PUERTO RICO

CULEBRA

We finally left Luperon after we beefed up Acharne with a new solar panel array,  1400 watts additional free power from the old sun. This has virtually eliminated the use of our generator for charging batteries, unless we are going to spend time  in a grey cold climate (not in the program anytime soon!). Sam is working on getting the watermarker to work off the solar, we’ll see, he has bought a gigantic inverter and soon will experimenting with it.

 It was tough to say Good By to my five adoptive female dogs, which we rescued with Sabrina and her mother Veronique. There was Maggy  a super smart look like Australian dog who I used to nicknamed “walking wound” as she has practically no hair left but open sore from untreated Manje, she was so thin and scary, that I had to muster my courage to approach her.

  There was also two puppy starving/ eating by bugs who were abandoned on the road who grew up to be two beautiful dogs, there was sweety the black emaciated , very scared young girl and Shakira a bulldog mix who was pregnant.. We managed with Veronica from Wanderlust to get all those girls spayed with  local vets touring the island who donated their time to spay animals.  After we drove in a borrowed van with the dogs puking around, The spaying was done in a huge hangar in Puerto Plata. It was quite a dusty open space with little stainless rolling table and Veronique and I served as nurse helping the dogs settling down till they were knocked out with the drugs.

I loved to take  the dogs for a nice run up the hill, there was a little trail around Marina tropical, up and down and everyone came, tail waving, barking and chasing the chicken on the other side of the hill, till they would hear my whistle and run back to me.  I was usually followed very close by Maggy who kept everyone in line, she was the “she dog” and I truly admired her determination and will to survive. She fought all the time so she would be on top of everything, she was impossible at feeding time, bottom line she had starved for too long and life was a struggle and she only knew one thing : to fight with her teeth to get what she wanted. Once a while I could get her to calm down and pet her gently on her head, and she would look up to me, and for a brief moment, she would relax and let go. Maggy fought with the world but not with us, she wanted love and we try to give as much as we could. I will miss her dearly. Of course Buzz was in the mist of all that action, completely bullied by all those aggressive female, plus he was smaller than everyone else and basically was at the end of the pack, trying to keep up with the action.

I was also privileged, to get my yoga certification from Shanti a  Sri Naranda Master, who taught yoga at the defunct yacht club. We had yoga class 3 times a weeks up at the old restaurant of the yacht club.   What a way to start the day, it was amazing and we knew it !

We also met new friends and hang out with old one. Jessica and Adam on Seawolf, German and Lulu on Venus, Sabrina and wanderlust, the French gang with Lucas the boat builder. We had a memorable music party with German a professional musician from Uruguay and Lulu his super hot girlfriend who is also a  great singer.

It was also time to part with our Dominican Friends, Nino the taxi driver, Papo’s efficient service, the commandante Brian. We can only say that we will miss the unique Luperoniens.

I keep forgetting that  Life is really one day at a time because the moment you think you hold onto something good it is gone, and we  scattered ourselves away by the wheel of changes.

We left early in the morning and the weather was ultra calm, we were shooting for Ponce Puerto Rico, engine runs smoothly. Before we left we had Quentin and Julien scrapped the huge grow under the belly of Acharne and off we went. We, as usual flew, making 350 miles in a day and half. The Mona passage was a breeze and very beautiful, but ten miles from Ponce (I was mercifully next to the engine control) the prop caught something nasty, I immediately put the boat out of the gear, and yeah, it sounded like a fuck..g rope around the shaft on a lee shore. Sam was just recovering from a cracked rib ( one of his motorcycle pirouette going through fresh mud in Luperon..) and it was the first time we went offshore without the kids, a mere 22 years ago… I did not like it a bit and I thought :

 “ Sean and Patrick where are Thou !! “

Bottom line, I would have to get my aging ass down in the water, so unstead of thinking about my cellulite floating under the boat, I jumped in with a rope tied to my waist. Phew..the current was strong, and like an idiot unstead of having a rope holding me in one place, I kept swimming to keep up with the boat… The slamming of the hull was gentle and yeah, the rope was positively on the prop, luckily not tight,  but damned I could not get my breath, anyway, I tried my yoga breath and finally got it off and up back to the boat.

