Bruce Van Sant, the author of the holy grail for cruisers from the Bahamas to the Virgin Islands, calls this the thorny path, or if you follow his outline the "thornless path". As with the need to wait for weather windows to get to Luperon, DR, the jumps from Luperon to Puerto Rico are probably the most difficult and most important to be patient. Getting it right is critical for easy legs. Because of the need to be patient and the easy lifestyle in Luperon you can see why some don't ever leave.

After two weeks however we, and about 8 other boats were ready to move on. The first week was a no brainer as the trades were blowing  20+ out of the east every day. In day trips to the mountains around Luperon and to Puerto Plata we had a great view of the rough seas that are common on the north coast due to the strong trade winds. As we spent more time there we could see how the wind patterns shifted throughout the day and Van Sant's tirades in his book made more and more sense. In the second week of our stay we met almost daily at the marina and began to focus on a set of dates where the forecasts were showing a lightening and changing of the winds and a chance to escape our sanctuary. April 5 became our departure date, not withstanding the changes that could happen with the fickle weather of this area.

Sunday April 3rd we got a chance to meet Bruce Van Sant, he now lives in Sosua for medical reasons but comes to Puerto Blanco, Luperon to catch up with friends. We had a nice conversation and he signed our well worn book. Luckily we had his latest edition.

April 4 we met with the local Commandante (Head of the Port) to begin the negotiations for a despachio or "permission" to leave the port and venture to another port. Whether the purpose is to control movement along the DR coast, especially in light of Haitian immigration, or just an opportunity to extort monies form cruising sailboats you are not allowed to move from port to port without paperwork. In this case I had to go up to the Commandante's office at the public pier and meet with his assistant, someone from Drug Enforcement, someone from Naval Intelligence, Customs and a host of others that were just standing around.

There was a lot of brow beating, hem-hawing and some level of spanish and english and in the end the drug enforcement guy wanted to inspect the boat. I said let's do it, I have a truck waiting on me and we are tied up at the marina, he backed down, they signed the papers and no money changed hands!

We met up later with Mauricio on his property for Kaylee to meet his son Sebastian and they swam off the cliffs and hiked the trails. It was a lot of fun but made for a late night and an earlier morning to prepare to leave.

April 5, we're up up by 5 and getting the boat ready to cast off. At 6:30 we moved away from the dock in line with Exit Stage Left, Wandering Star, Vagabond, Pepper, Symbiosis, Yaricka. Utopia had left the day before with Music and Sailicious was stuck waiting on an alternator to come back from town. We heard later that they left about 4 hours later.

The parade left Luperon in single file and we had just turned the corner to head east on rolling 5 to 6' swells but calm sea. We realized Exit Stage Left had come to a stop and the radio chatter began. They had evidently not tightened their anchor windless after lifting their dinghy to the deck and the anchor had jumped the bow frame and  fell overboard carrying a rocna and 150' of chain in 1000'+ of water less than a mile from the Luperon channel. Pepper had run over to a couple of fishermen in a small boat who came over to help retrieve the ground tackle which turned out to be unrecoverable and was cut loose to protect the boat and crew. A couple of the boats that were circling had to leave as their crews were getting seasick in the large swells. We continued to make way into the swells at about 2 to 3 kts to keep Danielle and Kaylee on an even keel. I would have hated to see them sick so soon in the day and a half long trip that was to follow. We where close enough to help if there was anything we could do. After about an hour, with the ground tackle lost everyone was back on course.

Winds picked up and shifted around 1 pm and we were able to hoist sails and flew across the top of the DR for the next 8 or so hours, doing 6+ on a very comfortable sail. We had to tack near Rio San Juan to go around the headland and then winds slowly died but we could continue to motor sail through the night. Danielle took a long shift. I awoke around 4 am as we began to pass around Cabo Cabron and Punta Tibisi at the northeast corner of the DR. It was a very clear night, lots of stars and moon to backlight the cliffs. Luckily the winds totally died and we motored around this pretty notorious area without incident. We also got a great look at the Southern Cross for the first time on our trip. 

Kaylee was up early as we passed the high cliffs along the east coast of the DR moving towards Samana Bay. We still had large swells, coming from multiple directions and even Kaylee could tell that this was a pretty confusing place. We could only imagine what it would be like in 15 and higher winds, hence the patience on weather windows.

As we approached Samana Bay, around 7 am, we begin to hear radio chatter from the boats ahead of us regarding whale sitings! That got everyone's attention and Kaylee was quickly to the bow. She was rewarded with a call from Symbiosis who had seen a whale spout just beyond our boat. We had the main sail up so cut the engine and sailed slowly toward a pod of about 8 whales. Scott on Symbiosis was out on his bow sprint taking pictures! What a great opportunity.

