Here we are in the Dominican Republic, in a marina somewhere near Puerto Plata I think. We arrived on Thursday evening in the dark which was interesting considering all but one of the starboard buoy lights marking safe passage into the marina was out. As we rounded the harbour wall we could see a large casino parked incongrously off to one end like some giant spaceship come to land with a band playing the Tequila song rather loudly, it was quite surreal! At the other end of the marina there were some men waving their mobile phones in the darkness. Were they joining in the party or were they from the marina? Hard to know as we couldn’t hear each other over the band. Turns out they were members of the Dominican Republic Navy and looked after yachts coming into the marina outside of office hours. Soon we were moored up in a temporary berth and they took our details so that we could go ashore. They were incredibly friendly and set a standard of friendliness that hasn’t been let down since. Our sail from Tortola to here was fairly smooth sailing (btw we were very reserved with the painkillers, so not too painful the next day!)
The first day’s sail was absolutely beautiful, the winds were perfect for a beam reach giving us a comfortable 7 knots all day and into the night. We saw a pair of dolphins as we left Tortola and not long after a small pod of 5 dolphins swam with the boat, playing along the bow, looping back and then racing to overtake us once again. Tristan, Sarah & I were up on the bow and enchanted with them. We looked around for Dad only to find him inspecting the dinghy!?!! Maybe when I’ve been sailing for 60years, I too will be blasé about dolphins! That wasn’t the end of our wildlife experiences either for Tristan and Sarah saw a large ray leap twice from the water not far from the boat. This doesn’t seem like normal ray behaviour but I’m pretty sure they weren’t pulling our legs. It’s sometimes hard to tell when Tristan has a habit of making up the most random nonsense – poor Sarah about 50% of what he tells her about sailing terminology is rubbish. With the other 50% of truth being sufficiently baffling – davits, epirbs and sheets to name a few – it’s hard to distinguish which is real!
The fair winds of the first day soon dropped off on the second as we sailed off the coast of Puerto Rico. With an Atlantic swell rolling in, we bobbed and rattled around a little as we made our way west. That first night we had the lights of Puerto Rico to keep us company off to port but the next night was pitch black until the Moon rose. This has the enormous advantage of making the stars absolutely stunning, a bit of a distraction for me on my night watch! Dad and Tristan cooked some yummy meals, unfortunately I’m still finding I get a bit queasy down below so I’ve been let off cooking duties for the time being.
We were all quite eager to get into port on the last day, we’d expected to be in about 10hrs earlier that we actually were so it heightened our expectation of a stable bed for the night. It seemed to take a long time to crawl along the coast and the marker buoys for the marina were hard to pick up which gave us a nervous entry. What with the band and the day-glow casino, it was all a little bizarre when we did arrive. On closer inspection, the casino/restaurant/nightclub/theatre is nautically themed, four enormous mermen hold up the clam shell entrance, the restaurant looks like a scene from The Little Mermaid. It seems a little trippy when you’re a tired, salty crew coming ashore for the first time in a few days!
I really like what I’ve seen of the Dominican Repbulic, it certainly deserves more exploring than we’ve time for. I’d love to waffle on about it but I’ve got to dash now as we’re about to set off for Key West and my cabin is not exactly ship shape! Remind me to tell you about Bravissimo sometime, I’m not sure how to put it into words but it was certainly an experience, maybe Tris could do it justice, I’ll ask him for a blog post. It should take us 4 – 5 days to get to Key West – keep your fingers crossed for good winds!
Going for a swim at the beach
