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Since we hadn’t been able to find an outboard in Lúperon, Puerto Plata or anywhere near the North coast of DR, we called some Mercury dealers in Santo Domingo. The first place we contacted (Nautimar) told us they could get the engine the next day and I asked him to confirm to me as soon as he would get it in store. I stressed how we were going to travel from Lúperon in the North coast to Santo Domingo in the South (4+ hour voyage) exclusively to get the engine. Later that day he reassured me saying that he had it in store and that we could pick it up whenever. He also informed us that their debit/credit card machine had not been working for a week and that they didn’t know when it would be fixed. That was less than ideal situation for us, but not to a point of not buying the damn thing!

We planned to go to Santo Domingo and stay one or two nights. Get the engine and also enjoy the time there while visiting the city.

To go from Lúperon to Santo Domingo one can either wait for a direct bus (which leaves at 1 pm) or take a ‘guagua’ to Imbert, then a bus to Santo Domingo. Well, or so we thought… Apparently the buses that come from Santo Domingo stop at Imbert, but only to drop off passengers, they do not pick up anyone. So when we arrived to Imbert, we were informed that we would have to take another ‘guagua’ to Santiago or one to Puerto Plata and from there get on a direct bus from Caribe Tours. Darwin was with us. Cliff, a resident sailor in Lúperon, offered to keep Darwin for the two or three days we were gone, but we didn’t want to inconvenience him, since Darwin, as the ancient dog he is, can be tricky to deal with sometimes. In the ‘guaguas’ it was ok to carry him with us, however at Caribe tours we were not successful to sneak him in the bus. We then had to try another company called Transportes Espinal. We walked for 15 minutes up the street and took the bus to Santo Domingo.

Everyone say “Guaguaaaaaa!!” Guagua to Imbert. There were 4 people in the back plus Darwin and 2 people on the front passenger seat … :0

On our way to Santo Domingo, we called a second Mercury dealer (Auto Marina SRL), just to make sure that we buy the engine. We ended up rushing there immediately on arrival and talked to ‘Jay’, the same person that answered the phone initially. He confirmed that they had the engine at another store a few Kilometers from there and that the next morning they would have in this store and that by the beginning of the afternoon, we would be able to get there, test it and purchase it. Everything was set. We walked around the store since it carries many parts for boats, and picked up a couple of other items for Oceananigans. We asked ‘Jay’ to save those for next day. Meanwhile, it was 6pm, rush hour, stores closing and we made it to our hotel, ordered take out and crashed!

On one of our ‘riding-uber-missions’ around town we discovered an Ikea!

The next morning we walked around to find a breakfast place, we decided to go to Zona Colonial and wait for ‘Jay’ to contact us on WhatsApp. We also planned to go to Nautimar and get the engine there if everything looked fine.

Really nice and gourmet breakfast place we found

Santo Domingo is a busy city! Its touristic center is called Zona Colonial and has Forts, Museums, nice restaurants and is easy to walk around calmly. The rest of the city can be a bit chaotic at times. Traffic is intense at rush hours which run in the morning until 9 am, middle of the day from noon to about 2 (lunch time) and in the evening after 6 pm. For that reason even if you can take a taxi or uber to somewhere outside of rush hour, it is likely that you will get caught in traffic on your way back. The city has a really nice subway system and we were lucky we could use it one of the times (the stations were close to our destination). The Uber also works decent, however oftentimes drivers would not see us since for some reason their map would show us at a different location than the GPS point I would see on my map. We found that weird at the beginning, but after having so many trips cancelled on us and talking to drivers, we realized that it was a common thing in some pickup spots.

