Gringos on Motos

July 11, 2007






Hans and Kristen on their moto.


Tom and Alex on their moto.



Crossing the river...they haven't built the bridge yet!



We stopped at a tobacco sorting and drying facility in La Isabela. There were about 40 people working there and the work was segregated by gender: the women sorted the leaves, and the men counted, weighed, and monitored the drying of the leaves.

On Saturday morning we set off on our moto to explore the northwest corner of the Dominican Republic. Tom and Alex rented a motorcycle and we were all ready for the adventure. We brought along our tents and planned on camping along the way. We spent the first day bouncing along dirt roads to Punta Rucia, a small, beachside town on the north coast. The beach was lined with food stands and it was teeming with people swimming, relaxing, eating, drinking and dancing. We set up our campsite a few miles down the road on a deserted beach and told stories and jokes around the campfire for hours.


Hanging out at the beach at Punta Rucia.


Tom and Hans watched the cock fight in Punta Rucia while Kristen and Alex sat by the beach.


Is our tent really for two people?!




Sunset at the beach.
We made a fast exodus from the beach on Sunday morning as the no-see-ums were biting us relentlessly. We started the long ascent to the top of the mountain chain, and then had a fun, easy coast down the other side to Route 1, Carretera Duarte, the main road that leads from Santiago to Monte Cristi. It was still early in the day, so we kept going to Monte Cristi. The vegetation changed from fertile and lush mountains and valleys to a cactus-filled desert. The sun was very hot and the air was dry and dusty.


How tall is this cactus?

Monte Cristi was a good-sized town with lots of bars and restaurants, but the highlight was the National Park.



The beach at Monte Cristi National Park. The sand was almost red in color and the waves were really big - fun swimming!


The descent from hiking up "the morro." The Park Ranger said it was 840 meters and had about 585 steps. Well, the day we hiked up it probably only had about 350 steps since most of them were rotted out and we had to climb alongside the staircase. It was hot with no shade, but the view from the top was gorgeous.

To spare ourselves another night of being food for the no-see-ums, we checked into a cabana and enjoyed the a/c, TV, shower, and soft beds.
As soon as the electricity went off at 8 AM on Monday morning, we packed up the bikes and headed back toward Luperon. We drove on Route 1 for a couple hours, stopping off at roadside colmados (corner stores) for cold drinks and snacks. We then turned off Route 1 and drove north, up and over the mountains. The drive was beautiful and we stopped in a few towns along the way to enjoy the scenery, drink cold water and chat with the people we met.

Springfield, Vermont: The Simpsons' Hometown

July 11, 2007

Springfield, Vermont, Kristen's hometown, has been voted the hometown of the Simpsons! The world premier will be held in the tiny movie theater on Main Street on July 21. Congratulations Springfield!

Hanging out in Luperon

July 6, 2007


Luperon Harbor


We’ve been spending the last few days hanging out with friends in Luperon. Tom and Alex just sold their boat “Blind Faith” so the other night we had a farewell party for the boat. The mood was bittersweet as Tom and Alex were glad to have sold their boat, but sad at the same time.


One last night on Blind Faith.


The bottle-opener had already been moved to the apartment, so Tom had to improvise and use the pliers!


We cheered up last night as we spent the evening enjoying the views from the balcony of their new apartment in downtown Luperon. It was a fun change to spend time socializing in an apartment instead of on a boat!






Relaxing on the balcony with Tom and Alex.



Horses grazing on a nearby field.

New routines

July 3, 2007

Happy Birthday Liberty!!!

After three weeks here in Luperon we’ve begun to establish daily and weekly routines. This has less to do with time constraints and more to do with the fact that there isn’t a whole lot to do here so you figure that, hey, today is Tuesday, isn’t today vegetable truck day?… it takes all of an hour, but then we know that we’ve accomplished the day’s task and can go about the rest of our daily routine unaccosted by our concience.

So, here is our weekly calendar of events:

Daily Routine:
06.30 wake up
06.45 go running and exercise
08.00 shower, breakfast on Whisper, wait for the wind to start blowing so that the boat cools down.
10.00-12.00 proceed with day-specific weekly activities
12.00 lunch (usually at Pico Pollo in Luperon consisting of rice, beans, chicken or beef, salad and water)
13.00-16.00 Hide from sun and let stomach recuperate.
16.00 Dingy to town to get food for dinner (usually bread and tomatoes), sit in the park, have ice cream
18.00 Back to Whisper for dinner, reading, playing games, socializing with other boaters, etc.
21.00 Cruisers bedtime… yes it looks rather sedentary, but you should try to be active with 90 degree heat, 90% humidity and no A/C, no ice and no cold drinks.


Monday: Fun Day! (this is in order to prevent getting a case of the Mondays, with which Kristen was afflicted for 3 years straight when she had to start the work week) Our Mondays will probably involve going on a day-trip somewhere.

