Dominican Republic

Last view of incredible blue waters in the Caicos.  See the blue outside the harbor?

JT and Ray

The anchorage at Luperon harbor - nice to see green hills and mountains beyond after the flat and arid Bahamas.
Luperon is known as the best hurricane harbor in the Caribbean

Entrance into main part of town.  Luperon is pretty poor and un down but a popular spot for cruisers to stop on their way south or north.  People are friendly but living conditions look third-world.  Many small motor cycles whizzing past, tavernas playing loud music, people sitting out playing dominoes at tables, lots and lots of dogs. 

The Dept. of Agriculture, one of four depts.  to complete check-in

Typical scen in town - hanging out laundry.  Many homes are also businesses.  Of course, there are nicer areas around, but this is within walking distance of the dock.  Many expats live on "Gringo Hill' in nice new homes.

The beers here are "grande"- I can't finish one.  We are looking forward to buying some Santo Domingo coffee here

The DR loves baseball and every evening there are long games of pick-up baseball.
They don't have uniforms or a lot of equipment, & the field is hardscrabble but they love it.  We wish we had some Pittsburgh Pirate hats with us.  Saturday the gringos play the locals in baseball and then have a barbecue.  We're told the gringos never ever win, as everyone here plays all the time.

Headed for the DR (Dominican Republic)

April 16, 2013
Well, we have been here 12 days, much longer than expected.  Ready to move on and have a pretty good weather window.  Highlights of Provo have been - meeting new friends, beautiful clear water with great colors, excellent grocery stores, though pricey.  Great wifi at marina so lots of skyping.  We got some boat chores finished, rented a car to tour around, etc. - basic tourist stuff.  There are many more islands here to see but not enough money in the kitty this trip.

Happy hour "up on the hill" at South Side marina.  Owner Bob in striped shirt and his sidekick Campbell beside him.
Campbell and his wife Judy come from Canada every year to stay with Bob and help him run the place.

We were taking a walk one evening and a fishing boat had just come in to the marina.  the nice guys gave us a red snapper to carry home.  He doesn't look too happy, does he?  Great dinner.

Out to dinner with view of Turtle cove on Provo behind us.

Friends Mark and kathy from Carina with us at dinner. 

Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI)

Beach at Clarencetown anchorage - we spent a very windy Easter Sunday afternoon here.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

We left Clanrencetown, Long Island at 7 AM last Tuesday and sailed directly for 30 hrs the 180 miles  to Sapodilla Bay off of the island of Providenciales in the Caicos chain.  We were worried about coral heads coming in but it was pretty easy to maneuver - just go around the brown spots.  Luckily, we also had calm seas then, though our trip here was bigger seas than predicted, but we were able to sail a lot rather than motor - Yea!  There are 40 some islands and cays in TCI, and we will not get to most of them.  We needed to get here to prepare for next leg to Dominican Republic, which is about 140 miles away.  Now we are at a dock at the South Side marina on Provo and it is great to have good wifi, take a walk every day, and enjoy daily happy hour at their bar.  Bob the owner runs a laid back personal business here, and will take us to stores or any where we want to go.  To see the sights would require renting a car, and since they drive on the left side of the road here, we are afraid we might kill ourselves or someone else!  Cabs are horrendously expensive, so we have learned to just walk along the road and a "jitney" driver will see us and for a much smaller fee drive us back to the marina.  I think the jitneys are illegal.  I always wanted to see the TCI but have to say it is a little bit of a disappointment from a cruising standpoint.  too expensive, too far  to walk most places, and many dangerous reefs that prevent us from taking the boat most places.  Plan is to stay here with friendly Bob and his crew until we leave for the DR, which may be over a week.

Our table set for Easter meal

Some of the shells I found on Easter Sunday

View of the entrance to South Side marina in Provo - with our 6 foot draft we can only come in on high tide.
A nice reef outside the red buoy.  The land on each side is used as a quarry.

Clarencetown, Long Island, Exumas, Bahamas

Well, last post says April 1, but I had written it earlier.  I am still trying to figure out this bloodspot site.
Anyway, we have been in Clarencetown since Thursday, March 28.  Very small little settlement but nice people and 2 good restaurants - Outer Edge at flying fish marina and Rowdy Boys  up the road.
We left Georgetown for Long Island, spent one night at Calabash Bay, then went to Rum Cay for a few days.