Bien sure… after it was all done and we were under way I felt pretty good about my performance..  let’s face it we feel lonely without the kids. I don’t understand what all those retires are talking about  “regaining their freedom, when the kids have finally left the nest”. . For us, been around kids is freedom.

Anyway we arrive in Ponce cleared with a very efficient and super friendly home land security and we kept going for another 100 miles to Culebra, where the anchor is set down and we are relaxing..

Virginie

MOTORCYLE TRIP, MANGE and
FITZCARALDO

We went for a day of motorcycle adventure with the old Dangsen chapsoui Chinese bike that we got off Acharne, thanks to the new commandante Brian, who briskly got us to make a letter to the custom,  mentioning the possible entry of the  motorcycle in Dominican Republic and off we went !  Sean and Sabrina were going on their own bike and Patrick rented one. The good thing about the “rental agreement” is that there is nothing required but 10 buck, that’s right, no driver licence, no insurance, no hemlet, no contract, nothing but 10 bucks and you are free to roam the road for one day.   We actually had the kids wearing hemlet find in acharne and sweet water, and for us the old fudgies, we thought that if we cracked our head, well,  c’est la vie ! 

We took off for a two hours trip to go to punta Russia a big beach like resort. The wind was hot, the ride beautiful, the country is well taking care of it,  natural fencing with local limb, the pasture and the cows, pigs, chicken and the small bananas patches. This is not an intensive cropping area, but  little village living off the land. Absolutely beautiful.  The road was dangerously tempting for sam to roar in his youth style. But we followed each other,  the kids on front, stopping for the occasional squally rain under a big tree, and watching for the multiple pot holes or sinking pavement.

The beach was packed, with Sunday swimmers, entire family packed into little bristo blaring local music, Everyone showing their swimsuit, from the incredible youth bodies to the whales type all wearing the most tight and revealing outfit. We ate fish, swam on the edge of the crowds and like all bikers went back to the road. It was a great day, to be on the bike is like feeling close to danger,  we don’t have the youthfull insouciance, but watching the kids on front of us, reminded me that we were still mucking around “en famille”
Back at the marina, the puppies are growing up with mange, a horrible dog disease that seems to affect half of the dog population,  I can’t treat them as yet with medication, because they are too young, but working on it today to get someone some pill for them. A new addition to the group is a horribly manged female dog with deep wound on her back. She was so pitiful and starved that I was scared of her. She learned quickly that she could not get too close (as yet), and I kept her out of reach with a long stick, so the puppies can eat.  We finally grabbed her and give her a shot of invermincta for mange a powerful drug. A week later, “walking wound” ( I nicknamed her) is following me even on my daily jog up the trail, a smart sheep dog type, brown and white, ready to learn and please.. she still looks like hell, but she is getting some weight and the wound are slowly healing. I have Sabrina taking care of her with food and medication and when I come back hopefully she will be well enough to be someone companion.  It is what it is, there is no “dog bar” at petsmart here,  like in the USA where you can have dog treat  “a volonte” for 3.99 . There is just starvation and sickness among the dogs.  As for Buzz my pampered shitzu he is stuck on the boat, because of the highly contagious dog ashore. He does not know how lucky he is. He just sits on the back deck with a folorn looks on his face wondering why in the hell he cannot join the fun.

