Reward for an uneventful Mona crossing

The Mona Passage – the body of water that separates the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico – has a reputation and therefore the nickname of the Murderous Mona. With daily squalls that build up off the coast of Puerto Rico and cut loose to sea in the late afternoon/early evening, you want to plan your sail carefully. We had the advantage of crossing east to west with the prevailing trade winds – the passage is much rougher on those coming east who have to beat into the winds and the seas. Fortunately, we had a good run. We left in the morning, got west and north enough to miss the trail of weather that moved off of Puerto Rico and headed southwest. Winds were solidly in our favor and the only downside was the swell. It was a rooooooolllllly ride with the seas on our beam. However, with our new autopilot in place to manage the steering, it was not a bad run.

Infinity pool at Puerto Bahia Marina

We made landfall at Puerto Bahia Marina just outside of Samana. We had originally talked about bypassing the Dominican Republic altogether because of too many stories of rampant corruption amongst the officials that control customs and immigration, as well as the incredibly unfortunate ‘despacho’ process – officials not issuing you a permit to leave the port until an hour before you go – not feasible if you need to leave early morning or late at night. However, we met several cruisers in Puerto Rico who assured us that the process and the people are working to make things better, and this marina has a great reputation for making the entire process painless. They weren’t kidding.

Samana Harbor

The harbormaster, Eduardo, and his team guided us in and helped us into the slip (not having bow thrusters I still have a love/hate relationship with marinas as it’s simply not easy to maneuver the boat into most slips. They got us all sorted and told us to take our time before clearing in with both them and the Commandante. Good thing, as 10 minutes later fellow cruisers Connor and Karl on Contigo (who we met in Marion, MA and again down in Annapolis) stopped by to say hi – a very small world. After a brief reunion with them we cleared into the marina and then moved onto the Commandante’s office. Shephard and team were all professional, fees were exactly what we expected and not a single bribe even insinuated. Sigh, if clearing in could only always be this easy.

Puerto Bahia Resort Lobby

The marina is part of a resort and marina guests get to enjoy all the amenities. The lobby has beautiful wicker furniture strategically placed to let you enjoy or avoid the sun and maintain some privacy while you suck down a beer and update all your devices with the resort wifi (the perpetual cruiser’s life). The highlight of this place though is the infinity pool that looks out over Samana Bay. You order your beer at the bar and then hang out watching the local fishermen from the pool – utterly indulgent but well earned after our sail. Once we turned into prunes, we sat down with Connor and Karl who were kind enough to brief us on the Bahamas and give us a list of recommended anchorages.

Los Haititses

 

The marina/resort are a distance from town, so we took a shuttle to the edge of the property (probably a couple of miles), then waited for a local bus. In the meantime two guys stopped on motorbikes (the national form of transportation) so we took them up on their offer. Luckily the ride to town was short and they weren’t speed demons – though a bit of a risk, my life didn’t flash before my eyes as it has on rides on other islands this cruise. Samana is worth wandering around for an afternoon – a mix between pretty waterfront and gritty Caribbean town. We did a rickshaw/tuktuk ride back (rickshaw seats attached to a motorbike), a little less risky but fun nonetheless. And bliss – while we were gone two of the local dockhands scrubbed down our topsides and polished the stainless steel – the boat is starting to look a little less weather beaten! If only we were going to stay longer – they would varnish as well if we wanted…..

Caves

 

 

The one excursion we knew we needed to do from Samana was to Los Haititses, across the bay. It’s a federal park, and it’s described as the Vietnam of the Caribbean. A series of tree covered limestone islands jutting out of the water, it really does look like something more suited for southeast Asia. We not only got to see the bird population (frigate birds, pelicans, egrets, hawks, etc) we also got to tour some of the local caves, which included petroglyphs from early Taino settlers.

Mangroves

 

 

Taino carving

 

 

 

 

Then it was a teeth clenching, bone jarring ride on the motor catamaran at 16 knots (my body isn’t used to that speed) across the bay to Leventado Island for lunch. Lunch was ok (the usual chicken and rice & beans) but I ordered a pina colada that was more of a pineapple smoothie (huge chunks of fresh pineapple) in the actual pineapple shell. Between the pineapple and the avocado I don’t think I will ever eat such delicious fresh fruit again after this cruise. After lunch we wandered down to the beach where we enjoyed a few more beers in the shade while everyone else played on the beach (this body can only take so much sun these days, as opposed to everyone around us on vacation who had limited days to soak in the rays). It was a much quieter ride back to Samana, and we finished off the day with a soak in the infinity pool (I’m getting addicted) before heading to bed early.

Kalyra selected as a backdrop for a local fashion photo shoot!

Santo Domingo

All our new friends had left (catching weather windows, especially to move east safely & comfortably, is critical) and we weren’t leaving for another day so we decided to rent a car and explore a bit. We first drove up to Las Terrenas, a popular resort town on the north coast. We were there a bit too early in the day for drinks, but it was fun to drive through town and especially good to stop at a proper grocery store for some serious provisioning.

Santo Domingo

 

 

Though we knew our time would be limited, we then headed south to Santo Domingo. We had hear all about the colonial district and wanted to see it, even if we didn’t have long. I splurged and got a tour guide who walked us through the area and gave us the history behind the city and the island. We know others come to the city for 3-4 days to properly explore, and we barely got a taste, but we now have an excuse to come back.

Santo Domingo