Spanish Virgins, Puerto Rico, DR, Haiti & Jamaica Mon.

After guests leave we always have a lonely feeling that comes over us and this happened with the departure of Ross and Grace. We enjoyed their company very much. But then we find something that rejuvenates us.
We left St Thomas for Culebra, one of the Spanish Virgins. It was as beautiful as last year when we were there with my sister Sally and husband Bob. We had some wonderful meals again in Mamacita's on the canal. We met a fun couple, Tom and Marianne from "11 Audacious" while we were in customs in Culebra. Sharen introduced herself to Marianne. Always having a keen eye for fashion, she knew straight away that this was someone interesting!! It was the start of a great friendship. They turned out to be great fun. We moved our boat to join them off Culebreta, a small island near Culebra. We did some wonderful snorkeling with them and had some fantastic meals on board their boat and on ours. We shared some very fine wine although Marianne always brought her own Champagne when we dined aboard our boat. We bid farewell to them as we needed to get the boat to Marina Del Rey where we left it to fly back to Edmonton to look after some business issues and to see our family. On our return we received an email from Tom & Marianne stating they had left their boat parked 4 boats from ours while they returned home to California. We had told them about our 500 gig hard drive with our 400 movies and they had picked up one to copy our movies to theirs. On their return, Tom rented a car and we joined them on a trip to Ariceibo to see the huge radio telescope, one of the largest in the world and of James Bond - Goldeneye fame. Continuing with the James Bond theme we visited the Conquistador. This is a 700 room hotel resort where a number of Goldfinger scenes were shot. We also stopped at Old San Juan and enjoyed a beautiful meal at El Convento. This is a convent converted to a hotel over 100 years ago. It is very stately and the meals are to die for. After lunch we convinced the manager to show us the high end suites. Actually this was a dare by Marianne to see if I could get them to show us.
We said goodbye to "11 Audacious" and sailed off to Salinas and Ponce where we rented a car to pick up Terry and Neil, friends visiting from Alberta. They are boaters from Buffalo Lake, east of Red Deer, Alberta. Neil brought us a great list of new recipes and the desire to cook and serve them. He is a great chef and we really enjoyed every meal. We sailed off on a gentle introductory sail to Isla Muertos just off Ponce. There we were surprised to meet "11 Audacious" again. Great fun and another great dinner. The next day they sailed off for Ponce to get some work done on their boat and we headed west to Boqueron to check out of Puerto Rico for the Dominican Republic. On the way Neil caught a Baracuda. I believe this is the largest fish we have ever caught. We have hooked larger but were fortunate enough to have them break the line and swim free. We have no desire to deal with a gargantuan creature from the deeps flailing about on our nice clean boat. We had a wonderful, full moon, over night sail to Casa de Campo. It was great to be back. This is where we had spent our Christmas with our family last year. It was great to see old friends. This is really one of the nicest marinas in the entire Caribbean. We found some nice new restaurants to enjoy at the newly renovated Casa de Campo hotel. We pulled ourselves away under the pressure to get the boat onward towards the Chesapeake which was still 1500 nautical miles away. We sailed by the beautiful beaches of Catalina Island off Casa de Campo but there was a cruise ship dropping off its hordes so we decided to continue on to Boca Chica.
We took a taxi to Santo Domingo to see the oldest city in the Caribbean. It was amazing as was the restaurant we had lunch at. It was ridiculously expensive but really one of the nicest places we have eaten in. It was especially enjoyable for us as Neil insisted on paying. The next evening we went to Neptune's on the water. This restaurant is amazing. It is on stilts over the water which is interesting but also has fine white linen curtains blowing in the breeze. They also had a couple of hot tubs where you could enjoy your wine before dinner and a dip after, bit nuts but people were using them.
We were thrilled be given a t-end location to dock at the new Zanpar Marina. This faded a few days later when a motor cruiser with too many partiers, filled with too much alcohol, crashed into our boat. Needless to say we were not happy. The Marina agreed to pay for all repairs and to invoice the boat owner. We said goodbye to Neil & Terry who moved to a historic hotel in the Old City as we were moving on the next morning and Terry needed to get back as she was scheduled for some on-call shifts in Ponoka where she is a medical doctor.
We sailed onto our next port"Barahona". Shortly after we dropped anchor we noticed 2 young men rowing out to us on an old skiff that was rapidly filling with water, using 2 pink paddles the size of fly swatters. We were surprised to learn they were the local customs and immigration. They spoke no English. After the formalities and of course the payment of the requested "small tip", they started to tell us about all the places we could see. The immigration guy volunteered to be our taxi driver for a negotiated fee. We agreed to go that afternoon. Of course we had to pay part of the fee up front so he could get some fuel for his car so we could go. We soon discovered his shocks were gone and his car would bottom out on every speed bump and the car body would scrap the tires on every corner. The country was celebrating "Samana Santo" (Easter Week) and everyone was on the road. He stopped in a small village to pick up 2 friends which of course made the car problems even worse. Next he stopped at a bar and picked up a quart of beer and 5 glasses. We soon realized we were paying for his party! Our next stop was a roadside celebration with 500 to 1000 people. Huge speakers blasting out hip hop music and a swimming area that had over 200 people splashing about. Of course we were the only white folks and stood out like flashlights!! We suggested we push on. On the road again, a quick stop for another quart of beer and our driver was now starting to think his car was a Maserati. We cautioned him to slow down. He laughed and pushed the gas pedal harder. We were surprised when he stopped at another bar for another quart of his favourite drink! This was enough for Sharen. She was getting beside herself. We eventually arrived at our destination - Lago Enriguillo, the lowest body of water in the DR. We climbed a viewpoint staircase to look over the 50 mile wide lake. Here we suggested that we would purchase him a case of beer when we arrived back if he did not stop for anymore beer. He agreed. Whew!
