Fourth Update of 2006
Trip Start
Oct 03, 2005
1
9
Trip End
Ongoing
Georgetown, Bahamas
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Hope you all are doing great!
The last time we wrote was from the Turks and Caicos islands when we were waiting for weather to take us to the Dominican Republic. We have been to the DR for a couple weeks, back thru the TCI and we are currently in the Bahamas waiting for the right winds to take us back to the States.
There is SO much to say about the last couple weeks - so many fun stories - but I'll try to keep this guy pretty short (I wrote an email to my girlfriends while on a midnight watch - and it was about 12 pages - SINGLE SPACED. now that's a lot of detail.)
We got in the north coast of Hispanola, it is as far south as we were going to go - and I got crazy homesick (insert mighty mouse music) AND my mother was there 5 days later!
Before my mom got there we did some touring around ourselves - we went to the rum factory and we went to the 27 waterfalls where you get to go in them. I thought we'd be swimming at the base of a big fall - like you see in pictures from Jamaica - no mon - you be going UP the first seven waterfalls aided by very strong young Dominican men that brace themselves in the rock crevices. They pull you upstream - sorta like a salmon, just way less graceful...
My mom came into town for a week and we had such a fun visit! She stayed at the fancy-pants resort next to the marina and we did so much - we spent all day at the marine park and had an 'encounter' with the sea lions. This is where they sorta pimp the animals out and you get to touch them and pose with them but it was really fun, then we took and all day tour to 'paradise island' (should have been called paradise sandbar) for some beautiful snorkeling, we went thru the city and toured a cigar factory, a ceramic factory and to another bigger waterfall that you (thankfully) didn't go upstream in. All in all, it was a great visit.
My friend Ryann loves the story when my mom and I went to NYC and she slept in the bed and I got a cot from room service - well, this might top it - my mom brought down her Own air mattress and she slept on that On the bed and I had the leftover 30 inches of space squeezed in between the nightstand...but, it was TOTALLY worth it mom J!
Then after my mom left we headed to Luperon, which is where all the cruising boat go - it was fine but I think our expectations were a little high - because it looked like any creek on the Chesapeake Bay on a crowded holiday weekend. We spent a couple days there (of course, we ran into our flasher the first hour when we were town!) There was no spearfishing, no snorkeling, town was sorta icky - but then we figured out that all the cruisers love it because all they do is drink cheap beer all day. While we're fans of cheap beer, we're bigger fan of lobsters so, we had the right winds to take us back north again.
So we said good-bye to the DR and started sailing north (the landscape of the island was so cool - these big rolling green mountain ranges- we could still see it 39 miles off-shore)
Back to Provo in the Turks and Caicos and this was a just a couple days of enjoying the crystal clear water and white sand beaches (still no fishing here) so we scooted north to the out out-islands of the Bahamas that we love.
We had some great luck with fish and lobsters - so many we had to share them with other boats in the anchorage (Just a wee bit of advise if you happen to find yourself in the tropics anytime soon, do Not plan a dinner at 2 pm - it is way too freakin hot to eat and way too much sweating). We moved on to Rum Cay and we just love that place. I have the coolest pictures and video of the crazy shark man that runs the marina - he was balancing himself on the rock ledge almost in the water, hand feeding nurse, lemon, bull and reef sharks that all gather at the fish cleaning station.
Onto George Town for gas, water and groceries and now we're making our way up the Exuma island chain. We met some fun nice (and young!) cruisers last night - they brought over cheese and crackers and mini-cheese cakes AND they have a container of sour cream they are going to give me before we head out. I just might forgo the return trip home with Bernie to stay aboard the Cheese Boat as crew...
We will be in the States in a week or so and back up to Baltimore by early May - we have had a wonderful amazing trip and we are still really enjoying ourselves - but we are both looking forward to being home and seeing everyone really soon!
BYE!
Love,
Andrea and Bernie
