The Good Life
- Peter
- Mar 26
- 12 min read
Sitting comfortably on our boat at the Ponce Sailing and Fishing Club, life was very relaxed and easy. As the new year was slowly progressing, we could see the sun setting a little further north every day as we went to the west side of our harbour to try and catch a “green flash” as a part of our daily routine and pilgrimage to see the sunset of the day. We were lucky on almost every evening when the horizon was free from clouds and we must have seen at least 10 green flashes of differing intensity, according to the atmospheric conditions of the day.
We also had a project for the boat’s deck, cleaning and oiling for its long-term life; a job that turned out to be a little bit more time consuming than we expected, but we were very happy at the end result. We tanned our bodies (our apologies to our dermatologist), kept an eye out for manatees in the bay during this period of hard deck work and were content when it was all finished.
Unfortunately, we have both ants in our pants and itchy feet, which means that no matter how comfortable we are, we cannot sit still for too long, especially when there are other interesting places nearby that are calling to us “Come and visit, come and explore”. It may be a bar, a restaurant, a hike or in this case, the Dominican Republic.
For many reasons we had planned to visit the Dominican Republic as a part of our sailing journey in the north of the Caribbean. Spring was the season of mating and birthing whales in the bay of Samana and we thought this was a “must” opportunity and the best chance to see them as we read that thousands of them would be visiting the bay.
Furthermore, the capital city of Santa Domingo has a good reputation as being a beautiful colonial town with some excellent restaurants as a change from the “Fast Food” and ubiquitous roadside “Grilled Chicken” in Puerto Rico. Also, from my “youth” as a young field engineer, a part of our Latin America Division worked on the Dominican Republic for oil exploration projects and I was curious to match the stories I had heard with the island that we saw.
You may think that an island, especially one surrounded by the sea, would be an ideal destination to sail to – and you would be correct in your understanding. However, there are a few small problems with this idea and we therefore actually decided to take a short flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico to get to our destination.
Sailing west to the Dominican Republic is an easy peasy, with a steady easterly wind and a westerly wave direction. The “problem” is getting back as then the wind, waves and current are against you and your boat, making it a very uncomfortable journey.
The path east is often made by sailors at night as the winds are generally less strong and occasionally from the north. It is part of the so-called “Thornless Path to Windward” - (Passages South by Bruce Van Sant)
During our time in the region, the weather has been quite rough, with wave heights in excess of 3-4 metres as the water depth changes from several thousand metres in the Moana Passage (Puerto Rico Trench) to less than 50 metres in the Bay of Samana – once you are “in” it can be a little difficult to get out with any degree of comfort. Compounding the problem, you can only check out on the day you depart and if conditions are bad, then the coast guard will not let you leave. Finally, there are not many reasonably priced, available and suitable marinas to leave the boat and anchoring means that once you have arrived, you need to stay close to your boat should weather conditions deteriorate, thus making island exploration difficult.
We had some sailing friends who have been sailing in the Caribbean for more than 20 years and have been to the Dominican Republic on many occasions. Unfortunately, due to the anchoring and mooring conditions, they have never visited more than just their immediate anchoring location and only for a few hours at a time. We joked that we managed to see more of the Dominican Republic in 10 days than they have seen in 10 years.
For us, the boat was safe and secure in Ponce Sailing and Fishing Club with our neighbours to keep an eye on her (and also at a reasonable monthly docking rate), so the flight to the DR was by far the best option for our new exploration adventure.
Arriving at night in Santo Domingo, we took a taxi to our hotel in the down town area and enjoyed 3 days of sight-seeing with almost everything interesting being in walking or biking distance.
The old city was vibrant, lovely and is in the process of being beautifully restored and renovated. Some areas were completed and some streets were completely dug up with new drainage, power and cobbles replacing the old. Many streets are pedestrian friendly, allowing for roaming around and soaking up the vibe and colours of this beautiful part of the city.
After 3 seasons in the Caribbean, we were very pleasantly surprised with the quality of the restaurants. Not only the food and service were excellent, the décor and ambiance would have made top restaurants in any major capital of the world, all with a very reasonable price tag. We felt that we were really spoiled !
The Dominican Republic/Santo Domingo is not all beauty and riches though a lot of money is being spent on development and infrastructure. The history, like so many Caribbean Islands, is a little chequered with the original indigenous population being wiped out or absorbed by the Spanish Conquistadores as they made Santo Domingo the capital city for all expeditions to the New World for a period of time. The usual mixture of authoritarian rule, genocide, slavery and exploitation makes for a rich economy. Though mother nature also has a part in this history with major earthquakes and hurricanes.
