From the DR to PR

The time to continue our journey has finally arrived!! Whoop whoop! Hurricane season has not officially ended, but the chances of one popping up this late in the year are slim. If the weather turns out to be as forecasted, we will be heading east to Puerto Rico today and should arrive in Boqueron sometime on Sunday. Sailing along the north coast of the DR and crossing the Mona Passage can be difficult if you do not have a good weather window, which is why we are still in Luperon instead of leaving last week when we were set to go.

The plan is to leave around 8pm on Wednesday, be at Rio San Juan by 10am (trade winds pick up around that time so we won't sail during the day), leave at night again on Thursday, get to Escondido by 10am, leave Friday night, and sail a day and a half until we reach Puerto Rico. We might have to stop at Samana if our weather window closes, which would be fine by me since they have a really nice, inexpensive marina and great beaches to explore. But of course this could all change.

As usual, we kept putting off boat projects so we have been working hard the past couple of weeks getting everything ready. We have spent our time fixing dinghy leaks, installing new port light lenses, replacing port light gaskets, removing rust from the deck, fixing the autopilot, making a new harness for the dinghy motor, fixing miscellaneous leaks, cleaning the bottom and anchor chain, replacing the pressure switch on the fresh water pump, and provisioning. Lots to do in a short amount of time! We also now have a rat onboard, which is surprising since we’ve been anchored for the past three months. We think it either was a stow-away from the dinghy dock or swam from a neighbor’s boat. I saw it crawling on top of the companionway hatch as I lay in bed, and when we went outside to investigate, it jumped into a vent so it is now living in the bowels of the boat. A glue trap was unsuccessful so we borrowed Ackeron the Cat from friends to see if he’ll catch it. Keep your fingers crossed for us because the rat has already chewed through some wires, and we need it gone ASAP.

2 months of provisions

David hard at work

Ackeron

We have also been trying to make the most of our time we have left in Luperon. Last Tuesday we went to the 27 Waterfalls near Imbert (I’ll be posting a separate entry with a video of our excursion) and Wednesday we went to a potluck party hosted by Kat and Johnny who have a house here. There will be several boats leaving soon so it was a great time to get everybody together for one last hurrah. We have met so many people and enjoyed A LOT of good times (poker games, karaoke, trivia nights, movie nights, softball games, happy hours, beach trips, yoga…so much to do to occupy your time here) during our two and half month stay. I’m sad to be leaving but crazy excited to be sailing again to new ports.

Jules and Gina - our neighbors in Luperon Harbor

I also wanted to post a few pictures from Halloween. There was a great turn-out for the party at Wendy’s bar. A big thank you goes out to Skye and David, who helped make my costume great!!

 

And last but not least, a couple of shots of Luperon Harbor.