Luperon was a stopping point to prepare entry documents into the Bahamas, but it turned out to be a wonderful place to visit. We especially loved the people who were kind and generous. And, we learned of the rich history that connects Luperon to Christopher Columbus dating back to the late 1400's and his three stops on the island of Hispaniola.
Entry into the Bahamas requires jumping through a lot of hoops. First, you have to determine a good weather window for the 30 hour journey. Then, you have to take a taxi to Puerto Plata, a small city about 1 hour from Luperon to have a PCR test. This is only offered during weekday mornings. While we were in Puerto Plata, we walked around the old town and beach front to see the famous sites like Fort San Felipe, Puerto Plata Cathedral, the Malecon, and the open food markets. It was a fascinating and successful day.
The PCR test results are emailed to you the next day and then you have to apply online for a health visa, uploading the results to the site. Once they approve your results, you then have to pay a $60 fee which gives you the privilege of a nasal swab 5 days after arrival and limited insurance coverage. Then you wait until you have a final approval code. Once this is obtained, you are free to leave for the Bahamas. You have a 5 day window to arrive at an entry point.
As a private vessel, we also had to apply online for our crusing and fishing permit. The cost of this is $300. This covers us for up to 6 months in the Bahamas. The online application is long, but fairly straight forward. The Bahamas requires all vessels to complete the online Click2Clear application and those who arrive without this done, will have to complete it in the customs office.
The last fee is $40 for immigration and covers up to three crew members. It's a long process, but well worth it to be able to cruise Bahamian waters.
NEW TO OUR CHANNEL? We are Eileen and Brown Councill. Welcome to our channel and a glimpse into our life adventure! 2020 was a year of uncertainty and change (for all of us, right?), but we overcame the challenges and decided it was time to chase our dream, to sail around the world! Did I mention that we had very NO sailing experience? Before leaving Qingdao, China, our home of 4 years, we sold almost all of our earthly possessions and started our international search to find the right sailboat that we would call "home." After 5 months of unanticipated twists and turns, we found what we were looking for, a used Leopard 44' Catamaran located in St. Lucia.
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If it's like this, I'd better leave it. Just like Christopher Columbus in 1494,
we watched the sun rise over the mountains from our sailboat. It was Christopher Columbus's third
trip to Hispaniola, and while here, he established the town of La Isabela, located a short distance
from Luperon. We are off to Puerto Plata to get our PCR tests so we can move on to the Bahamas.
Unlike many other Caribbean cities, Puerto Plata is distinguished by an impressive collection of
Victorian-era homes and buildings, most of which are well-preserved and located in the old town.
There is much debate on the exact year of Puerto Plata's founding, and depending on the historian,
it's as old as 1496 and as young as 1506. In his first trip, Christopher Columbus called the
observing that it had a silver-like appearance, hence the name of the port. 200 years later,
the town was depopulated and destroyed to hinder the advancement of English piracy.
There we go. Oh my gosh, there is your poster child.
A key piece of Puerto Plata's history, Fort San Felipe, was built by the Spaniards in the 16th
century to defend the north coast. Considered one of the most important colonial military
structures in the Caribbean, it was completed in 1577 and later served as a prison from the
19th century onward. The Dominican people, they fired Haitian and Dominican. The people
from Haitian died, they put them in the ground. How are you enjoying this walking tour? I'm liking
it. Pedro is a super nice guy and this is a laid-back coastal town where no westerners go. I
mean we're the only green goes here. The island of Hispaniola is split into two separate nations,
the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The political division of the island is due in part to the
European struggle for control of the new world during the 17th century when France and Spain
fought over the island. They resolved their dispute in 1697 by splitting the island into two
colonies. Because here we make blended because we use Dominican. Come back.
Seven year old egg. No way. It smells so good. This is Dominican. Dominican and Nicaragua. Oh
these are hard to make. And Conerico wrapper. Light. Oh yeah they make some of the best
wrappers made in Conerico. Dominican with Brazilian Cuban wrapper full body. The Dominican
Republic is considered the world's largest cigar producer but it's not all about quantity,
it's about quality. Cigar connoisseurs prize Dominican Republic cigars for their distinctive
flavor profile which is simply richer and more pleasing than any other cigars in the world.
After a perfect day in Puerto Plata we are enjoying a beautiful sunset out here and our
friend Bob has come over. Bob is from Texas and he is regaling us with the history of Hispaniola
and it is fascinating. It's travel day. Just took down the Dominican Republic flag
and we are going to wait for a little bit more sunlight to proceed out of this
bay and we are taking off today for the Bahamas.
Oh yeah coffee right here. Who's excited about getting to the Bahamas? Yes sir. Lift it up.
Yeah uh-huh whoa yeah blue water baby. Bahama mama. Please have some more coffee brown.