As mentioned, our main reason for our visit was to take the opportunity to see the migrating whales in the Bay of Samana. On a beautifully clear day and a significant swell, we set out on our whale watching trip with the long-term resident biologist Kim Beddal. We learnt that the beasts in question were Hump Backed Whales – named because of their ‘Hump back” that is seen as a precursor to their dive to the depths and the iconic whale tail as the last thing you see as they disappear. Over the summer, they feed in the Arctic waters, building up a thick layer of fat and then swim the 8,000km to Samana Bay to mate and give birth. During their voyage south, they don’t eat at all until they are back home in the Arctic. Now if they only had known about these good restaurants in Santo Domingo, it may be a different story for their eating habits. Anyways, the newly born calves only have an inch of fat on them, and they need the warm waters to survive, grow and be ready for their journey back up north for the Arctic summer.
The guide books say that over 3,500 whales come to Samana in the spring time. We thought that it would be impossible not to see at least one of them on a day trip of whale watching and actually thought that a few hundred sightings would be a more reasonable expectation, no ?
Well, when you look at the charts, the mouth of the bay where the whales meet for sex and production is about 350 km2, which equates to about 10 whales per km2 of ocean surface over about 2 months. Getting the idea ? Yes, there is a higher concentration of whales, but they are not quite as prolific as we thought or hoped.
One good point is that as they are mammals, they need to breathe (once every 20 minutes or so) and so our whale watching instructions were to keep an open in all directions for breathing (spouting ) whales. As the whales are there for their fun, once a suitable female is spotted, there is a bunch of guy whales trying to be the biggest and best to attract her attention (and favours) while trying to shake off the other hopeful guys.
In the first hour and a half, we saw a few spouts but not too much excitement. A long way off we saw a pectoral fin sticking up – a white fin, with a greenish colour in the water. This was apparently a guy, swimming on his side, waving his fin and letting females know he was there and interested in some fun. It seemed that he still had to work on his skills as he continued swimming on his own.
A short while later the same whale breached the water, making a big splash. It was all over in seconds and due to the distance, speed and rolling boat, I think nobody managed to take a photo of this spectacular moment and even afterwards you wonder if you really saw it ! Such a display did not seem to attract any females and soon after, the whale had disappeared in the depths of the bay.
Another 15 minutes later, we saw many spouts, this time much closer by, as six or more guys were chasing a female. We managed to be in the right place at the right time as we saw a series of spouts, followed by the massive hump backs moving through the water and then the flapping tail disappearing under the sea. It was a privilege and truly awesome to actually see these animals so close and to be able to follow them for about 20 minutes as they frolicked in the sea and then suddenly they are just gone to the depths, (for some intimate privacy ?) and not to be seen again.
The show was over, time was up and we returned for lunch on Bacardi Island (a tiny piece of sand that was used for the famous Bacardi Rum ads of the past). It looks amzing from a distance but the word “disappointing” doesn’t describe it when we set foot on this tourist trap after such an amazing encounter with the worlds biggest animals - but there must be a reality in there somewhere.
Having a rental car, we crisscrossed the island and enjoyed a variety of different locations, from isolated houses in the hills, beach resorts and new built holiday apartments (where they forgot to finish the undulating access road that collected large volumes of rainwater). Overall, it was positive fun, friendly, safe and our activities were generally well organised. The beaches varied from almost deserted to heavily crowded, so we could choose the density of humanity to our level of comfort – we preferred the quieter beaches !
Our rental car had an “Easy Pass” so we could drive through the motorway toll stations without having to stop each time to pay, which we thought was an excellent idea until we tried it for the first time. Slowing down to allow our “e” pass to be read and the barrier automatically opening did not seem to open automatically as the toll booths reader would not read our transmitter. We were told to pay in cash and were given dirty looks and honking from the cars behind. “Why were these tourists upsetting the system, did they not know which lane to be in ?” We insisted that we had paid for an “E” pass and would not pay additional cash, so It took a Toll Booth’s Assistant to come and try and hand scan the bar code on the windshield. Still nothing, so they took down the number and entered it into their computer – wow, the barrier came up and we (and all the cars behind us) could proceed – easy pass accomplished. We thought that this was just a 1 off fault from our first toll booth, but we soon discovered the same issue at every toll booth in the DR, so much for a quick and easy path.
We learnt quite quickly that as we arrive at a pay station, we tell the attendant that the easy pass is not functioning and show them a photo of the barcode and number and read out "749377". They dutifully enter the number into their computer and the barrier goes up, every time ! It is not quite quick and easy, but the job gets done and we get on the way without scrambling for the right amount of local currency.
