North Coast - Dominican Republic

It's been awhile since I posted to the blog.  Currently it's Sunday afternoon and I'm sitting at anchor in the pilothouse of Top Shelf at Boqueron Harbor Puerto Rico.  Julianne and I have traveled 405 nautical miles since leaving Turks & Caicos.  I'm catching up on the first of 3 blogs about the Dominican Republic (DR).  This one is named the "North Coast".

Julianne's 1st Overnight Passage

We rounded East Caicos and headed south direct for Ocean World Marina at Cofresi, DR just as the sun was setting.  We had 115 nm left on Julianne's first overnight passage in open ocean.  We had waited for this weather window and the wind was under 10 kts and the associated sees were 2-4 feet which was extremely rare for January in the Caribbean Sea.

We both stayed on the fly bridge taking turns in the sleeping bag while the other watched the radar for ships.  It was a beautiful night with calm seas and a light breeze out of the southeast.  At about 4 am we were 34 nm off of the DR coast, when I noticed odors that I hadn't smelled in a long time...The odor of a farm.  Flowers, Trees, Manure....it all came at once.  These smells were being delivered by the diurnal nighttime mountain winds spreading offshore from DR's mountains.

North Coast DR

Since Halloween, we had been in the Bahamas and Turks & Cacios....rock, clear ocean water, reefs, reverse osmosis drinking water.  The Bahamas have no farms, no real vegetation as most of the island are made of limestone rock.  Now we were approaching one of the most organic places I have ever visited.  Think of Jurassic Park or the jungles of the TV show Survivor.  They were both were filmed in the DR.

Great DR Fruit

We landed at Ocean World Marina on time at 8:30 am after the nighttime passage.  Julianne had done great, we were both tired.  We first stopped at the fuel dock and topped off all 4 tanks.  While we were fueling we cleared customs and immigration.  The immigration officer Johnny became our local chauffeur over the next few days.  We got to our assigned slip and took a well deserved nap.

I use a term called "inside the wire".  This is a military term where a forward post is set up with a security perimeter, typically made of barbed wire.  Troops are either safe when "inside the wire", or are on patrol "outside the wire".  This term is appropriate for the DR.  Most of the "Americanized" resorts here have high security and most guests of these resorts never leave the property or go "outside the wire".

Horsman "Outside the Wire"

Julianne was nervous about being in the DR known as a the third world country and all that is supposedly associated with that label.  My goal was to break this fear quickly.  Ocean World is part of one of these Americanized Resorts.  I found a restaurant "outside the wire" from the resort.  Once it got dark, we walked past the resort security guard carrying a shotgun and proceeded about a half mile down the street  to the restaurant.  The waitress was wonderful, but we had to communicate 100% in Spanish.  The 3 course meal with 2 glasses of wine was under $30 (1,500 pesos).  Julianne was nervous for the first 15 minutes, then she started to see that we were going to have a great time exploring this island safely "outside the wire".

The next day, with the help of Johnny, the DR immigration officer, we traveled to Puerto Plata to provision Top Shelf with some much needed food supplies and some of the best fruit we have ever eaten.  La Pina (pineapple) is to die for here, juiced or sliced, just great.

With the boat provisioned and our first guests arriving in 4 days, we decided to move east across the north coast.  After paying our bill and having the DR Navy give us our "Despacho" or travel documents, We left Ocean World around noontime bound for Rio San Juan, a little anchorage just 25 miles east.

Jim at the OW Disco (inside the wire!)

Once we got 5 miles from Ocean World, I noticed the 5 ft swell was not moving east.  The forecast models had shown the swell clocking east, but it hadn't happened.  We could not anchor at Rio San Juan in a north swell, so we kept moving east.  Next tenable anchorage is Samana, DR which is an additional 80 nm run.  We had to slow down for 27 kt winds and 8 ft seas.  Our 2 hour trip down the coast turned into 14 hours and a 2 am arrival to Puerto Bahia Marina.  Once again, Julianne did great on overnight passage #2.  The captain had to eat a little crow!

Next:  From Top Shelf to a Treehouse?