We had trouble getting the anchor up because this is a total mud bay
and Steve did something really cool. We tied this line onto the chain because the windlass was
shutting down and then we used the line and the weight of the boat to move forward and pull the
anchor out. Steve you are a genius. Good morning buddy. It is 9 a.m. We're three hours off the coast
of the Dominican Republic and the seas as you can see are flat. There is zero wind. We've got
7.1 apparent wind and we are motoring at 5.5 knots so making our own wind basically.
With a heading of 301 and we are buddy boating with Bahá'u'lláh which is up there ahead of us.
We've got a 30 plus hour trip to Great Inagua where we're going to check in at Matthew Town.
The forecast is no wind for the next 24 hours so we're going to be motoring yet again. So much for
sailing. Losing our sailing skills here. What you doing? Well we have no idea what we're doing but
we're acting like we know what we're doing. Brown's getting out the worms. Gonna start fishing.
I gotta dig them first. The problem is the ground's about a mile below us. So we're gonna catch some
fish today. Look at how nice it is and we're gonna take advantage of this motoring in these
great sea conditions and Steve's know-how. Hello. Hello on putting together lures. I know this thing
works because I tried to eat it. It looked so good. So I think the fish are really gonna like it.
We're getting ready to go. Steve's done a great job with the leader. Tell us what we did right.
Yes. Tell us what we did wrong. But we're catching some fish no matter what. Steve's caught a fish.
Brown abyss.
Steve this is why I never get anything done. First time we've got the fishing lines going out.
Someone's excited to catch a fish. We just put the poles in the water and he's already got the...
I'm doing air fishing like air guitar. He's got the belt. He's got the belt on. He's got it going
on. Steve won't let me have the pole quite yet because it's got sharp things on it. I might hurt myself.
Steve's at the helm. Brown's working on videos. He just did a load of laundry. All good.
Look at you. Wow those are advanced laundry techniques. We've caught nothing
though we have been fishing all day. Hopefully we'll get lucky tomorrow. We have been traveling
for about 12 hours now and today we were able to put up the sails and actually do some great sailing
about seven knots and then all of a sudden around six o'clock just the wind completely died to
nothing. So we've dropped the sails and now we are just motoring and we'll motor through the night
which is far more conservative than having sails up anyway. Sun is coming up. It's a beautiful
morning. The only downside right now is we've got a huge amount of humidity and you can see
how wet it is here and that is just the way it is all over inside and outside.
So looking forward to the sun coming up and hopefully the humidity dropping a little bit.
It's been really sticky the last few days. We're getting ready with the courtesy flag and then the
Bahamian national flag. We're all set. Almost there. Super exciting after a 30-hour crossing
to be able to see land. There is Great Inagua and the famous lighthouse. This is the home of Morton
Salt where the salt is mined and it also is the home of I think 100,000 pink flamingos
and this is our check-in to the Bahamas. Buddy boat, Jacob and Kurt. We are here in the Bahamas
and I just want, I've asked everybody they want to go in and go for a swim. Nobody's taken the
initiative. So the kid, let it be known that the kid is the first one to go swimming.
We're in the Bahamas! Woohoo! Yeah!
Tina's going in to get the final paperwork for us to check in to the Bahamas. She is our hero.
Steve is helping with the launch and away we go and I'm the mouth basically. I'm the mouth.
That water. And there he's blown away waiting patiently to move on to a new spot. I find the
customs and immigration process really fascinating in every country. You just never know what you're
going to encounter. Today it was in this little house right here and now I am waiting for the
immigration officers to come back and check us. Oh he's insatiable. He cannot stop. We're in
paradise. A beautiful place but what a better place than paradise to clean. What a great place
to clean the boat. I would rather, instead of swimming in this water and doing anything,
I'd rather clean the boat. Give me that. Give me that. You can't have all this fun. There's a spot
right there. You can't have all this fun all to yourself. I want some. We are moving the boat to
Alfred Sound which will give us protection tonight from the swell. There was a big swell outside of
Matthew Town and we wanted to get away from that so we're headed up to Alfred Sound which is north
of the island which also gives us a great launching pad tomorrow when we head up to Long Island. I'm a
little nervous about anchoring in Alfred Sound. The depth is two meters and that's the low mean
during low tide and that just gives us a clearance of about two feet under our boat. This is totally
unnerving. Oh my gosh. Get used to the Bahamas right? Go baby. I'm not dug in at all. What do you think honey?
This is incredible. So what do you think about our anchorage? Beautiful. A couple hundred feet of
visibility. Yeah. Had to set the anchor twice but it worked and what about the viz here?
Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Crazy. The Bahamas, this is our first swim. My second swim. If it's like this
I'd never leave it. Another 185 today miles, nautical miles. I'm gonna put that in my log book. I'm gonna ask you later.
Yeah. So we made it. No issues and now we have an anchorage all to ourselves. How beautiful is this?