Beginning of afternoon arrived and since we hadn’t heard from Auto Marina SRL, we contacted ’Jay’. Apparently they still didn’t have the engine there but he assured us that first thing next morning it would be there. At that point, we decided to go immediately to Nautimar and purchase the engine there. Honestly at that point we thought we had talked to 3 different places, not 2. We were confused which place was which since we spoke with an English-speaking person at Nautimar and later on got a call from someone that only spoke Spanish. We thought that was someone from another store… As it turns out, at Nautimar, the owner speaks English and has spent some time in Miami as a business owner. Then he asked his employee to contact us and that was the person I told that we were going to Santo Domingo only for the engine. We ended up taking the subway to Nautimar and the engine was there. It had been tested, we made the transaction by wiring the money and everything went smooth. We then decided to get a taxi to Lúperon so we wouldn’t have to deal with transporting the engine and Darwin in buses that are not very willing to take either one. We contacted a taxi driver whose number we got from Lúperon and the next day we made the 4 hour trip. Before leaving Santo Domingo we still went to the Auto Marina SRL to get the extra items that David had asked ‘Jay’ to save for him.

When we got back to Lúperon, David couldn’t wait another second to set the engine in the dinghy and use it! While I chatted with Betty and Dave and told them out adventures in Santo Domingo, he went to Oceananigans to get the tools and the gas and we set up the engine on the dinghy dock!! It worked fine!!

We no longer had to row and we had more stories to tell.

New engine!!

Land Travel in the DR – Shenanigans Part IV Since we hadn't been able to find an outboard in Lúperon, Puerto Plata or anywhere near the North coast of DR, we called some Mercury dealers in Santo Domingo.

Motorcycling and Adventuring in the DR - Shenanigans part III

Motorcycling and Adventuring in the DR – Shenanigans part III

Having so many people ‘offering’ their motorcycles to rent, we decided to do exactly that! Cliff suggested the ride to Cambiaso and around instead of the 27 waterfalls. We decided to do both! The first day we drove around, up and down hill to visit Cambiaso, a small fishing village near Lúperon. Besides the stunning views from the top of the mountain, we found a deserted beach with…

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Since we left the Bahamas that we have been waiting to get to Lúperon. We had studied the harbor entrance and read all available info on van Sant’s book, online and the warnings on the Navionics app. All sources agree that entering may be tricky due to missing markers or markers in wrong positions, which may lead to disaster such as running aground on a shallow bank. We got to the entrance of the channel around 8:30 am, with good light. Very close to it we almost got tangled on a fishing net, David had to jump in the water to check where it got caught, luckily it was on the keel, not the prop. We kept going, slowly, with eyes on the water looking for small, white or yellow plastic containers that signal the beginning and end of the fish nets. Right as we were headed to the entrance, we spotted a sunken sailboat, lying on its side, waves bashing into it, getting flooded with each rise and fall of the swell.

I have seen some sailboats in such shape (both in pictures and live) and typically I feel a mixture of sadness, fear and dismay. This time was no different, with maybe the fear being the dominant emotion. It was almost like a warning to newcomers! While all of these thoughts were going through my mind, we spotted another white plastic container on the water. David turned around, doing several 360’s while we tried to understand if that was the beginning or the end of a net. Stunned by the location of the little plastic container floating around we just turned to each other:

– I can’t believe they have a fishing net right in front of the channel markers!!

Ok, well maybe the exact words coming out of our mouths were not as tamed as those written here…

– I’m going to VHF channel 68 and ask someone to come out and guide us in, I said with determination

Before I had time to go down below, some other fishermen seeing our 360’s, started waving and offered to guide us in. I was so thankful!! After that first set of markers, no more fishnets were visible and we just had to follow the red & green markers inside. We thanked the fishermen and went on towards the government dock.

On our way there, Papo found us and offered his services such as mooring, water, diesel, laundry, etc . He also guided us to a spot to anchor.

I got to the bow and got the anchor ready. It was kinda crowded around the area with other 3 sailboats, so we were focused on what needed to be done and how much space we needed for the job. Papo sticked around, offering a mooring ball which we recused. Really all we wanted to do was to drop anchor, make sure we were not going to drag and hit any boat and go check-in with the ‘armada’, handing them our ‘despacho’.

