The leisurely sail back up to New England — Part II: April 19 through April 23 (Subtitle: Just arrived in the Dominican Republic and already wishing we could extend our stay)

We arrived — tired but safe — in Samana Bay in the Dominican Republic on April 21 after our first, solo, overnight sail.  When we left off last time we were anchored off Isla Caja de Muertos.  Per our now published itinerary, we left the next morning (Day 5 of the sail up North) for Boqueron.  Day 5 of our leisurely journey to New England started out like day 4.  The wind was light and directly behind us, resulting in day that involved a surfeit of motoring.  

At the end of the day, however, the wind rallied, building to 20+ mph, and we sailed into Boqueron harbor on a beautiful beam reach traveling at ~ 8 knots.  For those non-sailors, when sailing a beam reach, the wind is directly on your beam (or the side of your boat) and that wind direction coupled with the right wind speed creates ideal conditions for sailing.  It’s truly exhilarating!  If you are among those including us in your prayers please put in a request for more beam reach days.  Of course, it is not all lollipops, rainbows and ponies.  As we came into Boqueron Bay, the port genoa sheet cover parted.  No great worries as the core of the line is its strength.  We rolled in the genoa and thanked a brief bit of luck in foresight as we had purchased a spare genoa sheet prior to leaving New England.  (Credit to Captain Zack on that one!). Always great to guess right on what spares to bring!

But we need to back up because a few interesting things happened on the way to Boqueron.  First, we spotted a humpback whale.  This was quite a surprise and another great spot by Zack though it may also be a sad tale.  Jill is obsessed with whales and is always excited to have a whale encounter.  (Only second to her obsessions with bears – something you should ask her kids about — but that is a different blog.).  Being obsessed, Jill is keenly aware that humpback whales migrate past the Dominican Republic from mid December through March and are long gone by mid-April.  As a result, she was also well aware that a whale sighting would not be in the cards for this trip though other water mammal sightings — such as dolphins— was somewhat likely.  Hoping to see Dolphins and frustrated that we had not seen any, Jill was Googling “Dolphins and the Dominican Republic” when Zack yelled, I see a spout — a sure indication of the presence of whales.  As we got close to the location of the spout we could see the body of a humpback whale, close to the surface, consistently (but with low force) spouting out of its blowhole and moving imperceptibly, if at all, through the water.  

With migration season long past we Googled a few key words and learned that what we observed was characteristics of whales sleeping.  In fact, when sleeping in this manner it is referred to as “logging” because of the resemblance to a log.  Apparently, humpbacks can do this for up to 30 minutes at a time.  They can’t stay like that for too long though because they lose too much body temperature when inactive. Of course, our research also revealed that whales generally sleep this way accompanied by at least one other whale.  The presence of this whale alone post migration made us worried that it was ill or injured.  Still, we prefer the image of a snoozing whale — in the spirit of Ferdinand the bull and his flowers — enjoying the warm waters and taking its time to the next destination.

The second interesting occurrence was the discovery of a large, unmarked, white blimp hovering over the Southern coast of Puerto Rico.  We wondered what this blimp was doing and learned (through another Google search) that the US Customs and Border Control has deployed these “Tethered Aerostat Radar Systems,” or TARS, to watch over the Southern US border.  They are quite literally tethered to the ground with a special nylon cable and raised and lowered with a power winch. They are unmanned and unarmed but use radar to detect illegal activity (mostly drug smuggling) as well as serve as a deterrent for such activity.  Who knew????  Very interesting to see.

At any rate, after a day that allowed us to acquire new knowledge — we are ready to be great conversationalists when cocktail parties resume — and ending with a much appreciated “BAM” from the wind, we arrived in Boqueron.  Boqueron was not our most picturesque anchorage but was still lovely.  The land around Boqueron bay is shaped like an inverse bell shaped curve — on one end you see a beautiful verdant undeveloped hillside and, the other end, a town with a yacht club, small marina and, apparently*, shops and restaurants.  In the middle of these two high ends is a low flat palm tree lined white sandy beach.  We should explain the reference to “apparent.”  On our way back to New England we would be passing through Puerto Rico (which includes the mainland and the Spanish Virgin Islands), the Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas.  At the time we left the USVI, each had their own COVID protocols which, at a minimum, required a negative PCR COVID test.  We were not anxious to submit the the inconvenience or cost of 4 PCR tests in 6 weeks so we elected “option 3” of the Puerto Rico COVID protocol for those arriving by sea.  Specifically, a representation that we had: (1) taken and received a negative PCR test within 3 days of arriving in the territory; (2) not taken and received a negative PCR test but would do so upon arrival and remain quarantined until the negative results were received; or (3) had no intention of taking a PCR test but would self-quarantine on our vessel for the duration of our visit or 14 days, which ever is greater.  As a result, we did not go ashore while in Puerto Rico territory and could not validate what was or was not present in Boqueron!

