Port Antonio, to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

We left Jamaica mid day of March15th.

The first 24 hrs was pretty easy sailing as we were reaching.

The wind progressively got stronger over the next 24 hrs as we made our way through the channel between Cuba and Haiti. We had 25 to 30 knots of wind and we were traveling against the wind.

Justin trimming the sails

We started taking on water on the night of the 17th. We had so much water in the boat that the floor boards started floating. The anchor locker wasn't draining fast enough, which was pulling the bow down. The extra gas cylinder in the anchor locker had become unsecured and started bouncing around (which is why we immediately stopped the boat and retrieve the gas cylinder from the locker). This caused damage to the electrical work and the bow light stopped working again. We had to "Heave to" to pump the water out of the boat and to allow the anchor locker to drain. The main bilge pump got hot when the filters got full; so, Justin tried to use the manual pump (which wasn't working and we need to troubleshoot), and I used the bathroom drain pumps and a tube to remove water while the bilge pump cooled down enough to be used again. It took several hours to pump out the boat.

I woke up the next morning to be surprised by Justin having cleaned the boat and made me eggs benedict. He had emptied and dried out all of the storage compartments that had taken on water while on his watch. I am a lucky girl.

The calm after the storm

Justin's breakfast surprise for me: Eggs Benedict

Justin slept most of the day of the 18th. The weather was better as the wind had died down to 15 knots as we came around the north side of Haiti. However, we were still pounding into weather, which slowed our progress.

We had beautiful weather on the 19th and we spent most of the day up on deck. I even did some yoga on the bow.

Sunset in the windward passage

We arrived in Puerto Plata on the night of the 19th after 4.5 days of sailing, but we had no safe place to anchor. So we sailed in circles until the marina opened in the morning.

Hello Dominican Republic. We're happy to see you.