Even though some people here speak Spanish, such as Papo, I think that its up to us – visitors – to make an effort to be understood. Since I am quite comfortable speaking the language, I try to speak Spanish with all the locals. Plus, I get to practice spanish!! Exception is made of course when they insist on speaking English so they can practice themselves.

We finally dropped anchor, spotted the sailboat ‘Mamushka’ that departed Monticristi the same day we did (just a bit earlier and straight here without stops) and headed to town to check-in and have some food. We got to talk to several people, immigration again, customs again, some other random people charging harbor fees ($10) and agriculture (finally to check Darwin in, as previous ports did not seem to have an agriculture person around and never asked for his papers). The ‘comandante’ would come later to our boat to get the ‘despacho’ from us.

After gorging on food at a local restaurant, we ended up talking to a local guy. We mentioned we were looking for an outboard for our dinghy and he offered to call his cousin, take us to him and help us find the outboard. We ended up at his house with his wife showing us all kinds of purses, hats, shirts, keychains, etc. Needless to say the ‘available’ outboards were too big for our dinghy. Even the low horse-power ones had a long shaft. Also, as we learned later, the outboards they mentioned to us were available at a local store carrying used boat parts. We had seen the store earlier and planned to go there later in the day. As we walked past it, we saw the two motors that the ‘cousin’ mentioned to us. We were done with that business!

Before heading to Oceananigans, we ended up trying to walk to the closest Marina – Puerto Blanco. We soon realized that it was too far to walk and luckily a ‘motoconcho’ drove by and gave us a ride. Yeah!! It was around 3 Km away!!

When we arrived at the marina, we decided to have a Presidente at the Restaurante Las Velas. Cliff came to our table and introduced himself, gave us a brochure with all the available services around the marina and in the harbor and welcomed us to the place. We mentioned we were looking for an outboard and from that point on, he would ask everyone for an engine. He introduced us to ‘Handy’ Andy and we got to talk about the outboard and water, diesel, etc that he also can provide. We decided there and then to move Oceananigans closer to the marina the next day.

Las Velas restaurant & Puerto Blanco marina

Knowing that there is a Yamaha dealer in Puerto Plata, we made plans to travel there to both get the outboard and to visit town. We hired Nino, which drives a taxi and also knows Puerto Plata really well. As it turned out, he did know all the places where we could potentially get the engine. We went to the dealer, he called Santo Domingo, but no motors were available. We also went to other stores but to no avail. We would still have to row our dinghy in&out of land everytime.

We decided to just enjoy the town of Puerto Plata and sightseeing.

We first went to the ‘fortaleza’ (the fortress), but since Darwin was with us, they did not let us in. The view from outside was gorgeous anyways!

After that, we went to downtown and walked around the main plaza, went to a restaurant to eat and Darwin got attacked by a street cat!! It was insanely crazy!! Darwin was sleeping on the chair next to us while we had some food. The cat sneaked up on him, starts scratching him and they both jump and head towards the main street – a boulevard with lots of fast traffic! David and I jump from our chairs, run after them and David tries to make the cat get out of Darwin since the cat was clearly winning the fight!! The result? Darwin had scratches on his ears (both) and one on his snout. David had scratches on his legs. I was too slow to even be near that scene. Everyone nearby came to help. The lady from the restaurant we were in apologized saying that it wasn’t her cat, that she didn’t know where it came from, etc. She brought us some alcohol and paper which we used to clean David’s and Darwin’s wounds. Everything happened so fast that I did not have time to grab the camera and record it.

After finishing the meal we went back to the main square, bought some Cohibas on a cigar store and I got to roll a cigar on the store. After that, we went for some dessert and coffee on a bakery place in the plaza.

Before returning to Lúperon, we stopped at a huge supermarket and got some groceries. We bought some Barceló rum, both Imperial and Anejo. The first to drink pure and the second to mix with juice.

We returned to Lúperon with some stories to tell, but still no dinghy motor …

Arrival at Lúperon and land travel to Puerto Plata – Shenanigans Part II Since we left the Bahamas that we have been waiting to get to Lúperon. We had studied the harbor entrance and read all available info on van Sant’s book, online and the warnings on the Navionics app.