Otherwise we are relaxing in minor boat jobs, going swimming and not doing much.
The only interruption to our quiet life was the attempt of a local fishing boat to back up to the shipyard ramp  where they wanted to “dry dock” their boat for rudder repairs.
Now that boat a 80 feet rusted out ex shrimp boat had  already attempted repair one year ago getting stuck in the ramp for month, nevertheless they choose to try again. This time we were inside Acharne when  we heard commotion outside and saw the 120 tons drifting without engine or rudder toward the bow of Acharne. The boat was  pushed by the strong trade wind  and with only one small dinghy with a 15 horses power,  it was guarantee  : we were going to play ping pong with it.
So it was “branle bas de combat” our dinghy was mercifully already in the water and the boys jumped a went on the bow of the “black wall of steel “ and push it out madly. Ouf we were off the hook for a while, While the 6 crew were leisurely walking around on deck. Looking like there was nothing to worry about.  The owner of the marina came back and also try to get them off our boat, breaking spaghetti rope into the attempt.  It was kind of entertaining, but I had the feeling that if the boat hit us, we would be up for good repairs.
 For the next 3 hours they attempted to  get the 9 feet draft boat  with a  descending tide into the ramp.  The boys holding the bow who was drifting on our boat.  Patrick getting sun burn and sean jumping on the fishing boat to assist.
 While the tide did its work ( going down)  it was evident that  The boat was stuck and we sat relaxing watching the crew insisting on pulling and  pushing the hull with the tiny horse power for hours on end,  makeshift rope on shore and pulling madly and no result !  Meanwhile a beautiful 50 ton crane was stationed on the side of the ramp, and the plan was to lift the end of the boat at low tide and make repairs on the rudder. Hmmm ! sounded like a possible, but now the boat was too far out of the reach of the crane. After much discussion the crane operator moved through the maze of mast, rig and boat and attempted to lift the stern of the boat and getting  the boat closer while they pushed madly with the small outboard. The result was the boat got  even more stuck!  Finally they all gave up and decided to do it at 10 pm where the tide was supposetly higher. They woke us up at 1: 30 am with the noise of their engine, thumping dreadfully , the tide was still not right ( the good timing would have been next day at mid-day)  but it was definitely higher and the crane was again there and  they pulled and shoved enough of the boat, that the boat finally got closer to the top of the ramp and really got stuck in a final shove.
 We felt better because the boat could not drift any longer on us. The crane disappeared in the middle of the night and  now 5 days later, the boat is still stuck on the ramp, the rudder looks like it is at a funny angle( while the Russian owner of the marina  is fuming…) and no one is around.
Finally the crew came back and the crane returned. They finally shoved the boat up the ramp, and proceed to lift the stern and fix the rudder ( which was fished by the crew in the bottom of the ramp) and proceed to lift the stern up to the sky ! while the bow descended into the water. It worked and they spend the night welding and strengthening the rudder horribly exposed to the stern way up in the air, held by two rusty cable. This was a first , for us.
 So what is the moral of the story.  We asked around and the answer was this “ the dominican lives in another dimension then ours , just get used to I  !” and yes that it, choose your dimension and stick
 to it !
virginie

BACK TO LUPERON

We took one year off to work in the bayous of Alabama, where the confederate flags are still hanging proudly at most locations. Yes Maam! We fit right in!. Finally the project was done and we were back to Luperon with a new sense of freedom. It was nice to be back on the boat, Sabrina and Sean got the boat prepared for our arrival; (Sam was coming back a week later).  The toilets worked, the bottom was cleaned the shower was on, and the fridge cold. Yeah! But within one day I opened my newly filled pantry to discover packages of pasta and flour chewed up. We had rats on board.  Crappo! The same night I saw a shadow over my hatch and it was another rat this time on deck looking to get in!  I started to sweat for the wrong reasons.

So Patrick and I went to war, but I only had one steel trap (catch and release) and some glue traps for mice; and the first night I heard my “interior” rat struggling and tying to get free from the glue trap. It was at 2 am, so I slowly crept into the pantry and tried to see where he was, when suddenly it jumped right on my chest and scurried away. I screamed shaking my t-shirt wildly, and woke up Patrick, who was thought someone was onboard or I was losing it.

