We arrived in Luperon, Dominican Republic Easter morning. We left Provo in the Turks & Caicos on Saturday morning around 9am, and sailed all night. After we left the harbor at Provo, we did not see another boat on the water until 2:00 in the morning. I was on watch, and saw some lights in the distance. After not seeing anything else around for hours, it certainly woke me up and caught my attention. David was sleeping, and I knew when I saw the second set of lights that the AIS would sound off and alert us that ships were close by. There were two large barges that were within ½ to one mile away from us, which is a small distance for ships so large. One can never tell if the crew on board are awake and can see our sailboat near them. Earlier in the evening when I was sleeping, David radioed a barge that came very close to us and made sure the captain of that ship was awake and saw us. All was well.
I had prepared food ahead of time so that we could grab something to eat without having to use the stove for cooking. The waves and swells were large, so it took our appetites away. We didn't eat very much, not even the package of cookies and bag of chips that we had bought for the trip.
As the sun was rising, David went back to sleep, and I was on watch. The landscape of the Dominican Republic was in the distance. Not used to seeing hills and mountains, it looked as though the hills were dark clouds in the distance. Not so. As we got closer, it became clear that the DR was very hilly and mountainous. The scenery looked ominous to me. Not being able to see any detail, the hills looked very dark and eerie, with dark clouds dropping rain on land in the distance. As the sun rose higher, I could see detail of the land, and the lush green of the hills and mountains, and waves breaking on shore. As David awoke, I told him it looked as though we were heading into a squall or storm, as it was dark ahead, and the clouds threatened to pass over the rising sun. But everything cleared, and we could feel the heat of the sun and more humidity in the air than we had felt for a long time.
I am now sitting outside on the boat this Monday morning in this serene anchorage in Luperon. There are probably 75 or so boats anchored here, but it is very quiet and everyone seems to be taking life very easy and relaxing. I feel more relaxed here and finally feel like we are cruisers.
There is internet available in Luperon and we plan to post some pictures on the blog. We will be telling you more about Luperon too, which is very third world. This place does not compare to anything else I have seen in my lifetime. One has to see it to believe it, and we intend to take pictures of the town and people living here to post.
We checked into immigration yesterday, and today we will be checking in with customs so that we can fly the DR flag.
All for now.. T&D
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