We have arrived in Samana

Monday afternoon was a busy day getting ready to leave Luperon. I had asked Papo the guy who takes good care of all the boaters to bring out the Comandantcia to our boat and also the other boaters that were leaving with us the next morning. In the Dominican you cannot move without the Comondantcia knowing when and where you are going. When you arrive he will come and check you and and give you arrival papers. When you want to leave he will check you out and give you your check out papers called a “Dispatcho”. This seemed to be an easy process BUT we are in the Dominican! Papo had a falling out with the Comandantcia so we had to go look for him around 4pm and that was getting close to quitting time for him. We finally found him on the dock in another boat and he wasn’t going to give us a Dispatcho because he didn’t believe we were going to leave in the morning. It is illegal to leave a harbor between 12 am and 6am. We were very lucky to have someone with us that spoke Spanish. This guy wanted to show his authority and he wasn’t going to let us go. It took 2 hours and finally we had our dispathco’s in our hand and we were glad to be leaving Luperon.  We left Luperon at 7am and the weather was supposed to be great for motor sailing all the way. As we started up the coast you could see the beautiful lush green mountains, it looked like a south Pacific Island. Around 11 am the wind started to shift and pick up a little bit so we put up the sails and we sailed the rest of the day until 4 am. The wind was so great we were moving to fast so we had to reef down the sail so get a slower speed. We didn’t want to arrive to early and in the dark. As we turned into Samana bay the wind and wave calmed down and we slowly motored the rest way sipping coffees. We arrived at 5:30 am just as the sun was coming up, perfect timing. Here's a few picture I took in the morning waiting for the marina to open.

 

This place is called The Puerto Bahia Marina Resort in Samana

 

Laurie thought it would be fun to post a picture of me to show what I look like after an overnight sail.

Not to bad!

 

 

So we got our dock and waited for the Comondantcia to come and check us in. This guy was so very polite and friendly, we had no trouble at all. So the first thing was to get a shower and have a sleep. Our first day was a rest day and of course our second day is to provision. We sailed here with 3 boats so the six of us went into town to shop. Samana is a good size town and it was very busy. We were lucky to get a ride into town with one of the resort vans that picked us up on the driveway. First stop was the market.

 

 

Next stop was the grocery store. We bought a few items we needed but still could not find meat like chicken, pork, beef and fish. Well we did see it in the market but all those things were freshly killed or caught out in the open and covered in flies. So if we want meat we will have to get over what we are seeing and just go ahead and buy it. If we do buy some I will just put some ketchup on it. Now it was time to go back to the boat. How do we do that. A guy stopped with a little motor cycle taxi and off we went. Four of us on one taxi and 2 on the other.

 

Here's a few pictures of down town Samana

If you look closely you will see some cardboard on the side of the road. These are left there by the store so the people on motor cycles can cover there seats while they park. The black seat will get very hot in the sun. Most people will just ride away with the box to keep the seat cool. Good way to get rid of you garbage!



And here we go back to the marina on the motor cycle taxi.

After a hot day shopping we had to go and sit by the pool with a few drinks.

 This place is OK!

 

Here's a few pictures of the resort we are staying at.

 

 It's a hard life just sailing around to different places!

 

 

Tomorrow the six of use are going to sail across Samana Bay to a National Park that is supposed to look like Bora Bora. Just to sail across the bay for a day we still need a dispatcho! They really want to keep a close eye on you here.