This log is current to March 25, 2005

March 19, 2005 in Luperon, Dominican Republic

We’re finally in Luperon, but don’t regret our long delay awaiting good weather to cross from Puerto Rico. With strong currents tumbling through subterranean caverns more than 25,000 feet deep, the Mona Passage can be dangerous to boats of any size.

Luperon is a beautiful place, one teeming with officials collecting fees. For the better part of a day we forked over payments -- some of which were laughingly duplicative.

Example: An Agriculture Department official showed up to “inspect” Pioneer for any plants or fruit we might have brought -- and to charge us for doing so.

Later, another official from the same department came by to “inspect” for any meats we might have in our refrigerator -- charging us again.

When we stopped by the government “office” (a trailer at the end of the dock) to pay several other officials, we found the two Agriculture Department officials sitting at adjacent desks. Two visits, two fees.

On the other hand, the people visiting Pioneer to collect fees (including a request for a “donation” to the “Commandante”) were unrelentingly (and understandably!) cheerful.

Some cruising sailors are so offended by officials charging dubious fees that they’ll avoid certain countries. Others see it as a small price to pay for the right to sail in beautiful surroundings. Some sailors justify paying on the basis that a country like the DR is very poor. Others argue the money will never reach the poor people. Everyone agrees that forking over large amounts of graft deepens the problem for those who follow.

There are places in the anchorage where the water is only three feet deep -- and we quickly found one. It took half a dozen dozen dinghies pushing Pioneer (and one pulling a rope from the top of the mast to heel us over) before we could escape the sticky mud.

Photo: cruisers are said to have built the dinghy dock, a great improvement over scampering up the rocks of the down pier.

Luperon has many shallow water dangers, and almost no warning markers. Entering the channel can be a hair-raising experience, with unmarked reefs awaiting your arrival.

Sure enough, the day after our arrival a tall ship (The Spirit of Massachusetts, a training vessel with a crew of female students attending the Tall Ship Education Academy) hit a shoal.

We hopped into Scout, joining a fleet of other sailors in their dinghies rushing out to help. We found the ship’s booms extended far to starboard, students clinging to them in an effort to list the boat and free its keel.

We helped push the hull while the ship’s main engine roared -- and finally she was free.

We were astonished to watch the captain bring the boat (with its draft of eleven feet!) to the far end of the anchorage, right past Pioneer and the place we had been mired in shallow water. These guys are good!

We will stay here a week or so, and take the next weather window north, toward the Bahamas -- where, by the way, the fees are more than triple what we paid here.

March 23, 2005 Luperon, Puerto Rico
We returned from a trip to a waterfall to find the wind had freshened -- and boats at anchor not where they had been when we left.

One boat “dragged” anchor, hitting two other boats, and would have hit Pioneer but for someone rushing over to wedge his dinghy between Pioneer and the boat blowing in the wind. Thanks!

We don’t take many commercial tours, but the trip to a waterfall was great (but not for the faint-hearted). It involves walking across a small river, and crossing another river numerous times before coming to the first of several waterfalls.

Then you swim across the pool and scamper up the rocks to the next one. The place is so rife with ways to get hurt that OSHA would never allow a commercial venture like this to operate in the USA. Still, nobody was injured, and everyone had a terrific time.

Unfortunately, Don was unable to climb to the higher pools because of his continuing back problem.

From what we have seen, the Dominican Republic is a beautiful and friendly place. And it is inexpensive, even though the exchange rate has dropped from 50+ to only 28 pesos to the dollar.

From a sailor’s perspective, the only drawbacks involve the rate that marine organisms grow on the bottoms of boats in the anchorage, and the huge egos of a couple of long-stay Americans who seem to consider themselves in charge of the place.

It appears the weather may allow us to sail north from here in two or three days. We’ll aim for Georgetown in the Bahamas, and stop at an island short of that if weather deteriorates. The trip should take about three days.

March 25, 2005 in Luperon, Dominican Republic
We need much more time to explore the DR, but we need to be in North Carolina by the end of April, and a weather window to the southern Bahamas is coming up.

The water here in Luperon is as “rich” as we’ve seen -- meaning that it supports lots of microscopic life. In only a few days it takes up residence on boat bottoms, and because it grows surprisingly fast, we hired a diver to clean Pioneer’s keel and change zincs. He also helped us service other equipment and change the engine raw water impeller.

It is possible to obtain water at the local marina here, but it is river water. Not wanting to take a chance tainting Pioneer’s two water tanks, we hired a service to come to the boat with enough jugs of purified water to fill Pioneer’s tanks. Their capacity is 160 gallons.

At 25 cents per gallon, delivered, it was neither the cheapest or the most expensive water we’ve purchased in the Caribbean.

However, we paid more for gasoline here than anywhere: $3.80 per gallon. Diesel fuel, delivered to the boat in barrels, seems to vary in price. We’ve spoken with people who paid $2.75 per gallon, and others who paid $3.25.

March 27, 2005 leaving Luperon
Perhaps the reason so many people come to Luperon and never leave is the bureaucracy.

We’ve been trying out best to obtain the required paperwork necessary to depart, but one person has failed to show up at the trailer house that passes for the officials’ office at the end of the town dock.

We probably should have realized that the Easter holiday, called Semanta Santa), which involves the year’s most intense partying by locals, might interrupt the issuance of government forms -- most of which we can’t quite perceive the need for.

For 24 hours we tried to check out, receiving a series of excuses and broken promises from officials, when they did show up, weren’t the ones authorized to issue the final in a series of confusing forms.

Given our sincere effort to play the Beaucracy Shuffle, we then hopped aboard Pioneer and had a terrific sail northbound, past the Turks and Caicos to Mayaguana in the Bahamas.

The passage took 3.5 hours and covered 230 statute miles.

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