Humpback whales greeting Aqua Vida as we come into Samana Bay

​We circled for about 30 mins and had to give up the search and continue on into Samana Bay. Winds stayed light and we motor sailed the 10 remaining miles to Puerto Bahia Marina, Samana. The entire trip was 30 hours which sure beats the 3 to 4 days it takes if you have to jump and only move for 5 to 6 hours each day to catch the early morning calms as described by Van Sant. We were very lucky to have the kind of winds to let us get this trip in so easily.

I know it's been forever since a post here. An electronics mishap in George Town and a few weeks of travel have made it difficult to access and update the site. Thank you to Dan on Vagabond (also Kaylee's guitar tutor) who is loaning me his computer to get a little something out there.

I guess it's been about a month ago now, we were in George Town, the cruisers mecca of the southern Bahamas. I've heard it referred to as Cruisers Summer Camp and Chicken Cove - both very accurate descriptions. Cruisers Summer Camp is self explanatory (although it is actually winter), it is the home to anywhere from 200-400 cruisers who make their way here from all along the East Coast and spend a few months enjoying the weather, the water, the town and the social outings (volleyball, seminars, poker, dances, church, regattas, music) that come with so many cruisers in one location. Chickens Cove refers to the fact that so many make it here, but never venture any farther.

We were determined not to become one of the chickens. We did have to wait out about a week of high easterly winds though and enjoyed the time catching up with many of the other boats we met along the way getting there. We also provisioned the boat, did laundry and started planning our departure to points east and south. It was during one of the provisioning trips across the harbour - about a mile - that my phone and computer got wet with just a few drops of salt water 😢 - it doesn't take much - in a dry bag that wasn't as dry as advertised. To the dry bag's credit, it was pretty much completely submerged as we took two foot waves into the dinghy, and it was just barely damp inside. The result is that we are down to an IPad and a very old phone. I'm working on getting replacements once we get to Puerto Rico where mailing something from the States won't need to go through customs and be subject to extremely high duties.

We left George Town once the wind let up with what seemed an armada of boats who were pent up waiting on the same weather break - clearly not everyone is a chicken! Our next stop was Conception Island. The intention was just a quick overnight stop before continuing on, but it was so beautiful we decided to give it another day. A dinghy trip up the creek to see a large population of sea turtles, snorkelling, a run on the beach and beautiful sunsets made this one of our favorite stops. We had a fantastic dinner aboard with Emerald City and Tawgwatee. As much as we wanted to stay another day or two, it was time to get moving south so we waved good-bye to Emerald City early the next morning as we motored out of the anchorage. We were all sad to leave the good friends we enjoyed sailing and hanging out with for past month, but Kaylee was especially sad to leave Eric on Emerald City. The two of them had been inseparable and enjoyed so much time swimming, paddle boarding, hiking and playing.

Conception to Rum Cay was an uneventful and short motor in very calm wind and seas. The highlight of the day was catching a good size Bonita that Ken later grilled and turned into amazing fish dip. From Rum, we set out on our first of three overnight sails we would do over the next week. Along the way to Mayaguana we were accompanied by YaRiKa and Sailicious, who were with us at Conception and Rum, as well as a Vagabond who we picked up on our AIS (kind of like radar) and we coaxed into skipping Rum and continuing with us overnight. Pepper was also a couple hours ahead of us. Everyone helped keep those on watch awake through the night through regular radio contact. It was a gorgeous and perfect overnight sail with an almost full moon and wind at just the right speed and direction.

We arrived the anchorage in Mayaguana around noon to find two other boats (Exit Stage Left and Wandering Star) we left George Town with, but had taken slightly different routes. All seven boats had the Turks and Caicos and Dominican Republic planned as next stops. With the weather so perfect for sailing, the decision was made to rest for just a few hours and continue with the next overnight to the Turks and Caicos immediately. Turks and Caicos is only about 12 hours from Mayaguana, but you need to arrive in the morning to safely make the entrance on to the shallow banks. Just four hours after setting our anchor, we pulled it up again and began the second overnight to the southeast. We knew we would arrive a little early to enter the banks, but the winds picked up and we flew down averaging over 6 knots (that's flying for us!), putting us just south of the banks' entrance around 2:30am. We pulled in close to West Caicos and anchored to get a few hours of sleep before making the three hour trek across the banks to the anchorage at Sapodilla Bay in Providenciales.