The next day after an anxious night, I went shopping in Puerto Plata with my taxi driver Nino. I could not resolve myself to buy traps that would kill the rats, and after thorough investigation, most local design resemble to a “vampire exterminating system” with nasty hooks designed to pierce the heart… Grrrr!  The poison available would produce internal bleeding and a slow death, so I choose the catch and release trap…….. Just back from the USA I felt empowered and just like the US immigration system this time I must imprison and deport! …..Catch those MOFO in a metal box with a shutting door system and released them back to their country of origin which are the mangroves. A good plan N’est-ce pas ?

 So we went for it bought five traps and set my ammunition on deck and inside the boat. Sitting on the outside table with bait prepared; succulent cheese covered with peanut butter, the locals watching me with big grin on their faces.

 We also checked our ropes to the dock with rat guards, and all was in place, the only possible entry was the anchor chain? Did they swim that far and climb on the chain? The answer after a few nights was yep!

The first night with all ammunition out I heard two box go off, (I had a moment of secret elation while hearing the slamming of the steel door shutting down)  and in two days a total  of 4 rats were caught and as we speak it seems like we are rat free, ( let’s hope so).  The rat that jumped on me, has moved back outside because we cannot find a trace of him and all the traps inside and out are not getting any action. So for the time being it looks like we have deported all of them. AH AH!! By the way they are amazing swimmers. I released the traps in the water far, far, far away by dinghy and the devils swam like hell to the shore. Quite amazing.

 Also, two days ago I was running with Patrick on a wonderful loop around the marina, when we spotted two completely starved puppies, covered with fleas and lice, following us with the desperation of dying puppies. So we stopped and took them in and a third one showed up later on !!!  so beside the rat attack, I am becoming mother for 3 puppies,  (one got adopted), we got rid of the fleas with the special soap and they are healing slowly with food and worm treatments under an old dinghy. 

To spice up my morning, while I was getting ready to take two rats to the mangrove  I spotted one of the puppies about to drown 100 meters from Acharne. The little fool must have fallen in, so quickly in the dinghy, I fished him out with the fishing net.  He was swimming a pathetic little circle with just his muzzle out of the water, while the rats, (in their cages) were waiting for the leap to freedom!  Pfff ! Not a dull moment!  It was a good day for the puppy,   yeah, I should say, a good day not to die.

In luperon, all is back to business. Lydia is doing the laundry. I go to the town most days to get the fruit and vegetables, Papo is delivering water, and we got a new commandante at the port and the security is top notch. We have been able to launch the motorcycle, we went snorkeling a bit on a clear day and saw a big puffer fish.

 As for  Patrick, he is very happy, he loves to ride the motorbike. And there are more teenagers on another boat in the anchorage so he is hanging out. I am teaching yoga class here at the yacht club and we are going to celebrate with all our friends our return to the boat and freedom.

Bises a tous

virginie

STAYING IN LUPERON

Well, we have decided to stay in the Luperon area for the time being  

 Luperon is actually one of the best hurricane holes. The hurricanes usually are passing east or west of the great mountains of Dominican Republic. Pico Duarte, the largest mountain in Dominican Republic  is around 10000 feet and the last hurricane ( 3 years ago)  which tried to pass across the mountain degraded itself to a 50 knot wind. Of course there is always the monster storm, but. we’re feeling comfortable about staying here. The bay is very deep with many additional nooks and crannies bordered with Mangroves. The decision was easy, the country is beautiful, the people are very poor but very friendly and there is an air of anti-Caribbean here, no big fancy yachts, no big resorts, no major tourist destinations; and it is cheap! Chicken are for sale at Ruth’s pollo, the veggies are local and delicious. I am trying to get local fresh milk, as the cows are everywhere, even in town. 

Since we arrived here we went to the waterfalls, which is about an hour drive from Luperon. The country is hilly, very green, despite the dryness ( it does not rain much in the summer here, winter is their rainy season) with many fields of sugar cane,  tons of cows and goats, bananas and papaya trees.

The waterfall was a lot of fun, a bit too organized for us, but how do you go down 27 falls without a guide, especially we had to jump up to 40 feet in beautiful clear pool. I made my first movie with my Hero camera which came out absolutely terrible!  So the falls will be in our memories, unless we go back with friends or family. It was a lot of fun en famille.

