Marco and Ann's daughter Pia. Molly shared her chew toys with Pia, who was teething and needed something to knaw on...
Marco and Pia trying to interest Molly in her squeaky toy.
Pia is a sweetheart, with amazing blue eyes!
Ann is lovely, too! What a handsome family. We really enjoyed meeting and visiting with this Swiss cruising family.
I can't believe it has been two months since our last posting. We've been moving fast, and had limited access to Internet until we arrived in Florida. This series of posts is reconstructed from my ship' logs and the few pictures we've taken along the way.
We spent almost two weeks in Cap ICana, waiting for a good weather window to move north along the Mona passage to the huge Samana Bay, near the Northeast corner of Dominican Republic. While in Cap Cana, we met a lovely Swiss couple, Marco and Ann, whose 1-year old daughter Pia was a delightful playmate for Molly.
Marco and Ann have a custom-designed catamaran they have brought cross-Atlantic from Spain. They were sailing it up to Nassau, where they will meet crew to take the boat back to Europe. We cruised along with them from DR to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, anchoring nearby to exchange visits aboard each others' boats. We enjoyed their company enormously. Molly will especially miss Pia.
March 11, 7:30am - The voyage from Cap Cana northward to Samana Bay was somewhat uncomfortable, with a following sea of 6' to 7' waves, with the wind on the starboard beam. It did calm down a bit once we entered Samana Bay itself. We dropped the hook in the harbor about 6:30pm, just as it was getting dark. We did spot a few whales in the Mona Passage - fins, flukes and spouts!
Once we anchored, the port of entry officials came out to our boats, to clear us in and collect their customary fees (and free beer). Next afternoon, Marco and I had to go into town to obtain our outbound clearance papers. The port captain was asleep in his office. I mean asleep on a cot in his underwear! We had to wait while he awoke and dressed enough to fill out our documents. Naturally, he spoke no English, so we had to pay an interpreter a few bucks to help us understand his questions, and help him understand our answers.
The harbor itself was calm, but access to the town was difficult, as the town dock was so crowded with fishing boats that we could barely tie up our dinghy. This area of Dominican Republic is struggling to develop its tourist industry. There are lovely beaches nearby, mountains, state parks and resorts. But electric power is unreliable, and roads are a mess. In ten years, it might be a real destination, but for now it seems so much more primitive than Cap Cana. A few smaller cruise ships do call there now, however. We saw three while we were there.
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