The flat ocean in Monticristi allowed us a deep sleep. It was awesome! If you ever had to travel for 8+ hours and were unable to sleep, you probably can relate to how awesome it is to get to your bed. The difference here is that ‘our bed’ was always there, however the boat’s movement did not allow it to be comfortable to sleep.

While sleeping and anchored in Monticristi, around 8 am I woke up from the sound of someone on the VHF speaking a broken english and saying something about a sailboat. I was confused whether they were trying to call us. The message was not repeated but from that point on I could only sleep a very light sleep. I kept ‘waiting’ for the customs people to arrive to our boat and I did not want to be in my pajamas and unprepared!! So after turning&tossing several times, I took Darwin to the cockpit and decided to read a book. Major mistake!! A powerboat circling around saw me up top and headed towards us. As they got closer I started to distinguish the ‘Armada’ letters on one guy’s cap. In the boat there were a total of 6 people, customs and all their party – Navy, etc, and they were there to inspect the boat, search for drugs, guns, etc. I called out to David (who was still sleeping) and they boarded our boat. Only one guy spoke a bit of English so we proceeded in Spanish. After checking all papers, filling out forms, taking pictures of the boat, our passports, Oceananigans’ documents, and anything else you can think of (luckily they did not take pictures of us!! We looked like we had just woken up!!). I asked about getting the ‘despacho’ to the next port and they explained that we just needed to go to the ‘Armada’ office and they would give one to us right there and then. I had seen some info online explaining how ‘despachos’ may take a while to process and how sometimes you may not be able to leave a port if the weather is bad. That was not the case luckily! They also explained to us that if we were to visit town for anything else than getting the ‘despacho’ we would have to go check-in with immigration in Manzanillo, which was a 30 min drive.

Initially we were just going to leave that night and so we weren’t going to Manzanillo. However, we realized that we would need to get a SIM card with mobile internet in order to check the weather on our way to Luperon. We moved Oceananigans next to another sailboat that was closer to the ‘Morro’ and to what seemed to be closer to shore. Turns out that placed us quite far from downtown and as we walked down the road, we were lucky to get a ride from one of the navy soldiers. On the bike there was the soldier, David, myself and Darwin. Turns out riding a bike like that is a common thing around here, but we still felt as if people were staring at us. Motoconchos are common in the DR and basically consists of people with motorcycles that give rides to other people in exchange for some cash. Motoconchos do not have a specific rate so you can just pay them whatever you want.

The soldier took us to town to a mobile internet provider store and then to a second one and lastly to a supermarket. We could not get the SIM card that day because it was a bit late and the system was down. To get a SIM card you have to show your ID so that the card can be registered in your name. That allows you to report any issue with the card. I guess that way you can cancel the card if someone steals the phone with the card on it.

Since we would still have to get a SIM card and hopefully look for an outboard, we wanted to walk around town without a chaperone and so we decided to go to Manzanillo the next morning to officially check into the country. The ride cost us $50 which looking back at it was a bit expensive for the area. It was only a 30 min drive there and another 30 min back. Later in Luperon we would take a whole day taxi drive and sightseeing for $40 (including tip that we decided to give Nino for his excellent service and general awesomeness). While in Manzanillo we got our passports stamped, paid the fee and were officially welcomed to the country.

When we got back to Monticristi we decided to walk around, finally get the SIM card (a process that took over 1 hour) and have some delicious food! We also searched for a dinghy outboard. We got to see one at some guys garage but it was too big for our dinghy and also had a long shaft. It was a full day!! On our way back to the boat, we got the ‘despacho’ from the ‘armada’ and said goodbye to Monticristi and got Oceananigans ready for a night passage to Punta Rucia.

