hitting that in the middle of a moonless night is going to have some major problems.  We dodged all of them and lived to sail another day.