Other than the whale watching, the other activity we engaged in and a first for both of us, was an afternoon of white-water rafting. I am not sure of the level of difficulty we signed up for, but we had great fun with about 20 other people, spread over 4 rafts. We started on dry land but very soon we were drenched with as much water in the raft as outside of it, thrown overboard and rescued, shaken but not stirred. The rafts are built like a cullender between the large inflatable floor and inflatable sides so that any water entering, drains out very quickly, and we don’t sink or continue as if we were in a bath tub.
Three hours for a 12-mile trip through a river valley that we would not have seen otherwise was a good experience and makes us think that other similar rafting expeditions in the future would be fun (white-water rafting on the River Zambezi from Victoria Falls ?).
It was a long wait, but after 2 months in Puerto Rico and another Starlink Rocket launching display by “Space X” we finally saw the strong easterly winds abating and we could have a suitable weather window that would allow us to sail further east to the US Virgin Islands.
We expected some gentle swells and a pleasant sail for the 20 hours it would take to get to St John (remember the Thornless Path). The elements however, were not quite in agreement with our plans and though the wind was reduced, the seas were still a little on the rough side, so we had to use our engine for the passage and bumped and rolled our way to Cruz Bay for our US check-in.
US customs were not interested in us as we had come from the US (Puerto Rico) and we realised that we could have sailed directly to our bay of choice for mooring. St John is a small island with many inlets and bays on all sides. Best of all it is a National Park. Most of the mooring locations are on the east side of the bays for protection from the prevailing easterly winds and with choices from all sides of the island, there is almost always a safe and comfortable mooring location to be found, no matter what the wind direction is. Anchoring is hardly allowed anywhere, for the protection of the sea grass and corals and you have to pick up a mooring ball, but at US$26 a day that is not a problem. Quite honestly, it shows that as boats don’t anchor here, nature is at her best and most beautiful.
Our favourite location is Lameshure Bay on the south of St John. We sit in our cockpit looking over the turquoise waters at the numerous turtles that poke their heads out of the water. They take a breath of fresh air before diving back down to feed on the unspoiled sea grass, sponges and jelly fish.
The snorkelling is great, with many corals, fans, sting rays, eagle rays and the usual plethora of reef fish. Unfortunately, the ciguatera virus is quite prevalent in this region so we take no chances with fish or fishing. Only the pelagic fish, such as tuna and mahe-mahe are safe to eat, but these guys were not interested in my lures, hence there is no fish currently on the menu.
I tried to collect some conch, as presumably it was not fish and there would be no ciguatera virus, which was confirmed by the park ranger. Alistair, the park ranger said it was the season for conch, so we were welcome to collect 2 per person per day. The only criteria were that the shells should be greater than 9” long. As the conch were in water that was about 10m deep I created a “special” net that consisted of the boats fruit and vegetable net, 2 diving weights and 2 long lines to create an engineering marvel. Scooping up the conch from the sandy seabed was a little trickier than expected and needed a lot of paddling and swimming against the current. After the 4th shell that looked massive from my point at the surface but turned out to be less than 6” long, it was time to consider admitting that this was not such a good idea. They were all duly released and lived to grow bigger for another year and another prospective conch hunter. Dinner reverted to plan “B” – Ingrid cooking and I took the opportunity to rest after a sporty afternoon of hunting.
In our back and forth between the south and north of St John to accommodate the changing wind and swell direction we did our shopping in Cruz Bay and ended up in Waterlemon Bay. This bay was known to be one of the best snorkelling location in St John and we looked forwards to the opportunity of an even better experience.
Our visit at Water lemon bay was enhanced with the visit of Becky and Bill from “Chat O”, who came across by dinghy from the BVI’s – just a mile away, to snorkel in our bay. The snorkelling was good and it is the first time we saw some nurse sharks while we were swimming around the reef. The sharks, about 2m long are graceful, harmless and actually quite curious, swimming close to there humans that float on the surface. They are less intimidating than the smaller tarpon and barracuda that we see more frequently (photo: courtecy of Beckey and Bill).
From the US VI’s we headed for the BVI’s for a change in scenery and a dinner date at Cocomayo, Virgin Gorda, with Becky & Bill. Other than enjoying seeing our friends, this is also the location of the famous “Baths” which we have not yet had the time or opportunity to visit.
The Baths” are a series of small beaches, separated by massive granite boulders that you walk between. Usually they are quite packed with tourists, which detracts a little from the natural beauty of the location. However, we arrived a short while before closing time and had the whole area to ourselves. We enjoyed the walk, met a small black snake on the way and enjoyed the evening sun as the waves crashed on the beach. I think this natural park is one of the loveliest we seen on our travels, hence all the photos !
But back to reality: Our transport ship from St Thomas to The Netherlands has now been officially allocated. We are getting 3 updates a week on the expected schedule and are looking at a loading date of the 18th -20thApril. We have to allocate our time for the next 4 weeks to enjoy our last days on the water and to be in the right place at the right time.
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