Tuesday: Vegetable truck at 8am, then proceed with daily routine (see above)

Wednesday & Thursday: Boat project days.

Friday: Do laundry and clean Whisper

Saturday: Watch baseball in town, drink beer.

Sunday: Cruiser’s swap meet at the marina in the morning. Go to the beach, drink beer and eat fried food in the afternoon.



Hanging out at the beach on Sunday with Jim and Wendy from Merengue. It's "the" place to be on Sunday afternoons with food stands, loud loud merengue and bachata and cold beer. The water in the ocean is the same temperature as the air so we spent most of the day sitting in the shade talking and people-watching.


The Muelle (pier) in Luperon.


Local fishing boats tied up to the pier.


A double rainbow over the harbour after an afternoon thunderstorm.



A day trip to Santiago


The Monument, in Santiago. We spent a day in Santiago yesterday, Kristen's first time back in seven years. It was all pretty much the same, even the bars and restaurants around the monument were the same and the stores down the main shopping street were unchanged. Although it did seem as if more stores had air conditioning. It was fun to go back to see the changes and to see how it has remained the same.


Pizza! We had lunch at Pizza Hut, our first pizza since we left the States. soo greasy and cheesy!


TV TV TV! (and a store with very cold air conditioning!). It was fun to look in the shops in Santiago and realize that we didn't need anything they had to offer!


A side street in downtown Santiago with some old houses.


El Gran Teatro del Cibao (the theater) in Santiago next to the Monument. Unfortunately it was closed so we weren't able to look inside, but it supposedly seats 15,000 people.

A call to Action!

June 30, 2007

This statement is brought to you by the KKLF (Kit Kat Liberation Front), in conjunction with the FFFNOW(Feed Furry Felines NOW) and their umbrella organization, with which everyone is familiar: MEOW.

Comrades in claws: the first step towards the freedom of our people to exercise our unalienable and God-given right to eat and sleep in peace and plenty was taken this morning when Comrade Kit Kat, chaircat of the KKLF and founding member of FFFNOW, without any regard to her own safety bravely attacked one of her oppressors and inflicted a deep scratch on said oppressor’s finger.

Comrades, the time for action has come! The MEOW revolution starts now! Rise up and fight!

It will be a bloody struggle, but with your steadfast dedication to our noble cause there is no doubt that we will triumph. The human oppressors will wallow in their misery as we stand victorious in the end, and they will beg for mercy and food like they have made us do for all these years. Cast off your cuddly disguise and claw your way towards the future and FREEDOM!

In Luperon, sans pesos

June 27, 2007

The fiscal year for Whisper is drawing to a close and we find ourselves wishing we hadn’t spent this year’s budget on $8 beers and $15 hamburgers in the Bahamas. As a result, we have about $400 to last until August 8, when our fiscal year opens. But, have no fear! We’re up to the challenge! Each day we have about RD$300 to spend. Our daily expenditures begin with RD $140 ($4) for lunch for two at a local cafeteria. For that we get copious amounts of rice and beans, some chicken, pork or beef, salad and water. We couldn’t cook for the same price! We then have RD$160 to spend on internet, breakfast and dinner and two beers (luckily, the local colmado (corner store) is running a 2 for 1 special: 2 grandes for RD$60, roughly $2). On the days we need gas for the moto or the dinghy, we’ll forgo the beers and internet. So, we should be able to last until August 8, however, we’ll probably stay close to Luperon and save our tours of the country for the new fiscal year.

Whisper is fine with that plan, since we have a long list of projects to complete before the end of the summer. For those of you who are interested, in no particular order:

1. repair dodger supports
2. varnish woodwork
3. service winches
4. repair autopilot
5. fix transmission leak
6. restitch the jib
7. seal forward hatch
8. seal the cockpit sole
9. repair the stereo
10. rig the SSB to transmit
11. make a rain collection system
12. fix the compass light
13. connect autopilot to GPS
14. install anchor alarm
15. intall bug screens
16. paint interior

As you can see, we have lots of projects to keep us busy and improve life on Whisper. We’ve already taken down the sails and running rigging and washed them with soap and freshwater. We’ve also taken the dodger off to protect the windows and canvas from UV rays. The awning we have covers the entire boat so we have plenty of shade without the dodger.

We’re both almost fully recovered from the flu and are starting to spend more time off the boat. The beach is a 10 minute ride on the moto and we also enjoying hanging out at the central park, people-watching and enjoying the shade. Although the water in the harbour is too dirty for swimming, it is just a short dinghy ride to the ocean where we can take cool swims off the dinghy.


The countryside surrounding Luperon.


The local bakery.


The park.


La Casa de los jugos - great homemade juice and sandwiches.


The main intersection in downtown Luperon.



Luperon harbor.


Old style houses in Luperon.


Moto!


The pack of friendly goats that roam the streets of Luperon. they were hanging out by the immigration and port authority building in this picture.



sunset in Luperon harbor.