Initially we had planned to go straight to Luperon, therefore our ‘despacho’ indicated that. However the sun was rising and we were roughly half way there. Afraid to get caught on strong trade winds and not having experience with the cape effect on the north shore of DR, we decided to stop at Punta Rucia. As we anchored, the water was still and we had another good sleep for some hours. Then we decided to go in and explore the town. We rowed to the shore and after tying the dinghy we saw someone waving at us from a top of a hill in town.

View from the top of the hill. Can you see Oceananigans? Hint – it’s the only sailboat visible

We guessed correctly that it was the ‘armada’ people wanting to talk to us. They asked us where we came from, if we had a ‘despacho’ and when we were going to leave. Well, we had left the despacho on Oceananigans. We did not think we would need the ‘despacho’ since we were not in Luperon. Morevoer, Punta Rucia is not a ‘puerto habilitado’, meaning, an ‘official’ port where you can check-in and out, so I was under the impression we would not be asked for a ‘despacho’. After long and awkward silences where they didn’t know what to say, we weren’t sure if we should ask, I understood what the issue was. Since the ‘despacho’ said Luperon, technically they should not get it from us, however they were afraid that when we would get to Luperon, we would be asked why did it take us so long to get from Monticristi to Luperon (since the ‘despacho’ has a departure time). Also they didn’t seem very eager to deal with paperwork. They ended up calling someone in Luperon and confirming that it would not be a big deal to use the same ‘despacho’ from Monticristi. We left the ‘Armada’ in Punta Rucia with some ‘hasta luego’ & ‘muchas gracias’ and headed towards the beach. We saw a French bistro, lots of shacks to eat and ended up at an Eco-lodge place with an ocean front restaurant. We had some food and a couple of Presidentes and headed to Oceananigans to rest before moving again.

We lifted anchor after midnight to motor towards Luperon. The Navionics app was sending us offshore to deeper water but we decided to motor closer to shore. It didn’t make sense to go out so much to come back in closer to Luperon. As it turns out, fish nets are abundant even far away from the entrance to Luperon in an area that does not seem to have any town nearby. The Navionics shows where typically fishermen lay their fish nets and we kept well far from that location, however we still found ourselves in the middle of some fish nets and having to do some 360’s to avoid getting tangled in them. We were so close to safe port but took us about 1 hour to actually get to the port entrance.

Shoreline near the entrance of Luperon harbor

Shananigans in the Dominican Republic – the beginning The flat ocean in Monticristi allowed us a deep sleep. It was awesome! If you ever had to travel for 8+ hours and were unable to sleep, you probably can relate to how awesome it is to get to your bed.

Passage from Mayaguana, Bahamas to Monticristi, Dominican Republic

The predictions for offshore winds showed a decrease in speed around Mayaguana in the Bahamas and also down south towards the Dominican Republic. We said goodbye to Abraham’s bay and staged our departure on the South point of Mayaguana. On our way there, the outboard motor of the dinghy decided to take a swim out in the ocean and we never saw it again. It was quite unbelievable when it happened!!…

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Our New Year’s eve celebrations were simple and aboard of Oceananigans. We caught a couple of tunas while sailing between islands so we filled our bellies with seared tuna and sushi/ sashimi. It was great!!

The other two passages (from Long Island to Crooked island and then to Mayaguana) were uneventful. We have been trying to catch up on rest from working on Oceananigans and from weird sleep nights due to roly anchorages.

We have determined that Oceananigans is great to anchor in shallower water (drafts only 4.5 ft), but is not so great when the current is from a different direction as the wind. Other boats may be still just anchored in the water, Oceananigans is usually moving, even in still waters. Finally here at Mayaguana the anchorage is not roly and we have been able to rest and relax while we wait for this cold front to pass and head to Turks & Caicos.

We have explored the Mayaguana island, which has a population of less than 300 people, dispersed into 3 settlements. The main settlement/ town is right where we anchored and it has a customs office, which we will need to visit to check out of the country. However, the gas station is located on Pirate’s Well, which is a 20 min drive. Everyone is super nice around here and they were willing to give us a car ride to the gas station. Unfortunately the lady there did not have the key for the diesel tank and we were unable to get diesel for Oceananigans. We did get some gas for the dinghy (Mess Around is its name! Thank you for the name Ralph) and some food items (cookies for David mostly).

