A wacky passage.........and a surprise
Ah, sailing. We left Bonaire misty-eyed...........we'd been there for 3 months and done almost 100 scuba dives. We checked out our boat (which obviously had stood still for all that time). All systems working. We cast off our mooring lines on Wednesday and proceeded north. For the geographically challenged, Bonaire is right off the coast of Venezuela, at the top of South America. Our destination being the north coast of the Dominican Republic, this would involve nearly 500 miles of sailing......crossing the Caribbean Sea south to north non-stop.
Right away, big wind.......out of the east too, so we could sail all the way to the Mona Passage (the passage between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico). While the boat performed perfectly, we had our usual troubles sleeping. With only two people, you're on watch every 3 or 4 hours. Whoever isn't on watch sleeps in the cockpit. With wind roaring, waves hissing, the VHF crackling.........it can be tough to sleep. You end up in this weird state where your judgement and comprehension are both suspect. Some examples:
- Kirstin hallucinated that she saw a distress flair in the distance (we hope)......3 AM, no second flair......nothing we could do as it was probably nothing and could have been 1 mile away or 30 miles away. Hope it was dramamine talking.
- We see a black cloud ahead of us just. Tom to Kirstin- "What's that thing coming out of the side of the cloud that looks like a water spout ?" Kirstin to Tom- "That's a water spout". Tom to Kirstin- "OK then, let's go 40 degrees to port".
- We hear a thud in the cockpit at night........Kirstin reaches down from her seat (where she's sleeping) to see what it is..........AHHHHH a fish !!! We decide to kill it with gin in the gills and I spear it with a fork and throw it overboard. We both felt this was logical in the moment, amazingly.
- Despite reading about the hazards of the Mona Passage at night, we proceed to sail there at night. I'm from Jersey......."Hey, I got your dangerous squalls right here". We get into the passage and crack, boom.......lightning bolts everywhere.........I think we ended up promising God a million hours of community service or something.
Anyway, on to the Dominican Republic. I had this vision of an impoverished, Spanish speaking version of Bangladesh.......skinny dogs, disease.........some good baseball prospects.....but basically subsistence living in thatch covered mud huts. Maybe Haiti being on the other end of this island had something to do with that impression. We get here, and nothing could be further from the truth. Real housewives of the DR would be a great show. Here in Samana there are Lexuses.......bedazzled young fashionistas and their much older men (think "most interesting man in the world types"). And guess what ? WE are the riff-raff. Living on a boat ? Really ? We've gotten some "poor yanqui" stares.
Anyway, when we commented on all the money here......and told our server that we feel poor, he said "No odias el jugador..........odia el juego". (Don't hate the player......hate the game). You can't make this stuff up.
So we find ourselves sleeping with the AC on (for the first time in a year). We ate a breakfast buffet on land (also a first since 2011). And swam in a pool that didn't have sharks in it. We would get used to this place.
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| Oh, Oh - Storm over the Caribbean Sea |
- Kirstin hallucinated that she saw a distress flair in the distance (we hope)......3 AM, no second flair......nothing we could do as it was probably nothing and could have been 1 mile away or 30 miles away. Hope it was dramamine talking.
- We see a black cloud ahead of us just. Tom to Kirstin- "What's that thing coming out of the side of the cloud that looks like a water spout ?" Kirstin to Tom- "That's a water spout". Tom to Kirstin- "OK then, let's go 40 degrees to port".
- We hear a thud in the cockpit at night........Kirstin reaches down from her seat (where she's sleeping) to see what it is..........AHHHHH a fish !!! We decide to kill it with gin in the gills and I spear it with a fork and throw it overboard. We both felt this was logical in the moment, amazingly.
- Despite reading about the hazards of the Mona Passage at night, we proceed to sail there at night. I'm from Jersey......."Hey, I got your dangerous squalls right here". We get into the passage and crack, boom.......lightning bolts everywhere.........I think we ended up promising God a million hours of community service or something.
Anyway, on to the Dominican Republic. I had this vision of an impoverished, Spanish speaking version of Bangladesh.......skinny dogs, disease.........some good baseball prospects.....but basically subsistence living in thatch covered mud huts. Maybe Haiti being on the other end of this island had something to do with that impression. We get here, and nothing could be further from the truth. Real housewives of the DR would be a great show. Here in Samana there are Lexuses.......bedazzled young fashionistas and their much older men (think "most interesting man in the world types"). And guess what ? WE are the riff-raff. Living on a boat ? Really ? We've gotten some "poor yanqui" stares.
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| Tom roughing it in the DR |
Anyway, when we commented on all the money here......and told our server that we feel poor, he said "No odias el jugador..........odia el juego". (Don't hate the player......hate the game). You can't make this stuff up.
 |
| Infinity pool, palm trees - maybe we will stay here |
So we find ourselves sleeping with the AC on (for the first time in a year). We ate a breakfast buffet on land (also a first since 2011). And swam in a pool that didn't have sharks in it. We would get used to this place.
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| Lobby of the marina - L'ORIENT's mast visible on left |