I am unable to place the pictures, so you'll just have to figure them out: SORRY!

Hola todo el mundo! We are in our first Spanish speaking country working with our Lingo to translate and calculate the rate of exchange (36.1 pesos to the buck). W e left South Side Marina at Provo, Turks and Caicos Islands on Monday May 17th for Ambergris Cay (approx. 23 nm SSE) where we stopped over night to check on the weather. We should have gone in the water ‘cause the bottom turned out to be covered in conch. But we didn’t and left Tuesday a.m. for Big Sand Cay 23 nm, again, SSE. This time we had to motor as the wind was once again on our nose. I managed to get us onto an elk horn bed of coral and bent the port rudder up against the hull where it stuck fast. Out came the anchor aimed at a sand patch, but of course not with any luck or accuracy. By hooking a block and tackle around the bottom of the rudder I managed to straighten it where it would once again turn: simple. Now came the fun part: getting the anchor up from under a coral head 28’ down. In the day, 28’ was nothing; today it is a different story. I had managed to break the windless trying to pull it up. So, I got out the hookah (electric, oil-less air compressor) hooked to my SCUBA regulator with a 70’ hose, my mask and fins, and weight belt. As I’m huffing and puffing and bouncing around the trampoline at the bow Linda saw a T&C fishing boat nearby and flagged them down (no she didn’t take off her blouse). In 10 minutes I was able to pull the heavy 3/8 chain up and bring the anchor aboard. Just before I collapsed, Linda brought the guys alongside and thanked them with two pint bottles of Ronrico rum and two $5 bills. We were as ecstatic as they were. Three hours late we decided to make the passage after all and arrived at Big Sand Cay at around five o’clock having crossed with nose on the 20-25 k wind through 6’ seas. Oh, joy. We were very glad to get into the anchorage and put the Rocna down attached to a nylon line: the heavy chain was back in the locker. Wednesday we listened to and spoke with Mr. Parker. He suggested the passage would be ok with 15-20 k winds from 100⁰T and 5’ seas 6 seconds apart. Not!!! Our course was 177⁰T and we couldn’t maintain it as we can only get within the27⁰ of the wind. Added to that were gusts to 32 k over the steady 25 k all night: yes, a night (5 p.m. departure) passage so we’d arrive off Luperon in the early a.m. We averaged 5.4 kph and arrived 12 nm E of Luperon just at the “red sky” dawn. We turned on the motors and headed once again into the wind crossing the swells and waves at about 45⁰ so the ride was a lot more pleasant than the slamming we did all night.

The DR is fantastic to see in the early morning as compared to the Bahamas and T&C. High, green mountains rise out of the sea to greet you, but no land smell as the wind is from the ENE. Stella Maris was 8 nm behind us also beating into the wind to get to the harbor entrance. Another boat, Loose Change, was 30 minutes in front of us having left BSC 6 hours before we did. We followed Van Sant’s guide and promptly ran aground because some G.D. fool (on board a tourist cat named Tip Top) put in a RED buoy (“We didn’t have a GREEN one.”) where a GREEN one should have been. Again the port rudder was slightly bent and will have to be straightened as soon as we find clean water. Yes, clean water as Luperon Harbour is a cesspool for the city: runoff, gray and black water, animal waste, etc. However, it is still very pretty with green mangroves ringing the harbor with steep green, lightly wooded hills behind. We missed Marina Luperon Yacht Club which sits atop a hill on the N side of the N finger of the harbor. Frankly, it is a very small (room for less than 15 barcos) with fixed (tree trunk pilings) plank docks that have seen much better times. Most of the “docks” have cleats that are pulling/pulled out, nonexistent electrical (50 amp) outlets (they open to the wood they are made of), no potable water, and electricity that is on maybe 8 hours a day (not their fault as he DR can’t seem to produce reliable, constant electricity). For this we were told by the owner’s son that they get $1.90 per foot and double for a cat “as we are so wide” even though we take up only one 45’ alongside slip! “Bull pucky” says Linda and launches into Javier with great gusto telling him what a dump this place is (no showers, no laundry, no water, no fuel, etc., etc., etc.), and he’d better think this whole deal over or we and Stella Maris would go out and drop an anchor and he’d get NOTHING. Well, someone called “Dad” and the proverbial s..t hit the fan. We now think we’ll get down to $1.00 a foot on a weekly rate.