We have been diving locally, not really the best. As everywhere else in the world, the coast has been overfished and the visibility can be a problem. 

Luperon is a wonderful little village and we are starting to make friends. There is Nathalie on her French steel boat, there are the writers (a couple of writers working online editing jobs at anchor).  There are probably 20 boats with people spending the hurricane season and 20 more boats completely abandoned, their owners back to the grinding machine, i.e.  making money in the US, Europe or dead!. I have also helped Lydia, the lavenderia  (she does laundry in town) and her daughter with my back pain treatment.  Lydia usually does the laundry right in the street with huge plastics containers and waddles clothes all day. All the laundry is dried right on the street on immense clothes lines encroaching on the neighbors. Some days I can watch my underwear drying downtown while shopping. Luperon!

There are also Yoga classes on the incredibly beautiful defunct and closed yacht club. We go there early in the morning and Chante, a 68 years old singlehander is teaching, with the breeze blowing wonderfully throughout the abandoned ballroom.

There is something about the Dominican that is very charming. First it is their “joie de vivre”, the ability to be content with very little. They have not much but share it easily, and nobody is hungry. They eat a very traditional meal made of  beans and pollo and milk is locally produced. Right now it is the season of avocadoes and pineapple is all year around.

 Cars are a luxury item, so most families drive around in 50 cc motorcycles, little bikes that are designed to carry only two people at a time.  But not in Dominican Republic.  Sometimes even a couch is strewn across the back of the mopeds. They carry children, large propane tanks, washing machines; anything, and most of the time, nothing is attached, everything is held by one hand. The drivers drives only with one hand. Babies are held across the handlebars! and sometimes entire family pile up to four, flying down the road.  It is quite remarkable, their ability to survive perilous positions, and they do it all the time. I guess we have become so cautious, so within the rules, that we have forgotten that sometimes even if things seem hopelessly dangerous, everything is OK. It is all about perception. Of course driving at night is absolutely scary because of the cows (a lot of them are black) and drunk driviers.

We are having a very simple life at the moment,the food is beautiful, the fishermen are catching great snappers and the chickens are plentifull. Days are passing in a flash, and we can only appreciate how lucky we are to be here.

Virginie

LUPERON !!! DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

860 miles passage

     We finally left Fort Myers with all proper docs stamped and my visa returned to the United States of America.  Of course leaving all my “good friends of Bill” behind. That is always hard, but I was ready to turn of the TV, the internet, stopped getting stupid marina bills and leave les Amerloques  behind... I was ready  to get back outhere where everything is different and the pursuit of the perfect world is living in the unperfect one.

We waited long enough and had good weather window and we chugged along through Key west and nearly  flat condition for the first part of crossing of Gulf Stream,  which by the way can be a nasty crossing, wind and waves contrary to the powerful  2 to 3 knot current creating… well, condition that we prefer to avoid.  We  are still labeling ourselves as aging chickens of the seas, but somehow we still going regardless of our gutless attitude.

With the boys onboard I felt like a passenger on a cruise ship. I would go to sleep at 8 pm and wake up at 4 pm and do a watch till everyone would feel like waking up ( no 3 hours on and off !!). My kind of watch as I love to see the rising sun, and yes I am a morning person... We knew that we would mostly beat all the way to on the northern coast of Cuba  to the windward passage, ( hurricane season is upon us, so no slow cruising through Cuba, but cracking up toward Aruba which is out of the hurricane belt) turn right  then finally goes with the wind and waves to Jamaica. That was the original plan. But in port plans are easy, outhere the ocean has control of the situation. You are just a puppet, making sure that your strings are in order, but ultimately you going to have to endure whatever mother nature will give you. 

The boat as usual was flawless, a little cough up with the generator a broken impeller, presto repaired by Sam with the assistance of Patrick. Autopilot perfect, engine going  only at 1500 RPM and with the Gulf stream current going to 10 knots. Sam checking obsessively that all systems were A ok.  The newly installed and finally completed stabilizers have paid off their very expensive investment, by giving us not much rolling at all. ( whaoa, these work fantasticly !!!)

