La Parguera

We continue our march east in March. All told we will have done 350 miles of motor sailing from Luperon in the Dom Rep to arrive in the Virgins Islands, where we will have a chance to sail again.

We give high marks to Puerto Rico thus far. We spent a few days in Boqueron before moving around the corner to the south coast stopping at La Paguera. La Paguera has a great anchorage in among the mangroves, with beautiful snorkeling offshore, great mangrove creeks to explore via dinghy and a nice town. There is a little mangrove island just offshore from the anchorage that is split into thirds by two narrow and shallow waterways, both perfect for snorkeling, especially for children. Jake and Isabelle really enjoyed snorkeling through there checking out all of the marine life.

We could have spent even more time than the 4 days we did there relaxing and getting back into cruising mode.
Alas Gilligan's island beckoned a mere 12 miles down the coast. The only connection to the TV show is a similar appearance on shore, which we can confirm does have some similarity with neat lagoons surrounding the island.

The big big news, we acquired a new dinghy. A 9 foot hard bottom Caribe. Very cool, though expensive and always on the foredeck when making passages, even short ones. Though our 5hp engine now is a little light....hmmm it could be very expensive in Puerto Rico!

We will continue to coastal hop in Puerto Rico, which is best done in the early morning hours (4am - 8am) before the trades come back in full force. Fortunately the next harbor is always close at hand. We have some re-provisioning to do in the next couple of towns and then off to the Spanish Virgin Islands, likely by the weekend if all goes well.

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Puerto Rico

Well we have left Luperon arriving in Puerto Rico after about 1 week of pounding winds and seas. The trip down the north DR coast and the crossing of the Mona Passage are held to be the most difficult legs of the thorny path to the Caribbean Islands. The trip lived up to its reputation, though we did have relatively good conditions, the reality is that it is dead to windward against the trade winds, seas and currents. We saw as much as 10 foot seas, 20 knot head winds and 2.5 knot adverse currents. As much as possible we sailed at night stopping during the day, as the winds along the coast of the DR get suppressed in the evenings, which seemed to work. Others traveling at about the same time as us did more traveling during the day and did have worse conditions. Anyway, in Rae Ann's words "lets just get it over with". That we did and now we can island hop through the Caribbean.

Upon review I wish we would have spent less time in Luperon, which we found to be an average stop at best - no doubt great protected harbor but not alot else on offer - and spent more time in Samana, where there is a national park, a few more islands to see and more activity in the larger town.

We are now anchored in Boqueron a party town on the coast for college students on the weekend. Very friendly people, nice beach and pretty scenery. Weather permitting we will move slowly down the south coast during the week.

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Luperon

Well a rather relaxed couple of weeks thus far in Luperon. We had a small window to exit for points east this past week, but the DR Navy had closed the ports due to swell, though seemingly unevenly applied as boats in harbors further east were allowed to depart. There were several boats that wanted to leave and were very upset they were prevented. However the following day everyone was allowed to leave.. but then the window was to short so only about half left. Long story and much drama for a cruising community. We had already decided not to go anyway so we took on an amused observer roll.

We went out to La Isabella and Castillo, where the original Spanish settlement was located. Though obviously not much left there, the effort to preserve what remains was impressive. The drive out along the north coast was breath taking. The northern DR is very rural, rugged and green.

From a cruising perspective Luperon has much to offer, save for clean water to swim in, which we miss and sorely need to keep the kids entertained. Otherwise the community of boats is nice, provisioning cheap, beer extremely cheap and plenty of nice people to help with any needs. There is also a big shoal area right in the middle of the anchorage. So nearly every morning, including today, we retire to the cockpit about 7:00 am with a steaming cup of coffee, sun slowly rising, temperature perfect and watch the boats coming in.... and .... running on to the shoal. I guess we could warn them, but that is much less fun, and the shoal is just soft mud so everyone gets off with out much problem.

We did have one exciting moment as a boat in front of us began to drag the other day. The owner was away, so it was up to the cruisers to get the boat re-anchored. The windlass had been left on, but there was not key for the ignition. So about 8 dinghies were pulling and pushing and I and another cruiser ran the windlass, chain and anchors up onto deck and then reset two anchors. The boat seems to sit fine now, either that or we put it to close to the mangroves and it is actually now aground... We plan to leave next week.

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Waterfalls

We ventured inland from Luperon to the mountains to visit the much hyped waterfalls. After a hike of about 40 minutes, which required fording the downstream river from the falls about 10 times, we reached the base of the falls. There are 27 falls in series running down the mountain. With the significant help of our two guides we climbed up through seven falls, which have cut a deep narrow canyon, smoothed by thousands of years of water rushing trough. The highest falls were about 15 feet high, while the average was about 5 feet. Once to the top the only way down is to jump or slide. Absolutely great fun and stunning beauty.

Jake and Isabelle had a blast on the hike, though Isabelle insisted on a shoulder ride for the trip back. The falls were too much for the kids to climb do to the combination of strong current that you had to swim against in between the falls and the steep, jump/slide down. They were quite content though playing in the pool at the bottom.

Luperon has been a nice stop, with inexpensive provisioning, a good spot to catch up on things like haircuts and dental checkups ($15 for dental a check up) and to just relax prior to pushing on along the north coast of the Dominican Republic.

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