56 hours is what it took us to go from Luperon, DR to Boqueron, PR. And that was motor sailing. We pretty much followed one of the sailing bible’s, A Gentlemen’s guide to passages South, sailing waypoints and made a few adjustments to go with our weather and general plan. Our plan, to book it. Once we left the Luperon harbour we had no hopes of stopping anywhere to rest, we were just going to go for the long haul, rest free. And that’s what we did.

   This was our first “sailing” trip since back on our boat. After 8 months living on land in the DR, I can say that we all lost our sea-legs, if we ever had any to start with. During our two-and-a-half days of sailing the throw up was non stop, coming from one person or another. We had two sand buckets in the cockpit going on full rotation, getting tossed to who ever needed them most that minute.
OUR THROW UP COUNT

                      Day 1       Day 2       Day 3
Arias                5               4               0
Ellia                 4               2               0
Genevieve       0               3               0
Eben               0                0               0  !!!!
   Eben was a rockstar! With the help of his scopolamine patch he didn’t get sick once. This was actually his best sailing trip ever. He was down below cooking, getting snacks, checking that no water was getting into our engine from our diesel mishap, and even doing the dishes! He was on fire, and got to play captain and Mr.Mom all at the same time. While I, on day 2, spent most of my time laying lifeless on the cockpit cushions.
We did, as our family always does when sailing, and brought out pillows, blankets, teddies, and set up our cockpit slumber party. For the duration of the entire trip we lived in the cockpit, only going down below if we needed anything and felt we had a strong enough stomach for it. We feel more comfortable having the whole family together in the cockpit. And all of our stomachs do better that way. At nap time and night time we make beds on the cockpit floor for the girls and go about our regular routine, just outdoors.
   The weather was extremely uneventful, which is what you want when sailing. But the slow rock is what got to us. That and having the wind on the nose the entire trip. We had some light rains on the first night but nothing consistent, just enough to move our cockpit slumber party into an actual bed down below.
   We had left Luperon with two buddy boats, but with different boat sizes and sailing plans, it didn’t take long that we were all dispersed along the DR coast. We had Morgan on Senara who was tacking back and forth trying to sail as much as possible. And making crazy stops in Cabarete just to be able to wave to his friends on the beach. And we had Tasha and Ryan on Hideaway that were sailing along fine until they needed to turn their engine on and realized that the stubborn thing was not cooperating. That is pretty much the area we lost radio contact with them all. We kept going towards our final destination, alone, and not really knowing what anyone else was doing.
   We were happy to see Boqueron and get settled back into our same anchor spot as last time. As soon as we got our boat in order, because no real cleaning goes on while we sail. Once we are done with something we throw it down below, to be cleaned at arrival port. Then we got ahold of some other sailors in the bay and got a ride to town (because when we hauled our dinghy out in the DR we saw why the one tube kept deflating, a huge patch repair was needed) to get online and see if our buddy boats had checked in anywhere. Ends up Hideway had to tuck in to Samana because of their engine issues, and Senara was still somewhere out there, sailing. We impatiently waited a day before seeing him in our harbour again!

   Other than all the motoring, and seasickness, and all the anxiety that that causes me, it was an all-around good trip. The shocker came the next day when we went to Mayaguez to check in and they told us to leave and sail back to the DR!

Goodbye DR

dolphin watching

There is an Ellia in there, hiding from the sun and the seasickness

Dora helped keep the sun off of us!

Ellia looking a little pale

she claimed her baby was seasick too

This is what life looks like while underway and everyone is sick.

The wahoo Eben caught, made for great sushi!

The sun was strong, so we built cockpit forts

By the end their smiles were coming back.

And they were loving their forts.

Puerto Rico in our sights. Hooray!