But as usual 24 hours after leaving Fort Myers when we came close to Cuba and started to follow the 600 miles coast .  The wind picked up ( in the nose of course !) and created a  TIGHT 4/ 5  feet chop.

That was the moment…. when we started to really beat to weather. The boat still going an average of 8.9 knot for 860 miles ( quite remarquable ) but it was hard, Acharne slamming hard on those little nasty walls. The worse was coming out of the Bahamas channels, we had walls coming out of everywhere and we were forced to slow down to 6 knots and hang on.  No one was really sea sick, but the pounding was exhausting. And progress seemed slow. Although that when the sea state resumed to the regular 4/5 seas, Acharne kept the pace up. On my watch I crossed a small sailboat tacking  in the wind and waves and I watched on the binocular,  he was getting a good beating . It was a reminder that I was still going forward, and not tacking so no whinning please !

Approaching the Windward channel the Noaa weather predictions for the Caribbean seas were :  blowing 20 to 25 knots with 8 to 12 feet seas. We also knew that the windward passage can be nasty with a funneling effect and even that we would be going with wind and weather we wanted to go through it with lesser conditions. So the options were to go for it and see what happens ( don’t like to do this unless have to ) or to continue on the northern coast and go to Dominican Republic with better weather.  But with no detailed charts of  the port of Luperon nor a guide to Dominican Republic we decided to send an email ( via the iridium sat phone ) to Vince in Alaska, and see if he could dig up some chart and email us a copy of it.  No problemo ! we got a copy of a hand sketch entrance to the Luperon, thanks to Vince, and way point, so we kept beating up forward. Acharne doing her job, keeping her speed in the condition, and the crew enduring the slamming, the crashing, the wonder when it was a bigger swell and Acharne liked it better and her 80 feet length would climb up and slided gracefully on the other side.. like riding  on a smooth back of a big creature

 Everybody was doing his job,   each wave at the time, staying story on the back deck, listening to music checking the ship traffic, catching a small tuna and a mackerel, trying to sleep, with the slamming ( good luck with that one, unless completely exhausted, then you drifted off regardless of the condition) and may be the wind would lessen and it would nicer ?

We had brief hours, when the wind would stall a bit, the seas would go smoothers and we would stop hanging on to something, then it would come back with a vengeance… We got closer to the lush and beautiful island of Dominican Republic but we kept banging up and down till the very end, and then…. Pooofff we were inside a gorgeous harbor,  the land smelling of dirt and the goats munching of the rocky outcrop. The sea was gone it was flat and we motored slowly with sam checking his sketch and his way point.

We picked a mooring ( the harbor has probably 20 or 30 boat and everyone seemed to be on some funky mooring.  Popa rushed with his fiberglass, fuel covered panga and announced  with his toothless smiles that mooring were 3 dollars a day, and if we did not mind , he would like to be paid one week in advance, because we might just leave and then…  He also had a Dominican Republic flag with him, and told us to sit tight and wait tomorrow morning to check with immigration and agriculture and Monday custom. Popa was the man, he wanted to offer his services , right now right there, hey if we wanted to see the 25 waterfalls up in the mountain, we probably go right now ! And also he had his fuel tank, and may be we also needed fuel at this very moment… It was wonderful to talk to him.

Ah it was divine !!! to be seating in the salt encrusted Acharne, no place to go, no ripple, no motion,  but the sound of the bird singing in the sunset and crickets, the smell of the land,  the dusk falling into a starry night and the neighbor Mike on “Mink” coming to say Hi and tell us all about Luperon. It was quiet and peaceful and the ocean was gone still thundering on the other side of the land. 

The next morning we went to the immigration and I have forgotten my reading glasses so the officer landed me his.  Just that little human gesture, made me breathe with the sense of the unperfect world. We have gratefully paid our mooring for a week and I am ready to explore Luperon, Yeah !!!

virginie