JOURNEY TO JAMAICA'S SOUTHERN COAST: Part II

Cayo de los Muertos, PR to Isla Beata, DR  (approximately 192 nm)

Upon weighing anchor at Cayo de los Muertos, Exit Strategy eased into another pleasant downwind sail with the genoa winged out on the whisker pole.  

The next rest stop of the journey was located at the southwestern coast of the Dominican Republic.  We had spent a quiet day there on a previous trip in the waters of the DR.  It was easy to yellow-flag it (i.e. stop in a foreign country without officially clearing in) there because it is an out of the way, unpopulated bay with good holding in sand. However, about twenty miles from our destination the hours left of daylight were few.  So, we decided to be prudent and cut our travel time short by yellow-flagging it at Isla Beata, DR. 

Isla Beata is a small, lovely island upon which a community of non-English speaking fishermen reside.  The last time we stopped here, mainly due to the language differences, I thought los hombres who came to the boat were going to jail the Captain because they insisted (by gesturing) that Danny go ashore with them while I stayed on the boat. About twenty minutes later, he returned with a bag of fish. (WHEW!)

This time we were prepared and expected los hombres to come aboard. I was ready with a few words in Español, politely conveying “No quieremos pescado, gracias.” (We don’t want fish, thank you.) So, they looked over our boat papers and said/gestured that we could come ashore to walk if we wished.

We were tired after the sail and it was dark by the time we got settled.  Nothing broke during this leg but the Captain did make note of an odd vibration when the motor was engaged.  The next day, he dove under the vessel and removed two loose plates from around the prop that shaken loose and tucked them away on board to reinstall during our next haul out. 

Meanwhile, I took a swim to check the anchor and discovered that it had a fishing trap line wound around it.  There appeared to be no way to raise the anchor without dragging the five traps (some filled with fish) that were strung together on the bottom.  Clearly, we had to free the anchor before leaving.  So, Danny cut each trap free and secured a float to the line using small plastic bottles salvaged from the trash- just like the thousands we’d seen marking traps and lines all along the DR coast.  

Some fishermen also stopped by that day with lobsters.  They were on the small side and relatively inexpensive so we bought enough for two meals.