Wednesday, March 24, 2010

SEA Update 7: Arrival in Dominican Republic




¿Donde esta un lugar con internet in este pueblo?
After 9 lonely days at sea, singlehanding from San Salvador, I have arrived in a small fishing village just east of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. That was my first time singlehanding besides in the Chesapeake. PRetty dull, just me and the dog. I had that nice NW wind, but my Aries steering gear doesn´t work when sailing downwind, so I pretty much went very very slowly, then when the wind kicked around to the SE, like it normally is, the steering gear worked fine. OF course, then the winds and current were hitting me on the nose, and I plugged along very slowly hoping to get to Puerto Rico. I caved on day 7 and just decided to head due south to the Dominican Republic. Here I am, in a tiny fishing village just East of Puerto Plata. It is excellent here and the people are very friendly. I had lunch on a veranda overlooking my boat (see white speck in photo) on the bay not 100 yards from where I rowed the dinghy in, kids with big smiles helping me pull the dinghy up to the big coil of cable I locked it to. Now I will hop along the coast, across to the south side of Puerto Rico, stopping every night (no more bashing through waves all night for me as I read book after book on a seemingly endless voyage) in quiet little coves. Also, before I forget, I have caught zero fish, except the one in the photo, which tried to kamikaze me last night, it´s a flying fish and he made his own way onboard!

1 comment:

  1. Looks like a beautiful village. Must have been as big a surprise for the flying fish to land in your boat as it was for you to have him!

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