From Port Antonio, Jamaica to Santo Domingo, Dominican Replublic is four hundred miles. That’s 48 hours on this boat, so when a three-day weather window appeared on the forecast we started getting ready. And fortunately, the forecast held. Not only held, but was every bit as calm as was forecast, which isn’t often the case.
Our first twelve hours out were bouncy. A two knot current caught us from behind, which was nice, but it was running straight into the small swell, causing the seas to stand up a bit despite no wind. That was enough to get the boat wet, and drain the energy out of everyone, but wasn’t enough to complain about, especially as we were humming along at ten knots plus.
Non-cruisers often envision what it will be like to be on passage. They’ll bake bread, spend hours learning a new language with that app they haven’t opened, maybe even pick up a guitar and teach themselves how to play. Reality is so much different. I have yet to meet the cruiser who has the energy to do any of these things while on a passage. Even a short two day passage leaves you feeling listless. About the only thing productive we can ever manage to do is read.
The kids did manage to get a quick surge of energy at one point and went outside to earn some points for doing chores. Window cleaning while underway is always welcome.
Typical fishing buoy. Lines fall straight down from these, so all we need to do is not hit them head on. Easy enough during the day, but just random luck at night.
We cruised along the coast of Haiti, and then rounded Cabo Beata as we crossed into the Dominican Republic side of the island. If our weather window hadn’t held we would have bailed out for Ile a Vache off the south coast of Haiti, but with flat seas we just continued right on.
The entirety of our navigation equipment on this boat—an iPad. We use the iPad charts, not tied into the autopilot in any way, and make little course corrections every so often as we drift off our line. Easy peasy. No AIS, no radar, no Raymarine chart plotter. Simple and efficient. For Caribbean cruising, especially, it’s amazing how little you can easily get away with. AIS and radar are totally unnecessary unless you just can’t read the lights of the handful of ships you run across at night.
That current we had the first day out ended up getting us in way too early. Before night fell we slowed the boat down and cruised at six knots through the night until by morning we were off of Santo Domingo with another four hours until daylight. We slowed the boat to an idle and zigzagged back and forth, nice and peaceful while everyone but whoever was on watch slept. There was a pretty good swell here that would have left us rolling terribly if we had just stopped and floated.
As the sun rose we started making our way to the river running up to the “marina” in the capital city.
The amount of vegetation that washes down the river is incredible. So is the amount of garbage. It’s truly appalling.
The marina has a floating barrier across the front of it to keep the floating debris from piling up in amongst the boats. We didn’t have any contact for the marina, and weren’t even sure they’d have space for us, but somehow these places always seem to find room for visitors so we weren’t worried. We just showed up, idled outside and waited. Within a few minutes someone was motioning to us to sit tight. And within half an hour a group of guys were on the docks figuring out where to squeeze us in. Then someone came out in a boat, opened up the gate, and motioned us in. They wedged us into a spot, helped us tie off some lines, and then contacted immigration and customs for us. Everyone was super helpful and happy to have us.
All right, so maybe it isn’t much to look at. In fact, it’s pretty disgusting. BUT… directly across the river, a five minute walk away, is Old Town Santo Domingo. From wikipedia, “the city is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas, and was the first seat of the Spanish colonial rule in the New World.”
Read the sign. In other words, no French boats allowed.
That was a joke. Come on. We all know how the French cruisers are regarding clothing.
In no time at all we were cleared in and free to roam.
Each little store in the neighborhood doubles as a gathering place to play dominos, have a beer, a bite to eat, or just have a chat.
This old lady selling bags of corn for the pigeons had to be about the most unapproachable person imaginable for our kids. She had an angry scowl permanently on her face and a voice that sounded like a gravel truck unloading. If she would have barked I’m sure those two would have screamed and run as fast as their legs would carry them.
We immediately liked Santo Domingo. It reminded us a lot of Old Town Mazatlan. It was vibrant. People out enjoying themselves. Plazas full of people and vendors. Colorful buildings, new and old. A long pedestrian plaza. Good restaurants all over the place. And a fantastic grocery store with everything we could ask for. All in all, this is our kind of place.
