Blog 035 – Waiting for Weather in Luperon and Crossing The Mona

Leaving George Town, Bahamas

Waiting for weather is the story of our life now. We have been traveling with Sea Ya and Khaya Moya for more than a month. It’s rare in life that you make such close friends so quickly and live lives so interwoven. We all happened to be going the same direction, all with separate purposes but a common goal…make the sail from George Town, Bahamas to the George Town, Grenada. John is the salty sailor; he has sailed more ocean miles than all of us put together. He knows sailboats and oceans and weather. A good friend to get advice from when planning to sail a small boat into the trades.

Khaya Moya

He also knows the Caribbean like the back of his hand. John sailed here many years ago on a Swan from Durban, South Africa. He is actually famous for not being dead! He sailed through 100 mile per hour winds and lived to tell about it. Rumor has it at the yacht club in Durban that John and Shirley (his partner back then) were die-hard sailors who would go sailing when all others would just stay put because of weather. Well, their luck nearly ended in a ferocious storm that came out of nowhere. They were delivering a boat with the owner (Nigel) on board, but he was not yet a sailor.

The wind and waves built to hurricane force and they managed to sail right into the break water and drop an anchor after being knocked down twice. John said when it was all over he could barely get his hand off the tiller. His muscles tightened up so much he had to pry his fingers off. He started shaking uncontrollably when he realized they had made it. Now if you are like me and you think that’s just a sailor story he told after too much rum we would both be wrong. Their story was in the local newspaper complete with pictures. The photographer thought they were gonna die and continued photographing the entire trip into the harbor. A couple of days ago we met the owner of that boat, Nigel and his first mate now, the lovely Miss Kitty. They were in Fajardo, PR so they took a three hour drive to visit John and we all got to meet them. We had a wonderful evening listening to their stories of sailing. Nigel and Kitty now deliver boats all over the world.

Nigel, John, Miss Kitty

The crew from Sea Ya also have interesting stories. Phillip is from South Africa & Teresa is from North Carolina. We met up with them at a bonfire on Lynyard Cay, Abacos, Bahamas. Philip came to America seeking political asylum. Back when South Africa was in the middle of a civil war trying to abolish Apartheid he was a white South African on the side of Nelson Mandela. Not a very safe place to be back then. He escaped with his family to America after he had become the target of an assassination attempt. His story is well documented and is a fantastic read in “ASYLUM” by Hugo Thal. He documented his journey as a way to wrap his head around what had brought him to this place in his life and his family to America. His book is available on Amazon. Phillip met Teresa when she was celebrating her birthday. She was teaching math to middle schoolers but was not satisfied with her lifestyle anymore. They quickly realized they both had one common goal – buy a boat and sail the world. Amazingly, Teresa had never sailed before.

Sea Ya

Shortly after, they quit their jobs, pooled their resources and did just that. They are footloose and fancy free, sailing where the wind takes them with no hard and fast agenda. This is the first time they have ventured this far south. Like us, they are looking to tag along with other cruisers who know the islands and places to shelter during bad weather. Phillip should have been a doctor because he has a natural cure for everything. If you have a runny nose – a shot of rum will cure it. If your stomach is ailing you – take two shots and call him in the morning. If you are not feeling better by then he would most likely recommend upping the dosage. Even a diesel or out board that is not running quite right he would recommend giving it a shot of rum and surely one more for the mechanic to make sure each is running at peak performance. Yup, he can darn near fix anything if the rum holds out.

Most of our team get togethers are on our boat because there is more room. For some reason food seems to always be a part of our get togethers.

BBQ on Silhouette

Our contribution to the team is also things like fresh water which is more handy for the others than hauling it from land in 5 gallon containers in dingies. We also have more electronics like radar and AIS to watch for traffic and storms during our passages, along with the ability to send and receive emails and phone calls at sea through our satphone when their cell phones don’t work. Liana is our weather person, she spends at least a half hour every day downloading grib files to keep track of the weather that is constantly changing.

We have a new addition to the team since we hit Luperon, DR.

Sea Swan

Bronwen – she is also from…you guessed it – South Africa. She, like John has sailed the oceans for years aboard her home, Sea Swan. She also is single-handing like John. Bronwen has been on many open ocean racing teams over the years and her professional trade is sailmaking. She is quite the accomplished sailor. She is heading to Grenada where she owns some land and she may set up shop again.

So that’s us, Team Doctor.

