Season 3 begins

Finally …..

 It was sad leaving Luperon after 7 months and we went out with a bang !!! 

The day before our departure we, along with our Danish friends, went to Customs and Immigration to pay our fees  and get our despatcho which is basically an exit paper. We were then told that the Armada (Navy) would come to our boat for a last check. The official wouldn’t come that afternoon for whatever reason and didn’t want to come before daylight the next day. We told that we would be leaving at first light and needed to be at our boats by 6:00.

Richard, our Navy guy, then asked who would come to pick him up at the dock in the morning.  The Navy has no boat in Luperon and when it does, it usually have no gas in the motor…. go figure.🤔 Apparently they like to spend the allotted fuel money on other things lol

So, “no Richard, we can’t pick you up”. The dinghy motor is off and the dinghy itself is up and strapped in. Our friends have a kayak which is deflated and on deck. “Make your own way”, we say,  and be there by 6 o’clock.

6:10 no Richard. Our friends leave. 6:45 we leave. Still no Richard. A few minutes out into the ocean, here they come at top speed, chasing after us, yelling to turn back. They first went to the other sailboat and tried to intimidate them. They boarded the boat, took photos of passports, boat registration and of them. 

Then they came to our boat. The swells were fairly big, their boat kept crashing into ours, I’m yelling at them to stop bashing into our boat. Navy or not, I was pissed off. Granny Mazerolle wasn’t having any of this intimidation.  Same as our friends, they took photos of passports etc. All of this was totally unnecessary. Immigration already had all this information. They didn’t even bother to check below if we had any illegal something or other. 😤

When they finally left, I looked on the side of the boat… all scratched with blue paint marks. Lost it again. Called our Richard and yelled at him so loudly that our friends could here me from half a mile away. . Oh was I ever mad 😡 

There will be repercussions!!! A formal complaint has been lodged by many cruisers and expats, locals and higher up. It seems our Richard is not very well liked by many. 😳

Anyhoo… we made it to Ocean World Marina for our haul out. The mechanical problem was fixed  and since the boat was out of the water, it was a good time to apply new anti fouling paint. It’s quite a hard and laborious job to sand, clean and paint the hull. Even more so when it goes wrong. 

We bought the paint , which is very expensive, from the marina. Unfortunately it was a bad batch, thick as tar and unspreadable. They gave us new cans of paint. One boat had a full coat on, one boat was half done…. Then the paint started to peel off. It wouldn’t last maybe 5 minutes in the water instead of 2 years. Not a good day. We were trying to get everything done in 2 weeks. 

We then settled for a color we didn’t want but was in stock and we would save time. To compensate us, they sent 4 guys to power wash, sand and paint both our hulls. 😂  The colour that we really didn’t want looks really great on the boats.

We then negotiated a better price on the paint, 3 extra free days at the marina. They unfortunately said no to the expensive dinner at the restaurant up on the hill. 😇

So here we are, still at the marina. It’s been raining heavily in the last week and the travel lift can’t come to our boats  because the ground is to soft. They need 2 days for the ground to dry. Guess what ? December is the rainy season. It rains everyday.  Looks like we might be spending Christmas 🎄and possibly longer at the marina, going up and down the ladder, walking on muddy  grounds and wiping down the cockpit every 5 minutes.

Welcome to our glamours boating adventure. ( Shouldn’t complain, some people have to shovel snow) bahaha!!! 🤣🤣

Luckily our provisioning is done and we have all the fixings for our Margaritas and Christmas dinner.🍸 🦃 

Merry Christmas to all 🎄🏝🏖

Cheers,

Mike and Pierrette 

 

Last goodbye to our furry friends

Our best margaritas. Last night in Luperon

Our favourite veggie vendor

Goats out for a stroll in downtown Luperon

Finally! Back on the waters

Heading to Ocean World Marina 

Our friends arriving at Ocean World Marina

Waiting to haul out

Hauling out

So much work… sanding and prepping for paint

Center square all decorated. Puerto Plata

Ocean World Marina

Ralph with his Christmas decorations 

Party at the convenience store 

Waiting for the rain to stop….party!

Ocean World Marina

Our new blue hull

Beautiful landscaping 

Puerto Plata 

At a pig roast 

Ocean World