Happy New Year from the Dominican Republic - 19 11.94N 069 19.92W

OOJAH's AWESOME ODYSSEY
Peter & Christene Tanner
Mon 30 Dec 2013 20:39
Our 150nm crossing of the Mona passage was a classic trade wind broad reach. One squall crept up on us in the night & the first we knew about it was driving rain & 30 kts of wind. It's quite something hammering along at about 10kts into pitch black with the nav lights illuminating the rain to about 6' in front of the bow. With the new 3rd reef in Oojah handled it with ease which is a huge improvement over the old mainsail.
We made our landfall at Santa Barbara in the Bay of Samana which is famous for humpback whales coming here to 'speed date' and mate between mid January & March - unfortunately we're too early to join in the fun. However we did enjoy a day out visiting the El Limon waterfalls which involved a 40 minute ride in a gaugau (a moped attached to a trailer) & then 1/2 an hour on horse back. We swum in the pool under the falls which was quite delightful. But C's horse fell on the way back - they both survived! Santa Barbara is a lively spot & music bangs out all night from the waterfront. Only Spanish is spoken but the people are lovely. Officialdom is cumbersome & we have probably paid twice what we should have for everything but the DR is very 3rd world so everyone just struggles to get by.

With best wishes for a very jolly new Year from Peter & Christene x

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