Team DR

This name came about because our next big passage was to be the DR. When this bunch gets together amazing stories are told of South Africa and all of our ocean adventures. We have learned to be better sailors from all of them. Weather kept us in Luperon the week we planned to make Puerto Rico so we made other plans. Teresa decided to visit her parents in North Carolina, giving her mom a much needed respite while she helped care for her father who is in declining health. Liana and I needed to catch a flight to Puerto Rico because Platinum Supplemental Insurance invited us to take a trip with them for their annual convention, this time in Los Cabos, Mexico. They asked me to be a guest speaker to help inspire agents to follow their dreams and get the most out of their career. We had received that call moments before we cancelled our cellphone service the end of December 2016. We had to make a guess of where we would be by mid-March so they could make travel arrangements for us.

As soon as Teresa returned from the States and we returned from Mexico, the team was rearing to go. God had finally given us the three day weather forecast we needed to cross the treacherous north coast of the Dominican Republic. We all had full tanks of fuel and water. We did one last run into the grocery store to provision. We purchased three small bottles of rum for the checking in process at our next possible port in Samana, DR and it was time to check out of Luperon. We heard many stories of cruisers trying to leave who were held up by the bureaucracy of this island nation. Yachts are required to have a dispacho – permission to depart. The Comandante has the final say. When we arrived in Luperon we were expected to give the Comandante a “tip.” And now were expected to give him another one to leave the harbor. But before that, various steps had to be completed. We are pretty sure the rules are rewritten on a daily basis. We started with immigration and they checked our passports and papers for the date we arrived. We were then told we must pay another $2,500 pesos. We were caught by surprise and he could tell I was getting upset with him. He tried to explain why but we were not communicating very well with the language barrier. Just then our friend Papo came along and we asked if he would translate. They talk in Spanish for a few minutes and then asked us about the trip we just took to Puerto Rico and then to Mexico. A few more minutes of discussion and he said OK, you don’t need to pay us anything. I wonder how many yachties have had their cruising kitty lightened by this guy. Next we went to another little government trailer and had to pay $20.00 U.S. money for a harbor fee because we stayed more than 30 days. No other ports in the country charge this, hmmmm. Then there is one more trailer to visit. This guy pulls out a pink slip of paper to match up with our original check-in document. He made a log entry and then filled out the actual required documents from the official government. He charged us nothing but told us to go see the Comandante for our official dispacho. We had to go to his compound on top of a hill that overlooks the bay. But to get there we had to cross a river bed that has flooded many times and now had water running through it.

Comandante’s “bridge”

There were a couple of beams of twisted rusty steel that cross it but no actual planks. It was like walking across a creek on a log that had fallen over. When we got to the other side and walked up the hill the Comandante was out. The military guys told us to wait on a covered patio and he should be back shortly. He showed up on the back of a motorcycle a few minutes later and took our passports and boat papers. It took some time and we really did not know what the delay was until later. He needed more copies of a form and sent someone on a motorcycle to pick them up. While we waited a lady brought a plate of rice and beans and BBQ meat out for the Comandante and the other military guys at the table and they even brought some for us. What a pleasant surprise! I think the Comandante liked John. Before we arrived in Luperon, we read that a $5 gift would properly grease the palm of the Comandante and he would clear us in without too much trouble. John only had twenty dollar bills onboard and no one could leave their boats under quarantine rules until the Commandante signs. So John gave him $20. Thanks John for helping things go smooth today for us all.

So here was the plan. We get a dispacho for Samana and if we’re on a good run to Puerto Rico we keep on going and don’t stop there but we have the correct papers if we need to. The Comandante gave us all our dispachos and we were on our way. Back at the boats we worked raising dingies and stowing for sea. Since we have been here we’ve seen roughly a third of the boats run aground. We arranged for Papo to guide us out of the shallow entrance and we were glad to pay him $20.00 to get us out safely. And we are off!

Team DR leaving Luperon

Team Doctor in one long line following Papo’s panga out of the shallow winding entrance that leads back to the Atlantic Ocean. Papo waved at me to speed up and just then we hit bottom. We felt our keel bury into the thick mud but we were still moving. I pushed the throttle forward and could here the turbo winding up on our diesel as a thick cloud of black smoke was pouring out of our exhaust. We managed to power our way through about 100 feet of silt and then we could feel it let us go. We were free, thank God! Sea Ya bumped ground also, but we all made it through the shallows and out the ocean inlet. I gave Papo a few blasts on our air horn and we waved good-bye. We were only off the coast a few miles when John radioed that he had problems and needed to change out his alternator. My heart sank a bit. This coast is as beautiful as it is dangerous. Its rocky cliffs capped with green tropical foliage go hundreds of feet straight up into the sky. At the bottom of these cliffs are house-size boulders and waves constantly pounding the shoreline and blasting water up through blowholes in the rocks. Not the place to be without a motor for even a few minutes. But John was sailing nicely and felt he could get it done quick. We hung back with him while the others kept on going. They needed to pull away from the coast to safety. John managed to make the repairs in a matter of twenty minutes or so while we made sure he was still heading in the right direction. He radioed that he got it put back together and it was working fine. We tried calling Bronwen who had her friend Tommy come along to give her a hand on this possibly difficult passage. No answer, we could see Sea Swan but not talk to her. Later we found out that her base radio had fallen from the overhead and was hanging by the wires. She had to use a handheld radio that doesn’t transmit as well or as far for the rest of the trip.