Who forgot their flu-shots?

June 20, 2007

Happy birthday Angela and Larry!

We have both been bed-on-boat-ridden for the past few days with a bout of the flu. It started on Friday, when Hans woke up with a high fever. Kristen took care of him for a couple of days, and just as Hans started feeling better, Kristen woke up with a fever and took to bed and roles were reveresed. It is always miserable to be sick, but being cooped up on the boat, when we’ve been ashore and know how much fun stuff is out there to do just sucks.

Last Thursday, we went for a ride on our newly purchased moped, or “moto” as they are called here. We bought it so that we can get around the island on our own terms, figuring that we’ll be able to sell it when we leave here in November.
Our first excursion took us on a dirt road through some beautiful coastal countryside. We stopped in the shade of a tree along the way, and a family living nearby invited us in to their very modest home where we both surprised each other with our different ways of life. Paulina, her husband, and their adult son Freddie live on the top of a mountain with a million dollar view, but with dirt floors, open hearth wood burning kitchen, no plumbing or running water (sorry we didn’t have the camera with us). We talked for a while about their lives and they in turn were interested to learn about our lives on the boat and were aghast that after one and a half years of marriage we still don’t have any children!
When we left, they gave us a huge bag of limes and another huge bag of mangoes. We’ll definitely go back some other time.




As you can see, Kit Kat is enjoying the still harbor of Luperon.



A softball game in Luperon. We're looking forward to going to the baseball games which ought to be a lot of fun.

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.

Our last deserted island…

June 8, 2007

It’s about 30 miles from Ambergris Cay to Big Sand Cay, and after Thursday’s motoring mayhem, we were determined to sail the entire way. We left at 8 AM and spent the next 2 hours sailing around large patches of Elkhorn coral and other coral heads; spots which are surely beautiful for snorkeling, however nothing we wanted to bring Whisper close to. The Caicos Banks were much more challenging and uncharted than we had expected and the frequent shallow coral heads we needed to avoid kept us very tense. After the white-knuckle sailing, we were finally in deep water and we pointed Whisper as close to Big Sand Cay as possible. We sailed for 8 hours, and made a few tacks to arrive at one of the most gorgeous islands we’ve visited.

As soon as we dropped the hook, we jumped in the crystal clear water; clearer than any water we’ve swum in…perhaps even clearer than a swimming pool. The visibility was easily 70 feet. We celebrated with a dinner of spaghetti Bolognese and some red wine.


An osprey keeping lookout on the light.




Images from Big Sand Cay.


large bushes with these white flowers covered the island and the air smelled like flowers.


sea beans found on the beach at Big Sand Cay.

A day of contrasts

June 7, 2007

Provo to Ambergis Cays

After a couple of days of R&R in Provo we felt ready to be moving on. The weather forecast for crossing the Caicos Banks wasn’t ideal, but we figured that it was probably as good as it was going to get so we set off at daybreak towards Ambergis Cays, located on the eastern edge of the Caicos Banks. The trip there was one of the more uncomfortable days we’ve had on the water. The wind and a 4 foot chop was on the nose and we pounded into it for 10 hours straight, motorsailing. In addition, the Caicos Banks are absolutely littered with shallow coral heads, so we had to keep a close watch in order to swerve around them.

To make our day even more miserable, Boris, our trusty diesel engine, started having problems. We would be motoring along when all of a sudden the RPMs would fall and Boris would stall. Our guess was that we had air in the fuel lines from when we changed a fuel filter back in Acklins Island. Hans bled the fuel lines over and over again, but no improvement. Towards the end of the day, it got so bad (30 seconds of run time between stalls) that we decided to short-tack the last couple of miles into the anchorage. We wouldn’t have had time to short-tack the whole way there and get in before dark, which is why we were motorsailing.

Once we got the hook down we dinghied ashore in search for diesel. Our luck was about to change, at least temporarily. We landed the dinghy at a high-end tropical country club: the Turks & Caicos Sporting Club. Membership is $20,000 per month plus a membership fee of $100,000 and a requirement to own property on the island. For all this money you get the use of the gorgeous facilities, with infinity pool, gourmet chef, etc. etc. Although, you still have to pay for all of your meals! At any rate, when we arrived, the place was completely deserted. The only people there were Jess and Jamie, the bartender and pastry chef at the club. They invited us in, gave us cold drinks, food, and use of the showers at the club. It was by far the nicest shower either one of us has had in the past… who even knows! We even went for a swim in the infinity pool.

After this two-hour respite our day returned to its usual state when we got back to Whisper. We discovered that the problems we were having with Boris were due to dirty fuel, so we changed the fuel filters, which were clogged (a messy job). As soon as we can, we’ll have to pump out the dirty fuel and replace it with clean fuel.

To cap our day we spilled about a gallon of diesel fuel in one of the lockers and spent an hour and a half cleaning it up before going to bed, not quite as clean as before, by 10.30.