Quinceañera. Fifteen year-old girls were all over the place getting their big day’s pictures taken. This is a cultural tradition that is slightly difficult for me to get a grip on. Fifteen seems a bit young to be celebrating the transformation from girlhood to womanhood. I’m sure there is much more to the celebration that I’m not privy to, though.
Home sweet home. A handful of guys slept quietly at night on bunks piled up in the pilothouses of these boats, then worked on them throughout the day.
Counting piggy banks full of money isn’t easy when you’ve got five or six countries to pile up, and all those exchange rates to calculate.
16 Comments on “Santo Domingo, D.R.”
Wow! Math teachers everywhere are impressed with the real life lessons that Ouest and Lowe have to learn in order to go shopping. Great job, Pat and Ali!
You’d make a great Director, Pat: “OK . . . I want a single bird to fly up and . . . no, no – the rest of you stay on the ground . . . OK . . . now fly around the statue . . . no, no – not that close to it . . . yeah, right in there . . . now extend your wings and glide . . . yeah, that’s it – right out in front so it looks like he’s pointing at you . . . Perfect! Got it! OK, that’s a wrap here . . . company move to the next location.”
ha ha 🙂
That Buick needs flipped over!
As a car guy…I immediately spotted that…good catch!
Ha, I was looking at the chopped bumper. Hadn’t even looked at the logo.
My memories from the Dominican Republic: beautiful view from the beaches & SO MUCH TRASH. Lots and lots of Styrofoam containers. It was sad to see for such a beautiful country.
Yes tons of styrofoam take-out containers. I don’t see them changing that anytime soon. We did see one local down there racking up a part of the beach but all the large garbage bags full were just left higher up on the beach when he was done.
Wonderful photos and commentary. I don’t like the looks of that water…ick! I wonder if 15 is the “age of consent” in many Latin American countries, and that is why the 15th birthday is such a big deal? Girls are certainly more grown up at that age than they were back when I was coming of age in the ’70s!
What kind of bartering were the kids doing that was drawing so much attention from the ladies and kids behind them? (Still love my bag, I use it all the time.)
Happy to hear it! And I’m not sure what was going on, I think they were just curious about them.
15 is very young by modern standards, but pretty normal for the previous 100,000 years of “modern” human history. I can’t say much- my wife was 16 when we met and still in high school when we married. 20 years later, still good.
I remember you hunting for Maccas in the Jaguar. Great to see the next iteration.
Now instead of Maccas we find ourselves hunting the grocery stores for taco ingredients. How times change.
Taco Rice is a staple in our family. I completely understand.
2 unrelated comments –
One, I generally follow the same path regarding instruments. Give me a tablet plotter, a depth sounder, and basic engine instruments and I’m good. However, on our last boat we had a 10 year old Garmin closed array radar. It’s a novelty/luxury item, but when dialed down to 1/4 mile range it would reliably pick out crab pot floats. It picked out every real float, with about a 15% false positive rate. Not at all necessary, but after playing with it for a while I was confident running inlets at night (assuming depth/reef is not an issue).
Two – unfortunately our cruising experience has convinced us that obese geriatric Canadian cruisers follow the French idea of clothing customs 🙁 Eye bleach is a billion dollar idea if someone can work out the science of it.
Hi Pat! Still praying for your health and safety on your wonderful adventures! I just love reading about them. I do have a question: Have you guys ever had a confrontation, a situation where you feared for your safety, or anything like that. Just curious. I’ll keep looking forward to your next post. Be Safe! Tommy
The only confrontation we’ve had involved a drunk American on a deserted Bahamian island that ended with him needing his head bandaged up. It’s a good story, but one we reserve for telling friends over drinks. If our paths cross some day I’ll tell you about it. Other than that, no. One or two strange encounters while off sailing around the world, but I like to chalk those up to cultural differences/misunderstanding rather than any sort of malice. People are friendly the world over. No matter our background all any of us seem to really want is enough to eat, a warm bed for our families, and a few laughs with friends.