As far as passages go, the 125 nm journey from Ocean World Marina to Samana was pretty good. We got off the dock at 7 am and followed our buddy boat, Sundog, out of the marina. The wind was predicted to be low and it was!! The ocean swells were still rolling in towards us with an average height of about 1.5 m but they were quite spread apart which made them fairly gentle rollers. The first leg of this passage was OW to Rio San Juan. We made it there by 2pm and planned to depart at 10 pm, avoiding the strong afternoon and evening winds. The anchorage was not great – the swells rolled into the little bay and we rolled the whole time. We had dinner and tried to relax a bit but ended up leaving at 9pm!
The overnight passage started great because we were in the lee of the DR. As soon as we came around the cape at Rio San Juan, the wind and waves found us and they were mostly on our nose. There is a thing called “Cape effect” which causes the wind to wrap around the capes and get stronger. We definitely experienced that on this trip. Our motoring speed dropped from 6kts down to 3kts and it was a struggle to get past the Cape. As we got farther away from the Cape and into cleaner ocean wind, we were able to pull out of jib for a bit and motorsail, getting our speed back up to mid 5kts. As the night progressed, the winds died off to less than 5 kts and we moved along well. It was a bit bouncy and jerky from the ocean swells but it was tolerable. One thing I haven’t mentioned is that Mark unfortunately got the stomach bug before we left and he didn’t feel great for most of the passage. He managed to get some sleep overnight which was good.
By 9 am we were approaching the mouth of Samana Bay and I was at the helm as Mark rested beside me. All of a sudden this large humpback whale breached right in front of us – twice!!! It was awesome and I got an okay photo of it! This area is the winter breeding and calving grounds of the humpback whale so there are many around.
We are currently anchored by a national park called Los Haitises. The scenery is incredible! It really gives you the Jurassic Park feeling!! Lush vegetation and lots of birds! We’ll be hanging out here for a few days – relaxing and enjoying the area. Sundog is here with us and the other Ocean World boat – Desert Loon arrived this morning (Feb. 22). I’m sure we’ll have a few happy hours in the future!
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 