Darwin has been a good dog, mostly stressing when there are loud noises from waves crashing Oceananigans or other random stuff. He seems to enjoy the noise of the motor, though. We imagine he has associated motor noise with going to port which in turn means being able to go to land and being able to sleep a sufficient amount of time (all the 18 hours per day he needs).

Darwin doing what he does best…

The northerner is finally subsiding. This past night was not bad since wind and waves are coming from the same direction, however around 5 am when the wind was really blowing hard I was wishing that morning would come soon. Things in the light of day don’t seem so bad as they do at night.

Just in case we have kept the navionics app open and set up a ‘track’ so we can follow how much we have moved away from the place we anchored. That way we can check any time if we are dragging anchor, which hasn’t happened.

The wait for safe passage in Mayaguana Our New Year’s eve celebrations were simple and aboard of Oceananigans. We caught a couple of tunas while sailing between islands so we filled our bellies with seared tuna and sushi/ sashimi.

Exumas to Long Island - Christmas at sea

Exumas to Long Island – Christmas at sea

We left the crowded anchorage in Staniel Cay behind and anchored a bit south near an island mostly inhabited by Iguanas. We were in yet another amazing beach with turquoise waters. I don’t think I will ever be tired of such beautiful landscape. I imagine I will miss it soon as we leave the Exumas and more when we leave the Bahamas! For now, it’s just beach after beach with gorgeous landscapes,…

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Staniel Cay - Exumas

Staniel Cay – Exumas

The plan in the Exumas was to go to Staniel Cay and visit the touristic spots – the pig beach and the Thunderball grotto. We did both in less than 2 hours. The arrival at Staniel Cay was welcomed by flies. Even before anchoring, flies found the way to Oceananigans. From that point on, a mosquito net was on top of the bimini so that we could keep the companionway open and have some fresh air. I…

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Spanish Wells Sheananigans

The day started early. This time not because we had to sail but because we were going diving… well David was going spearfishing! That morning I woke up with him making breakfast! I made sure I was awake and not dreaming! Yeps!! Breakfast was almost done by the time I brushed my teeth and finished meditation. We had heard that an area nearby called Devil’s backbone had amazing coral reef. We had…

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Spanish Wells - arrival day

Spanish Wells – arrival day

We sailed all night to arrive around 9 am to Spanish wells. We had decent winds and we were making a good speed even without the engine so we turned it off. About 30 minutes in, we smelled smoke! Knowing that fires on board are one of the quickest ways to lose a boat, I ran down below to check if anything was on fire. I grabbed a fire extinguisher and realized I had no proper light to even see…

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It was Monday and we had decided to leave that night to get to Spanish Wells. However, we had a whole day for sheananigans!!

First, we decided to explore the amazing beach near our anchorage.

The beach was amazing!! It had some abandoned beach huts and we wondered what happened there. On the map we could see that the area is part of a protected park where fishing isn’t allowed, so we assume that at some point the island had been included as protected and whatever construction was just left as it was.

Even though we anchored towards the East side of Chub Cay, the next day we came back towards the marina but to the little rock just outside – Mamma Rhoda Cay. Mostly because we liked the name… haha …

Mamma Rhoda Cay just outside the Chub cay marina

No, seriously, we read somewhere that there was lobster and also a small reef so we decided to go explore those rocks.

We jumped in the water and while David swam around to shoot fish and lobster, I recorded some videos.

Then I saw a shark swimming really close to the dinghy and that was the end of filming for me haha… Even though I was almost sure it was a reef shark, just in case I jumped into the dinghy! I did take the time to film it but apparently I wasn’t close enough to capture a good image 😦

That night came soon and we left the hospitality of Chub Cay area to go to Spanish Wells, where we discovered that people are equally friendly!