On the trip home he took a wrong turn and we came to the border crossing to Haiti. That was all we needed!! To find ourselves in Haiti and our passports on board the boat! Luckily we realize just where we were in time to make a quick turnaround! After making our retreat we came upon numerous checkpoints on the lookout for Haitians smuggling themselves into the DR. We arrived back after a few more stops at some more roadside parties, getting in just as it was getting dark. We purchased him his case of beer, made it back to the boat and thanked God we were still alive. We had one more concern - where to check out of the country. Our "new friend" agreed to stamp our passports as 'left in 4 days' to give us some time to get out of the country. (We had a couple more stops we wanted to make but unfortunately those places had no exit officials.)
We sailed westward stopping to visit some of the most beautiful anchorages on this earth. On each we found ourselves alone. Beautiful beaches, sunshine, blue seas and just us. We shared some terrific dinners, rose wine, star filled skies and fatty desserts.
The south side of the DR is the real secret jewel in the Caribbean. We stopped in Isla Beata to see if we could negotiate a Despaco which we needed to leave the country and enter Jamaica. We intended on not checking into Haiti. The Commandante refused but agreed to a game of dominoes with Sharen. She almost won. I do believe these guys get more practice as there seems little else to do here. Notice the size of the Iguanas in the background. We sailed onto Cabo Rojo where we were finally able to get our Despacho.
We sailed overnight from Cabo Rojo on the far western edge of the DR to Ile a Vache, a small island off the south western coast of Haiti. On the way we passed many fishermen always ready with a big wave. The word Haiti generally strikes a nervous tone in everyone, us included. We thought long and hard before deciding to go. All this trepidation was for naught as it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable and rewarding places we have sailed our 'magic carpet' (This is a description of a sailboat by Marianne from "11 Audacious") into. On sailing in we met fishermen miles offshore with the fish boats rigged with sails. We were greeted by about 10 dugout canoes with 2 to 3 children in each rowing out to meet us as we entered the bay. It was awesome! We struggled to keep them at bay while we anchored and then gave them all a cookie, pencils, paper etc. They were beautiful. All with big smiles. We were amazed to see 4 other cruisers there. One was a boat with a young couple from England with 3 year old son Teddy, who loved to go for rides in the dugouts with the local children. They planned to go sailing for 5 years or so. The cruisers had started a local association to help build a new wharf. We were happy to contribute financially and to donate some fishing and dive gear to assist the local fisherman. We really enjoyed the young children.We left after a couple of days and were greeted by some seas that were a bit larger then predicted so we decided to return. I was also psyched up to help the local beach restauranteur improve his restaurant such that boaters would come and enjoy a dinner. The restaurant is in the background of Sharen playing with the children. We started a dinghy dock, cleaned the beach which was a terrible mess before we started and redid his roof with new palm fronds. Another boater agreed to stay and help finish the new dinghy dock and sign. The biggest thing was to teach them that cruisers would not come unless all the plastic bottles, plastic bags and other debris was picked up. It was wonderful to see everyone who came by to watch, join in and help. No one asking for money. We also met 2 young gentleman who still lived with their families while their wives and children lived with their own parents. We contributed to the start of their houses and hopefully inspired them to get started on building them. One also had a desire to be a mechanic and the other wished to pursue the electrical field. The latter would be a welcome trade as the island has no electricity. After much thought we decided to give them our precious diesel repair book and our boat marine electrical repair manual on the promise that they would study for 2 days and we would give them a test to see if they were in actual fact dedicated to learn. Both studied but really had no idea what they were reading. We sat with each and reviewed the table of contents in detail to explain what was in each book and we decided the best way to learn was to join a local tradesman in each field and work for free to learn. They were somewhat taken aback with this approach but were hopefully convinced when they realized they would never earn and/or save the money for schooling. We also met Kiki who wants to start a Dive Shop but needs his certification. He has taken divers to wonderful dive sites including the wreck of the original Bluenose. I gave him an extra BCD I had on board to help him towards his business and hopefully convinced him to leave to work for a dive shop outside of Port a Prince where he could get certified.
We are sending off emails to the local boating periodicals to hopefully guide more boats to this area. Without tourism we doubt this area can emerge from the ingrained poverty that is endemic in this area. We left on the promise of good winds and seas to sail on our longest offshore voyage to date. We did 175 nautical miles (360 kms) to Jamaica which is where we are now. We are fighting the urge to stay longer in this beautiful marina. It is called the Errol Flynn after the famous actor who sailed in seeking refuge with his sailboat during a storm and subsequently fell in love with it. He developed it into party central. He is quoted as saying it is more beautiful then any woman he has ever known. Not too sure what all his women thought about that one but it is very nice.
We took a trip with a local we met at the Marina to Reach Falls. Here we trekked up a green jungle looking wide creek about a mile to where our guide told us there was a cave. I'm expecting to see something on the walls. We get to this hole in the ground by the stream. He tells us it goes across under the creek about 50 feet. The hole is 2 ft by 3 ft. He went first. Down about 8 feet. Sharen went next. I got in up to my waist and realized I just couldn't do it. Sharen did as these pictures attest. The guide said if they were wearing bathing suits they could have come out thru these falls. Very crazy.
Feeling sheepish from my lack of courage to go into the cave with water dripping down from the creek above, due to my issues with claustophobia, I felt I needed to redeem myself when we arrived to the falls below. I scaled great heights as you can see from this picture and leaped off into the pool below. That is my splash. Really. I did forget to plug my nose and I am sure I ingested more water into my sinuses then I will ever be able to expel. I was pleased Sharen was too chicken to give it a go. Leaves me with a macho feeling, no matter how minor.