Luperon is a what I would call a typical third world town with gravel streets lined both sides with trash-clogged gutters; some wood and mostly concrete block, sheet-metal roofed, mostly single and two story shops and homes built a long time ago and mostly ill maintained; populated with motor bikes and a few cars; lots of dogs, pigs, chickens, and goats; lazy policemen (speed bumps) every three blocks; above ground utility lines and non functioning street lights. The people are very friendly and helpful. Meals are on the cheap: breakfast with a large pineapple or passion fruit jugo, two large eggs, home fries, ½ lbs. sausage, and a slice of pineapple: $130 p or $3.60; full dinner $300 p or $8.25; Presidente (22 fl. oz. beer)$90 p or $2.47). Hot, hot, hot; high humidity. We are using the A/C mostly on our generator because the DR gives electrical power sparingly: maybe 6 hours on a good day. Still don’t know what the cost of diesel is. But, so what: pay/cool or die!

We made a road trip by Toyota SUV with nearly 200,000 miles on it with Stella Maris (Luis and Consuelo Adan, Luis, Jr. (17) and Angelica (14). Consuelo is a young retired merchandiser and Luis is a retired 20-police captain both from Tampa. Consuelo was born and reared in Puerto Rico and Luis was reared in a Spanish speaking family. What luck for us gringos! Anyway with Luis driving we wound our way to Santiago, the second largest city in the DR, had lunch and went to the banco. From there we rode the autopista Duarte to Santo Domingo, the oldest city in the New World (listen: the sound of French horns!). What a wild ride in each city consisting of maneuvering on two land roads with three lanes of cars with motorbikes sliding past on all sides. “He who hesitates is lost.” Give even

an indication that you might fall back a few inches from the car in front of you, and the guy in the next “lane” dives in. Everyone is changing isles constantly to “get ahead” at 2 mph. I’ve driven in Paris and Amsterdam, and they don’t hold a candle to this: thank you Luis for driving! Our hotel, Duque de Wellington, was on Avenue Independensia a block or two above the Malacon or seaside boulevard where all the expensive hotels and casinos are. Road maps are a joke especially in Spanish, and finding a turn off is nearly impossible. At one point on the way to the hotel we ended up in a very poor section of the “old Town” when the A/C quit for the fourth or fifth time and the engine died in the middle of an intersection. You’d have thought we were an invading army bent on keeping the traffic grid-locked. Luckily Luis was able to get it restarted before I had to push us out of the way. We toured the sites and paid the entrance fees (Dominicans do not have to pay) and suffered the police trying to give us a ticked for not wearing our seat belts in the back seat: oh, look, no one is wearing a seat belt; cute little trick/trap of radioing ahead as the tourista drives around a monument. Consuelo was able to shame the woman cop into not giving us the ticket. Anyway we toured for a day and a half seeing all the sites (forts, traffic, caves, traffic, cathedrals, traffic, ports, traffic, etc.). We did a little shopping for supplies at the local hardware stores and headed back to Santiago for more shopping and car dodge-ball. Once back on the road, and missing a turn, of course, we sailed through beautiful green forested mountain and valleys studded with palm trees and little villages (beautiful as it reminded me of mauka Kona; volcanic origins, too. Lovely!) back to Luperon.

Back in Luperon, we fuelled up via a fuel boat ($4.50/gal; 103 gals.), paid our $7/ft/ week, said our goodbyes, and headed out for Rio San Juan a short sail away. Missed the shallows and left the “Red” mark to starboard this time. From Rio San Juan, a sleepy, but much more prosperous fishing village (must be the European influence from the Jews during WWII that were deposited along this coast ‘cause Uncle Smiley wouldn’t take them in), and made our way on to Samaná, another beautiful port with overhanging hills covered in green. Our Dispacho expired here and we had to get another one for Punta Cana, our last stop. It’s a “Get out of jail free card” from the DR Navy, at a small cost of course. After two swell days and nights of sailing and motoring, we got it once again with 3-4’, short period waves/swells and 20 k winds: the weather forecast said 5-10k. But, Samaná exuded a feeling of unwelcome and higher prices as this is a tourist cruise ship destination, so we bugged out probably faster than was needed.

Punta Cana is the heart of eastern DR’s all inclusive resorts. Club Med is here. It is an ecological reserve within which development is very controlled and thoughtful. Old marina, but friendly staff. First time we had a cabbie give us one price before we got in ($25) and then said the fare was $35, (veinte cinco v. treinta cinco) Yah, I fell of the turnip truck this morning. And all this in dollars for a 20 minute ride and wait for us to a over- priced grocery shop on the resort property. Anyway we’ll be here probably until Friday afternoon when we’ll make the run to Boquerón, PR. I also learned there is a conference here of 30 nations trying to figure out what to do for Haiti. The USA method of throwing unsupervised money at a problem isn’t working apparently.