Spearfishing around Mamma Rhoda Cay It was Monday and we had decided to leave that night to get to Spanish Wells. However, we had a whole day for sheananigans!!

Sunday started with a nice sun and still somewhat strong winds. We had such a peaceful night at the marina!! We had breakfast and planned to go spend the night at the anchorage we were going to stay the night before. We also wanted to walk around the resort and take some pictures.

Since we had spent some water on the hot shower the night before, we checked the water level in the tank. It was showing 1/4 full.

– ‘What?! One quarter?!?!’, I asked.

The tank holds 50 gallons and he had filled it up the day before in the morning. Besides the shower, we hadn’t used the water that much. It seemed weird! We had noticed that when we turned the water pressure on, the pump seemed to work continuously. We suspected a leak but 1/4 of the tank full meant that the leak was worse than anticipated.

Well, where else besides a slip in a marina to fix a leaking water pump! So David started the work!!

First, the spot besides the stove and near the water heater, where the actual pump is. So everything came out of that cushion, so David could check that place.

The bag of food had to stay since it was too heavy to move!

After moving the cushion, the hole that gives access to the water pump was full of stuff too. We found the yellow rope!!!

He found the leak by looking in that spot, but to access the place to fix, he had to access the motor compartment, which is right next to it. He also had to take out the engine’s air filter. When he did, it looked horrible and decomposing!

The air filter looked dark and part of the foam was gone, which means that is somewhere inside the engine. That is not good!!

Guess that task #2 for today is to fix the air filter…somehow since we don’t have a replacement (probably the only part we don’t have a replacement for)!

He then had to access the engine compartment through the bathroom. Well! The whole area looked like a war zone. It was very difficult to walk around!

We filled out the water tank. Conveniently the slip had a water tap so we could troubleshoot everything right there. After double checking all, finally that leak was solved!!

Now it was time to engineer some sort of air filter replacement for the engine. We have a small vacuum on board and so we also have air filters for it. We decided to try one of those filters. We ended up using one of those and sewing it to the metal part so it would stay in place.

David ‘MacGyvering’ an air filter for the engine from an air filter for a vacuum cleaner

We imagined that in our next destination – Spanish Wells – we would be able to find an air filter, since there is a large fishing industry there.

After solving all that, we took Darwin for a walk and also checked out the beach around the resort.

“I surf small waves”

At the end of the day we moved Oceananigans to a protected anchorage 30 min east of the marina and planned where to go spearfishing the following day.

Panoramic of the anchorage. A deserted island with white sandy beach that we were going to explore the next day.

It was going to be a relaxing day… but Oceananigans had other plans… Sunday started with a nice sun and still somewhat strong winds. We had such a peaceful night at the marina!!

The Chub Cay Marina & Resort hospitality

We woke up Saturday morning while anchored on the outside of the Chub Cay resort & marina. Our plan was to move the boat from that anchorage (see picture below)… The pins & waypoint show the anchorage spot right outside the Chub Cay marina & resort where we spent our Friday night … to a close spot (about 30 min away) more protected from Northern winds, which were predicted for that night. Our…

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Key Largo to Berry Islands. One hop, skip and jump!

Crossing the gulf stream was…well… interesting. Nothing major happened though. We had some issues with the kayak and had to drag it along the way instead of having it on top of the dinghy as we initially planned. We also had to tighten the dinghy better, all of this on high seas and with a boat moving up and down, and up and down. I mean, what else will one do if one cannot sleep… gotta keep …

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Prepping to cross to Bimini

One of the last things on the departure list resulted from engine maintenance on the dinghy. We decided to change the oil before we left as we did for the motor and generator on Oceananigans. When we took the old oil out, we noticed it had a milky color which indicates that water was going inside. The culprit was easily found, some rubber seals were too old and water was getting mixed with the…

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We made it to Bimini and cleared customs and immigration. Little Darwin is cleared too! ⛵🇧🇸 Time to enjoy the turquoise water and fair winds 💨 (at Bimini, The Bahamas)

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