San~San Adventures

There is

no such thing as a problem

without a gift for you

in its hands.

You seek problems

because you need

there gifts

Hi, it’s San~San again.

February 21,2007

Now with a new look, I like to call it clean crisp and white. The new sails are here and San~San is loving having them. We are about 35 miles from Provo which is where we have been sitting for the last 3 weeks and 2 days. Plan to arrive in Long Cay in an hour and a half. We plan to finish stowing everything and try to get some sleep. We will leave at 4am and head directly to Dominican Republic. Seas will be a bit big but the period is rather long and the wind should be strong and on our beam.

It was wonderful to pull the anchor up and leave Provo this morning. Off to the next adventure.

February 24,2007

We are here!! Got here yesterday morning as planned at about 7am. The sails worked out great!!

We got to Long Cay and tied everything down put everything away got some food in our bellies and called it a day. Anchors up and underway by 4:18 am. The next 27 hours were GREAT!!

James (steering vane) was a little cranky to begin with but with some attention he shaped up and steered the boat all the way to Luperon, Dominican Republic. We had small seas to begin with maybe 2-3 feet, but only 10 knots of wind. Started out kinda slow 2-3 knots. After we rounded the bank at Big Sand the wind and the seas seemed to pick up a bit. The most was about 6 foot seas and 22 knots of wind. Nice sailing. We had hours and hours of 6-7 knot sailing. One of the high lights of the trip we were sailing along and reading when we heard a deep breath, sounded like a sigh of relief. At the end of February and the beginning of March is the Hump Back Whale migration time. We immediately looked at each other and jumped up with excitement, much to our dismay, no whales but we had found ourselves in the largest pod of dolphins I have ever seen. There must have been 150 dolphins all around us, offshore they are the smaller dolphins dark bluish in color and they were FULL of energy, they swam with us for over an hour jumping and playing and of course showing off as they do.

Arriving at Luperon. About 10 miles offshore I awoke to a smell. Everyone has a different description of the smell, but I would call it Jungle. It smells like a fresh rain forest very woodsy. It was still dark so all we could see was a few dim lights in the distance. After a couple hours the sun started to light the sky before it came up and you could see the beautiful mountains of the Dominican Republic. The smell got stronger and the view just kept getting better. As we entered Luperon harbor you could now see smell and feel the jungle, very warm, muggy, thick and sticky. I am so happy to be here. We manage to run aground as the charts for the whole North coast of Dominican Republic are extremely vague, might as well not even have them. We get anchored and start some breakfast as we are starving, the seas were far to rough to cook, so we have been snacking for the last 27 hours. Made some fried potatoes with onion and eggs. Now that we are feeling fat and happy it’s siesta time. Just about to sleep and I hear “Hola senior” it’s the local welcome comity in there homemade wooden boat, wants to welcome us to Dominican Republic and let us know anything we need Handy Andy and poppo are at our service. Fuel, water, COLD BEER, ice, etc. Hand Andy, a full size human , lets us know the Comandante will be out to visit with us at about 9 or 10 or when he can. Handy Andy has to be 6′7” tall and his shoulders are probably 5′ wide and he is solid like a rock, he has to be as big as three humans, we find out later he was a boxer in the DR Navy.

Here we are anchored about 100 feet from the jungle, you can hear the tropical birds echo in the jungle canopy and it just feels good to be here as I fall asleep.

Get about 3 hours of sleep and off to town to find customs and immigration. Our Spanish is a bit weak but we are able to make it through playing pictionary and using our hands. The people here are so nice and would give you the shirt off of there back if you needed it. I hear there are parts of the country like the cities that this is not so, they will take the shirt, and everything else you have off you. Like every place you stay out of the wrong areas you will do fine.

Today we are off to meet up with Steve, an American that owns a restaurant and rents motorcycles. He is going to set us up with directions to various to points of interest.

February, 25,2006

Sunday morning we head out on motorcycles. This country is really beautiful and inexpensive. The countryside is so lush and bright green. The mountains are amazing. We left in 82 degree weather and the mountains were in the mid to high 50’s. From on top of one mountain we could see a huge valley, the mountain range on the other side and the Caribbean behind us. I have tried to take photos and they just don’t do it justice. It is absolutely breath taking. We found a little town with a small baseball field. Every Sunday everyone in the town gets together and plays baseball and talks and laughs and it was great to see. We being outsiders were taken in with open arms and made comfortable. They tried to get us to play ball but the language barrier and the fact that they were amazing ball players we opted out but did hang around and watch. They have no cable TV out here and the families are huge I would say as a result. Point being there minds are alive there attention span is not programed by the television and media hype. These people are so poor they have dirt floors and leaky roofs but are the happiest people I have ever met. Very similar to Haiti which is on the west end of the island. We stopped to have lunch at a little tienda on the beach. No fluff this is a local place. They also love there music here and if you heard it you would also love it. We were looking for a menu, and well no menu, she can just tell us what she has. She has fish and that is what they are serving today, fish. Well that certainly made it easy to decide what to have. Rice and beans, fried Plantains, and a little fish, the whole fish, head, tail the whole enchilada. It had so much flavor, it was great. Back to the music, they dance to the salsa music and it blows your mind. The way they move together and wow what a dance it was beautiful.

Back to my opener, it is beautiful here. This is a great place to come visit, the people are friendly, they will help you with the language and I think would just take anyone right into there homes and help with anything if you need it. This country rich in many ways . WORTH A VISIT.

February, 28^th

The last to days have been great also. Have I mentioned that I like this place? Anyways we did tours of many cities, but specifically we did the waterfalls on Monday and carnival on Tuesday. The waterfalls were beautiful, we walked through the jungle across a couple streams and there they were. We then proceeded to climb them. There are 27 levels you can climb we did the first seven, because that is what our group set up. Nate and I are thinking of going back to do all 27. After you climb each one and then walk through the sometimes narrow canyons in chest deep water you can slide and jump off of each one, that was exciting. Then on Tuesday, yesterday, Carnival started out great, the music, the costumes, the venders. The end of Carnival is still a little fuzzy. Our tour group had a bus full of alcohol so we could get primed before the party, there were some professional drinkers, I was well beyond prime upon arrival. Check out the photos. Carnival was a crazy time. I am still a little fuzzy this morning, but I wanted to get this email out because we have a busy schedule here and will be heading up the coast in a couple days. We plan to head to Escondido per weezys suggestion, and then a few stops here and there before we head to Puerto Rico.

Those of you that have known me for a while or have just met me know me as GR. The last 5-6 years you would know me as Gordon. I struggle with who I am sometimes and so do other people when I meet them. I have figured it out. Gordon is the guy that works and he is serious. GR is the guy that comes out here sailing, plays and spends Gordon’s money. There seems to be some question as to why I use two names when I meet people, hopefully that will clarify things.