My watch, midnight, 20 nautical miles north of the Dominican Republic. The moon is hidden by heavy clouds and I'd been watching the prolific phosphorescence roll off our bow wake. Ahead, even from this distance and in this light I can see mountainous peaks. A mass of dark rain clouds above them. Then the moon - a half moon - breaks free of the clouds and looks, for all the world, like the predatory gaze of some lidless creature. I grin, feeling like Sinbad on a mythical adventure. In the days to come I would understand why they filmed Jurassic Park in the Dominican Republic. Even at midnight from 20 miles off shore it has a look of ominous grandeur.
We're slowing our approach to land, aiming to arrive in Luperon (N 19 54, W 70 56.8) in the daylight. We had a great sail from Mayaguana Cay, Bahamas, one of our best yet - much faster than expected. A really pleasant 40 hour sail. The same could not be said for our passage between George Town and Mayaguana.

A week before, we finally left George Town, after a wonderful send off from everyone at the anchorage, taking a northerly front and favourable winds. However, as we rounded the top of Long Island the wind and sea really picked up. We were making incredible time and broke our speed record, hitting an all time high of 11.8 knots surfing down a wave - and that was with 2 reefs in the mainsail. The only other place we'd seen this speed was in Hells Gate NY - and that was with 6 knots of current. We'd set up our jack lines and harnessed ourselves in as the seas and wind grew stronger. Little did we know that we were about to experience the 2nd worst seas Marno has ever seen. Marno spent most of the night at the helm while I spent most of the night and the next day hurling my heart out over the side. The first time I've been seasick on this trip and I excelled at it. It was also the first time I wondered if we were actually going to survive. Marno remained absolutely positive, despite his exhaustion at the helm.

Attitudes performed beautifully, sliding over the top of large breaking waves and surfing down into deep troughs, outstripping our highest expectations. Only a couple of the bigger waves broke into the cockpit - without incident - just making us a little damp. They must have been in the vicinity of 15-18 feet high. After listening to the weather report on the ham radio, we immediately changed course and headed for the nearest harbour - the weather was going to get worse. Mayaguana, in the far east Bahamas, was now our next port, not the DR as planned.

We were 40 miles north of Mayaguana when we heard 2 distress calls. We recognised the boat names, having seen them in George Town. Catitudes and Park Place - both big, beautiful expensive catamarans. Catitudes had been washed up on the north eastern shore of Mayaguana (after running over it's own anchor rope and floating onto a reef) and Park Place was 1 mile from the shore with no steerage (after trying to get a line to Catitudes to tow them out). We tried to make contact without success, instead receiving a call from the mega yacht Starship. They had lost contact with their tender, with 2 people on it, while attempting a rescue mission, and could we please keep a sharp look out.

We monitored the radio, made incredible time, but did not see anyone or anything over the huge waves. Well ahead of schedule we arrived at Mayaguana and found safe anchorage in Abraham's Bay along with 4 other boats. Later that day we heard that Catitudes had been smashed to pieces on the shore and Park Place had sunk. The tender was safely recovered after a successful rescue mission and thankfully no lives lost. The crews aboard Catitudes and Park Place were unharmed, but had lost everything. So the boaties all chipped together and donated items to get them warm, dry and comfortable.

Although we weren't out of the Bahamas yet, it was good to leave George Town (very expensive) but it was also hard - we have made so many wonderful friends and we really enjoyed having my sister, Relle, and her daughter Jamii, with us for 11 days, which went so quickly. During our 6 weeks in George Town we'd day sailed to Long Island and Rum Cay, celebrated Marno's 39th birthday and basically had a great time exploring. Oh, and we also celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary with - wait for it - a snake in my pants. Yeah, it was the joke of the anchorage too.

My pants had been drying in the cockpit when I asked Marno to toss them down below. He was about to pick them up when haltingly asked me if I had a new belt. He then started to laugh raucously - for those who know his laugh - you know what I mean. "We've got a snake on board" he roared with laughter, then got on the radio inviting everyone in the anchorage to come take a look. Understandably, no one took up the offer.

Being the "Aussie Sheila" from the land down under where every child from the age of 3 knows snake bite first aid - slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean - I felt obliged, compelled to remain cool and calm, quietly selecting a pillow case from the closet and holding it steady while Marno lowered the snake into it. It was an interesting sensation, holding the pillow case while the snake moved slowly in it as we dingied ashore. Unfortunately, at the time I didn't think to take photos. Pity.

We got it ashore - where most people, predictably, freaked out - and so set it loose in the bush. Fortunately, there are no poisonous snakes in the Bahamas - mainly boas. But I was glad to see it free in its natural environment. We speculated that it either swam aboard or was a stow away in the dingy on one of our trips ashore. All it wanted was the warmth of the sun and the cosiness of my pants.

A few days before that we had more excitement. Three water spouts formed about a mile or so from our stern. Only one of them touched ground but away from town. Water spouts are like tornadoes, but, as the name suggests, made of water. These were only small, but I did get a few pictures to show you.

Anyway, we're looking forward to exploring the DR and may even spend some time backpacking for a week or so. It's so cheap here!! We'll be going to the Carnival they have here too. Should be excellent. We were given a picture of our view in the Luperon anchorage. We arrived to something that looked like paradise. A neighbouring boatie took a photo of us while we were anchoring. The rainbow sits right between our masts.


So many people have asked to be included on this mailing list. If you don't want to receive them - just let me know - I won't be offended and shall take you off the moment I receive your say so.

 Moondance who sailed with us to Long Island took some pictures and I've included these. Unfortunately we don't have any of us wing and wing. I can't wait to see those photos - it's such a special thing when we can sail wing and wing.
 

Send mail to marno@yachtattitudes.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 01/02/09