Luperon, Dominican Republic

June 12, 2007


Whisper at anchor in Luperon.


Main street, Luperon.


We’ve been in Luperon for two full days now and so far it looks like we’ll have a great 4 months here. The town is busy with life: tons of motorcycles (motos) zipping back and forth, bachata and merengue music playing from every house, people sitting on their porches avoiding the sun, vendors selling fruit, clothes, meat and everything in between, many small grocery stores (colmados) and numerous restaurants and bars with cold, cold Presidente. The prices are very affordable and we found a good sandwich shop with $2 ham & cheese sandwiches and fifty cent homemade juices.

Elvis, a member of the Dominican Navy, took us to Isabela, the first town established by Christopher Columbus in the “New World.” The site is well preserved with stones outlining the location of houses and buildings and a museum displaying artifacts found on the site. Currently, a team of archeologists is working to excavate parts of the harbour where a ship is believed to have sunk.


the remains of one of Christopher Columbus' men who is believed to have died of malaria.




Isabela, the first town in the New World.

Big Sand Cay to Luperon, Dominican Republic

June 9-10, 2007


We had hoped to stay a full day at Big Sand Cay and set out for Luperon on Sunday, June 10th, however the weather forecast looked much more favourable for a Saturday departure. We went ashore for an hour to hike around, then we made the necessary preparations for the 80 mile overnight trip to Luperon.

Anchors aweigh at 11:00AM! The sail to Luperon was excellent. The first 12 hours of the trip, we averaged at least 5 knots, until we purposely slowed down to time our arrival at Luperon with the sunrise. The seas were small and as soon as the sun set, millions of stars came out. We took turns sleeping and keeping watch and the entire trip was wonderfully uneventful. Around 6PM we saw a larger freighter which passed in front of us. We hailed them on the VHF and they told us they were bound for Costa Rica.


The large freighter that passed in front of us.


Sunset at sea.


Around 4:30 AM, we were 10 miles away from Luperon and the sky started brightening. As we got closer, and as the sun got higher, we were able to make out lush green hills and large mountains behind the hills. We’d arrived in the Dominican Republic! We slowly motored into the harbour and dropped the hook near the customs dock. We immediately fell asleep for 4 hours.




Land ho! Approaching the Dominican Republic at dawn.