The crooked docks at Sumner Point marina on Rum Cay.

Picture of our chart plotter showing our boat on the way to Rum Cay (boat shaped black icon).
You can how the depths change so rapidly from 1000's of feet.  Our destination was within the circle.
Yellow is land.

Walking these crooked docks at Rum Cay is an adventure in itself.  Ray is under the shelter.

This is still Rum Cay - just waiting for some new investors.  Actually, the Bahama islands have many abandoned projects scattered all over the place-constuction equipment rusting away, vehicles, materials.  It seems people have big plans but for various reasons just walk away.  One well-known person was Roger Staubach.  We think the government is often corrupt, then there is the weather (hurricanes), and the difficulty getting supplies.

Ray and friend Brian went swimming in this fresh water pond on Rum Cay

In front of the Last Chance grocery store on Rum Cay

Playground on Rum Cay

Sculpture by Bobby at Rum Cay - made out of brain coral 

Lots of study before we leave for the turks and Caicos

    We heard via the cruising grapevine that dockage was free at Sumner Point marina so decided to give it a shot.  Unable to raise them on the VHF radio, we anchored outside their channel and Ray dinghied in to check it out.  We had to wait until high tide to get in and then it was still a scary experience, winding around coral heads and sand bars.  I felt like closing my eyes !

    Hurricane Sandy came here last fall, damaged some of the property and blocked the channel, so they just dredged and opened it up March 8th.  Since the facilities are not up to snuff the owners are just charging for whatever we use but no dockage fee.  Originally, this place was really nice with a restaurant on site, but is now down on it’s luck.  But we love it here, just enough people at the docks for some fun but basically quiet. 

    The owner, Bobby, is an artist and has made some amazing sculptures out of coral.  His girlfriend, Gro, is from Denmark, has sailed all over the world, and met Bobby here.  people seem to come and go. Right now a gorgeous girl named Michelle is staying indefinitely and making jewelry, while her boyfriend is making money taking people scuba diving.  Only 60 people live on the island, and there is no industry other than the occasional cruiser or sportsfisherman needing something.  The only restaurant, Ruby’s, needs notice if you want a meal.  The grocery store is open about an hour a day and keeps the lights off to conserve electricity. 

    However, this is the perfect out-island to experience.  As you walk along, everyone says hello or waves.  Beautiful isolated beaches.  If only we could catch a fish!

When we leave here we start the final chapter of our Bahama cruising guide - it is called 

“Far Horizons - the Bahamas south of the Tropic of Cancer”

Georgetown

We left Walderick Wells and had a great sail to Galliot Cut, where we anchored, along with Ann and Art from Discretion, to start the run to Georgetown, Great Exuma Island the next day.  With the weather report, we all agreed the next leg would also be a great sail, but oops...the wind was “on the nose”, instead, so we had to motor all day into the wind and seas, which made it pretty rocky.  Not dangerous, just not fun.  As we went into the harbor, which is huge and takes another hour to reach a good anchoring spot, we heard from Ann that their engine was not working, plus Art was very seasick.  After anchoring, we kept in touch but they were having trouble getting in the “cut”  between the reefs to the harbor while just under sail.  After tacking back and forth a few times didn’t work, Ray went out in our dinghy and lashed it to the side and powered them through the reef.  

Once they caught the wind again they were towing him!  Anyway, we were so glad to see them drop the anchor near us right before it turned dark.  They are real troopers and we spent some quality time with them all week.  Ray was the rescue guy , towing another dinghy one day, and another day helping someone whose dinghy had been “holed” by another dinghy’s prop while up on the beach. Boy, was that guy bummed.

Georgetown has the highest cruising visitor totals in the Bahamas - hundreds of boats leave their home ports in New England, Chesapeake Bay, etc., to anchor in the protected harbor every year, creating their own floating town.  They arrive in Nov. and leave in the Spring for the trip back to the US.  There are all kinds of activities - bridge, volleyball, crafts, regattas that benefit the islanders.  Most are retired folks , although there were some young people, some with children.  

They make delicious fresh conch salad here.  first we watch them dig it out of the shell, then they cut up the conch, add tomatoes, onions, peppers, then lime and orange juice to marinate.  But they serve it right away so a little weird to eat something that a few minutes ago was squirming.

We're anchored out there somewhere

We dinghied through here a lot from our anchorage to the main town.