Day 6 (April 20) we left Boqueron at 10 am for Samana Bay – Puerto Bahia Marina — in the Dominican Republic.  The day started out very fluky from a wind perspective with the wind drastically and suddenly changing direction for the first 6 hours making sailing very difficult.  To our immense pleasure, the winds settled into a nice consistent SE breeze of about 15 – 20 knots by mid afternoon which made for a really delightful sail from then until about 3 AM.  That’s when things got a little tricky and, fortunately, that was when Zack was on watch.  (Jill had an uneventful watch from 10 PM – 2 AM that allowed her to read and just enjoy the solitude of being alone in our vast ocean — no other boats in sight — sailing under a bright half moon.  Life doesn’t get better!). Luckily we had reefed the mainsail just prior to the 10 pm watch which probably contributed to the easy watch for Jill.

When it was time to switch watch Jill helped Zack set the preventer on the mainsail just in case the wind shifted further to the south so we wouldn’t jib and then Jill went to bed.  Of course, that’s precisely when we sailed through the Mona Passage .  The Mona Passage, the body of water between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, is often referred to as “the treacherous Mona Passage” or discussed in articles titled “The Mona Passage:  the Scary Truth.”  When we mapped out our sailing route, none of these delightful articles were known to us.  Nor did our journey advisors (whose names are withheld to prevent embarrassment to them) informed us of the delights of this body of water.  Imagine the Atlantic coming in with depths of 3300+ feet and trying to cross shoals that are 200 feet deep—then when currents switch, the Caribbean is coming in with depths of 2200 or more feet trying to jam water across the much shallower shoals.  Wild waves and currents are the results and it makes the area very prone to nasty squalls.  While the current and the waves were very interesting, we only had brisk winds to combine with the confused seas — not squalls.

From her sleeping spot in the aft cabin, Jill could tell the situation had changed early that morning because she could hear the beep, beep beep through the  open hatch as Zack used the autopilot to alter course for a more favorable point of sail and, of course, she could feel the thrashing of the waves hitting out boat.  Though Zack was on watch from 2 AM – 6 AM, by 5 AM the thrashing had Jill wide awake and she headed up to the cockpit in time to help Zack bring in the main and run downwind in 20 mph winds on the genoa alone.  All the while we were bounding about on 4 to 6 foot seas—with the occasional 8 to ten foot roller.  Not scary in Che Figata, but we were constantly being buffeted around as the waves were not running in the exact same direction as the wind.   Almost as exhilarating as that beam reach — though with a much different adrenaline rush.

And that brings us back to our arrival at the Puerto Bahia Marina at about 11 am in the morning.Though we were tired, Zack maneuvered Che Figata gracefully (the only thing missing was the New York Philharmonic playing The Blue Danube) into a very tight space between a 60’ Hatteras sport fisher and very short and stubby concrete (yes, we said concrete) dock.  Che Figata is 56’, and about 64’ with sprit on bow and tender behind, and the dock was 15’ long.  We had to back into the slip after sliding sideways down the narrow channel between other boats.  With Che Figata secured and unscathed, we successfully completed our first solo overnight sail.  Kudos to us with a special shout out to Zack for his sleep deprived but ever so artful docking!

On arrival day we were busy.  We needed to clear customs and immigration, do laundry and clean.  We knew we would likely be exhausted upon our arrival so we actually welcomed mindless activities that would keep up awake until we could go to bed — which we did at 9 PM.  We woke up on Day 7 (April 22) totally refreshed and excited to explore the town near Samana Bay.  We had arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 9:30 AM for a few hours in town.  “Coincidentally,” when we arrived in town we ran into Samuel Jones, a local guide.  He never asked us if we wanted a guide but we inexplicably followed him and ended up having the most delightful day (for a small fee) visiting the old Catholic Church, local produce and meat markets and a local eatery.  

The local restaurant was a particular treat.  We had told Samuel that Jill doesn’t eat meat or dairy so he took us someplace void of tourists where he knew we could order fresh vegetables.  He ordered for us — rice and beans all around with a salad for Jill and slow cooked BBQ beef for himself and Zack.  After Samuel ordered the proprietor left her restaurant to go to the local market to buy the vegetables for Jill’s salad.  Talk about fresh!  The salad and rice and beans were amazing and Zack reported that the beef almost melted in his mouth.  We capped the day with a walk along the causeway that spans over portions of Samana Bay, revealing magnificent views.  By the time we parted ways with Samuel he had fully arranged an excursion to the Salto El Limon water falls for the next day — totally coopting our stay in Samana and we could not be more pleased.  Sometimes you just need to go with the flow!

Samuel met us bright and early the next morning as promised, along with his driver, to take us to the waterfalls in El Limon.  It was a glorious hike through lush foliage leading to the river where we found several waterfalls.  We were able to stop and take a dip by a smaller waterfall that poured into a round pool perfect for swimming.  The fresh spring water was cold at first but after a fairly strenuous hike it felt incredibly good.  And, while we never get bored of our ocean views, this hike gave us the opportunity to see the interior of this gorgeous country.  Parts of it were reminiscent of our visits to the rainforests in Costa Rica and Peru when the kids were young.  As we said while hiking (to our own amusement), there is a lot more the see than the sea in the Dominican Republic.

Today was our last day here at Puerto Bahia Marina.  Tomorrow we depart for the National Park across the bay, famous for little inlets thick with mangroves that you can kayak (or, in our case, motor in a dinghy) around as well as caves to explore.  We will have no internet access in the National Park so we will report on our adventures there after we arrive in our last Dominican Republic port at Ocean World Marina, Puerto Plata, following our second overnight passage.