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.
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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
