We plan to raise our anchor sometime today and begin our journey to Puerto Rico. We have enjoyed our visit here in the Dominican Republic very much and have remained too busy to finish our blog post. We promise to work on it while underway and post once we arrive in Puerto Rico. We did get to see only a small part of the country and would love to have explored more but there is a good weather window for our passage which we will take as these opportunities become less frequent during the summer months.
We have decided to remain in Puerto Rico through hurricane season and have worked with our insurance company on special coverage as a result. Salinas is considered a very good hurricane hole and we continue to try to learn as much as we can about securing the boat should it become necessary. Once in Puerto Rico we may be able to make short trips to other locations while keeping a close eye on weather. Here in the DR we would be unable to leave Luperon, destinations are far away and weather windows are few otherwise we would consider staying a bit longer.
The journey may require several days with a few anchor stops or we may be able to continue straight through. We will have our “Echo Location” on and tracking our progress, click on the link for current location. We closely follow the advice of Bruce Van Sant in his book “Passages South” for our travels, he has journeyed in these waters for many years and offers very specific advice. Many sailors consider him preachy but our copy of his book is well thumbed and consulted frequently. We also subscribe to weather forecasts and advice from the Caribbean Weather Center. Chris Parker provides detailed weather reports daily on the Single Side Band radio. We are able to call in and ask specific questions concerning our passage and will adjust plans accordingly.
We are amazed at how much our Spanish has progressed since clearing in to the DR five weeks ago. Yesterday we spent a few hours going through the process of “clearing out” of the country and felt like we pretty much understood all that was said and could communicate our responses in Spanish. We are now waiting for our check out visit from the Dominican Navy. They will board us once again, not sure why but we will happily welcome them aboard to complete the exit process.
Signing off for now – Jeff and Mary