Dominican Republic 2006

While the Dominican Republic was an unexpected stop, we had a fantastic time. We scheduled a stop of a few days, however two days turned out to be 11 days. We had heard about the famous Brugal Rum Factory tour and decided to make it one of our first stops. The Brugal Rum Factory was a modern plant in Puerto Plata and is one of the main exporters in the Dominican Republic. Around 80% of its total output of rum was exported. After a tour through the factory the guide spend time with us, offering us samples of the rum, and of course we had to buy some.

We had heard about the 28 waterfalls and being into waterfalls we thought we should pay them a visit. Our guide did not speak English so we just followed him to the bottom of the mountain and were told that we would have to walk up the river to get to the base. Luckily we had wore our swimmers.We became a little concerned when they handed out lifejackets and crash helmets. Dominican Republic being a Third World country aren't normally big on safety. We trekked up the river from about 20 minutes and found why we needed the helmets and lifejackets. We hadn't actually gone to look at the Falls but to climb up and then slide down over the edge.The water was full of lime and was warm, as it was a volcanic mountain. It really made our skin soft and smooth. To do all 28 waterfalls it was to take a day, so we managed to do seven of them which was an exhilarating ride. There was a donkey at the bottom of the last one. It was the ambulance and was needed, but luckily not for us.


Christopher Columbus was well-known in these parts and we had decided to go and see one of the historic sites where he lived. At La Isabella, just 20 km north of Luperon, we were able to walk through his house where it once stood and look over the bay that he had sailed in to. Christopher Columbus was not too popular with locals as he had brought disease, guns and had an eye for the local brown skinned woman. I was surprised that in the local museum they had a model of the ship and it was only 110 foot long.


Being in the Dominican Republic was like stepping back in time. Donkeys were still being used everywhere. The children seem to be very happy to have their photos taken. Fences were often made of cactus hedges. Honda 50 step-through motorcycles were still being used as the main transport for some families. The local bus was a Toyota van, 11 seater, but they managed to get 17 people in, after taking the steering wheel off and putting a pair of vice grips on to steer. More importantly everybody seemed to be happy, which was really great to see.

We picked a weather window, which meant we would leave with two other boats around 10 o'clock at night. Local fishermen had put drift nets in the channel unbeknown to us and we picked one up in the propeller. Luckily the weather was calm and we dropped anchor and stayed where we were. We waited till the morning and Dan volunteered to go over the side to clear the propeller. We then set off for the British Virgin Islands, a trip of around 316 n. miles. It was a pretty uneventful trip with the exception of a US helicopter flying out of Puerto Rico to take our photo.

Bahamas --Dominican Republic 2006

We sailed down towards Georgetown which we'd heard was a favourite yachtie haunt. We turned into the harbour and found over 400 yachts on anchor. It was really a sight to see. At night it was like a forest of masts with lights on. It was our first real experience with a big cluster of cruisers. There were a lot of activities being organised daily. We had arrived just in time for coconut week. We decided it steer clear of coconut activities but played a lot of volleyball and spent a lot of time getting to know other cruisers.
We also had a wonderful meal on a mega-yacht. The Kiwi crew had not seen Kiwis for a very long time and were delighted to entertain us with the owners leftovers.
Around mid-March it was time to move on. We arrived back on the yacht one afternoon and decided the wind was favourable, so we put up the spinnaker and said "let's see how far we can get with this wind". A couple of days later we were talking about pulling into the Turks and Cacos to check out of the Bahamas, only to realise that island did not belong to the Bahamas. We were too far down the chain to turn back, so decided that at the next port we would fill out our leaving documentation and posted back to them. A few days of sailing later the weather picked up and we decided we'd better to look for somewhere to go in. Out came the chart and we decided on a little place in the Dominican Republic called Luperon. We expected this to be a sleepy little backwater with a few fishing boats. However, when we came round the corner there are a hundred yacht in there. We had called another yacht to help guide us past some reefs and had given them our name. As we came round the corner we heard on the radio call "Cool Bananas Cool Bananas Stooooop"as we rode straight into a sand bar doing 4 kn . The cruiser guide we had been using was five years old and the sand bar had moved from one side of the channel to the other!!
We had decided to stay in Luperon from a couple of days while the inclement weather went past (turned into 11 days). Luperon boasted a small marina and a very new yacht club. It was very cheap to provision at and we found some cruisers who had arrived for five days were still here three months later. The picture with the rainbow was taken from the back of Cool Bananas and is a shot over the harbour. However it does not show the water's true colour. It was green.
Checking into the Dominican Republic was interesting. We had to see the Port Captain, the Navy, the meat inspector, the veg inspector, customs, immigration, and anyone else who they thought we needed to see.
One thing we did find was that the people there while quite poor, seemed very happy.

The Bahamas/ Hog Cay - February 2006

Part of being aboard is practising with the first aid and safety equipment. Ali decided that Dan needed a checkup. They are a lovely couple and we got on well. Dan was ex Merchant Navy and he and his partner Ali wanting to gain experience on the cruising yacht in the hope that has experienced would later get him a skipper's job on a yacht .





With light winds a blue sky and a turquoise sea we are off to Hog Cay on the Great Bahama Bank. In no time we have the spinnaker up and are cruising along nicely at 6 kn. The Great Bahama Bank was largely unsurveyed, so it is always a constant lookout and the checking of the chart, which incidently had little information. Hog Cay is known to have a lot of iguanas. And this is going to be our first stop heading south.




Hog Cay was a small coral island with very white sand. We had anchored in between two Cay's and it was very calm and sheltered. There were about three other yachts there and it seemed every day one would go on another one would come. Early in the morning the iguanas would come down to the water's edge. We would get up early go in the dinghy and wander quietly around the beach. If you lay quietly the iguanas would come up very close to you, surprisingly friendly. Later in the morning commercial tourist boats arrived, all the way from Nassau. However, by the time they arrived a lot of iguanas had crawled back into the rocks to take advantage of the shade.

The sunsets were just gorgeous and they just came along day after day... after day....... We joked about whether we would actually get sick of them, but I don't think we ever will.