The ocean around us was filled with debris because of torrential rains during the week we were in Cabo. The rivers were at flood stage, we dodged tree limbs and stumps until the sun went down and we could not see any more. We did pass something very large and low to the water. It appeared to be part of a floating dock, possibly up to a hundred feet long but we all managed to miss it. We sailed through the night. The city lights of Puerto Plata gave the clouds some light until a line of squalls came. Then in got very dark and we could make out bioluminescence in the water. We watched them for hours. It’s really one of those wonderful, beautiful experiences out in the ocean that few people will ever see first hand.

Sea Swan had a strange noise coming from the engine so we all got in on a discussion about what it might be. Bronwen and Tommy tracked it down to a fan belt that had come apart. They managed to install a new one and realign the alternator but they were falling behind. Again, we could not talk to them but we were watching them on radar. Shipping traffic along our way was light and soon we watched the sun come up over Cabo Francis Viejo. A light wind was still at our back and we motored all night. The morning brought us rolling seas but still manageable, as we motored along. We passed the Ensenada La Posa – magnificent, rugged cliffs that go straight up for hundreds of feet.

Rugged coast of Dominican Republic

We caught our first sailing wind just before dusk as we were rounding the last point – Punta Pasquero de Francisco. Now we were heading along the mouth of Bahia Samana. Just a few moments before the wind kicked in we were discussing the fuel situation aboard Sea Ya. Her engine sips fuel but we had motored nearly 24 hours and she has a small tank. Phillip put his last five gallons into the tank that he had on deck and he figured he had 30 hours of fuel left. We were making plans to transfer fuel if necessary, when the wind piped up. Eight knots then nine then twelve knots. This was good news for all of us. At first it was light gusts and then steady. This was the perfect time. We had feared getting the trade winds along the northern coastline of the DR since we would have been clawing off a leeshore with no place to sneak into. So we were happy to motor there, but this is where we needed the wind – the Mona passage. Known by sailors as one of the great passages to be reckoned with. It has every possible hazard going for it. The Mona has one of the deepest ocean trenches in the world. Just off the coast of the DR the bottom comes up from this depth to just a few hundred feet. Its called Hour Glass Shoals but is not really a shoal at all. We could never run aground on it, but it could take us apart with the standing waves it generates. The Atlantic Ocean floods in from the North driven by the trade (East) winds that often blow day in and day out at 25 to 30 knots. Then to make this even more fun the warm Caribbean Sea driven in by the Gulfstream collides with the Atlantic right here at this little shallow plateau. Our plan was to pass north of this area by several miles and with God’s grace avoid the washing machine affect. Then we would turn south before we hit Isla Desecheo. It’s called the forgotten one. A large mountainous island off of Puerto Rico that is desolate. We headed into the Mona after sunset with a good wind still blowing and sailed throughout the night. We were going wonderfully and by daybreak we had flat calm seas in the middle of the Mona. No one was going to believe us! This just doesn’t happen, but it did for us. By mid-morning we had 12-15 knots blowing from behind. We were all flying our sails wing and wing. Liana and I were sailing 6 to 7+ knots. We heard Bronwen on the radio. Sea Swan was rocketing along catching up to the pack. I could see her on radar, she had picked up a few miles overnight. Now her competitive racing spirit kicked in and she wanted to pass us all. We now had a sailboat race! It was a bit unfair as we had full sails up and quite the lead on everyone else. Soon we were out of radio range of everyone but Sea Ya. Liana and I had one of our fastest days of sailing thanks to John. He has been schooling us on how to get more out of Silhouette and it is working. Even Bronwen has been giving us helpful tips.

We arrived at the entrance to Boqueron harbor an hour before sunset and got anchored up. We were watching the sunset when what to our wondering eyes did appear but three little sailboat masts on the horizon. They entered the harbor just as the sun was disappearing over the horizon. They all dropped anchors around us and we yelled and whooped up a storm. We were all happy to have screamed through a dangerous stretch of water in the Caribbean. We made it to Puerto Rico all within about an hour of one another. Cheers guys, it was quite a run.

Thank you Lord for a wonderful passage.

PS: Our next blog is about some of the fun adventures we had in the Dominican Republic. 🙂