Getting Ready to Say Adios To Luperon

The time is here and hurricane season is almost over….here I go …Woo Hoo! This means that time is getting close to say good-bye to Luperon and head south. As we said in our last couple of posts, not much has been going here and what has is not exactly exciting blog material. Oh, don’t get us wrong – “As Luperon Turns” is an ongoing source of entertainment for those of us living there. We just can’t share the details…protecting the not-so-innocent and all that!

Brian in the sweatshop again…this time making some repairs to our stay-sail.

Brian and a couple of other sailors (Lynn, Kyle and Kim) in the harbor helped to raise a boat that had sunk overnight while the owners were away. So that was a busy day. Thankfully that does not happen very often. It would not be good if boats were sinking all over the place here!

The locals call this a mobile Mac Donald’s … LOL, even I think that’s funny!

Ok, so your thinking what’s with the picture of a chair? I posted it to show you how valuable things are here in Luperon. See the stitching on the seat? A chair that in the states we would have thrown away here they sew together! Same goes for anything else that is plastic too. If the leg breaks they fix it with a piece of wood. Not much goes to waste here!

Plantains anyone?

For entertainment and some fun Gill, (owner of JR’s) and fellow sailor Lynn, (who is a bit of a tomboy and is never seen wearing a dress) got all dressed up and paraded around town just for the heck of it. The locals seeing a gringo in a suit and a gal all dolled up walking up and down the streets did not know what to think…their expressions were pretty funny! I think that they all thought Gill and Lynn had gotten married. Uh, not happening! So anyhow, you can see the strange things that we do for entertainment around here. But otherwise it’s pretty much the same old, same old thing.

Gill and Lynn all dolled up and ready to take a stroll around town. Check out the flowers on Lynn’s flip flops!

The locals watching Lynn and Gill parade around town did not know what to think!

As much as we’ve loved the Dominic Republic, we are ready to haul our anchor and cover some new ground. So, we’re beginning to look for weather windows to move on.

We’re thinking that it will be in early to mid November when we set sail.

Young fisherman carrying his catch down Constabar beach near Puerto Plata.

Brian has been working hard to make sure that Moon is ready and up for the challenge of sailing the “Thorny Path to Windward”, which means us fighting the cape effects and coastal accelerations, sailing dead into the wind as we make our way east along the north coast of the DR. Many sailors dread this uncomfortable passage. Depending on our weather window we will either end up in Samana (which is at the east end of of DR) or Puerto Rico.

Johnny and Kat in front of Patula’s Bar and Grill. These two are the party organizers of Luperon. They are always thinking of something fun for the cruisers to do from motorcycle rides to places like Aqua Verde, Constanza La Playa, 27 waterfalls to fun and games at the Patula’s on Saturdays and even hosting potluck parties at their house. Great people to know in Luperon!

If we get a good weather window we will not stop in Samana. We will instead continue on to Puerto Rico and cross the…here we go…queue scary music…duh-duh-DUH, “dreaded Mona Passage”. Samana is an overnight sail from Luperon however, Puerto Rico will be close to a three day sail so we have to be ready for anything. Sounds fun huh?

From the La Playa Grande you can see a catamaran entering Luperon harbor in the distance.

The Mona Passage is the ocean passage that runs between the DR and PR, and in the cruising world it is dreaded. It’s the second deepest trench in the world and one of the most notorious passes. With relentless currents and strong trade winds, anyone hoping to sail across the Mona Passage waits for the right window. When sailing you don’t imagine boaters waiting for the winds to die so they can motor, but when you are crossing the Mona it seems to be the norm. So as you guessed we will be paying close attention to the weather and doing our best to make this crossing as safe and comfortable as possible!

Yum, making veggies and brown rice!

Now for our exciting news…Rachel has decided to join us for a few months to escape the blah of winter in the states and enjoy the sunshine of the islands…yea! You can all imagine how happy that make us! We haven’t had a third hand on the boat since Brian’s dad Charlie sailed with us on our last voyage so it will be nice to have someone else aboard.

I think that this house right behind JR’s is cute! Look at all of the DVD’s that he used to decorate with. Love the colors too!

We pass this house every time that we get our motorcycle out for a ride…I call it “The Leaning House of Luperon”.

The only downfall of Rachel joining us is now we will have to wear clothes all of the time, no more running around naked on our own private island 🙂

I can just see Rachel reading this and saying “Oh yuck , why did you have to put that vision in my head”!

All kidding aside, we are really looking forward to having Rachel aboard.

We think that it will be a great experience for her and we can’t wait until she gets here!

Well that’s all for now. We’ll keep you posted about Rachel’s arrival and make sure you all know when were are heading out so there are no worries.

Take care and we’ll post again soon…hopefully on our way east and south!

Love and miss you all,

Jennifer and Brian