Manzanillo

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Friday, June, 30, 2006, 05:56 UTC
Manzanillo

Stuart: Chapter 3. Arrived Manzanillo late afternoon following an uneventful motor crossing from T & C's. Approach to the DR was impressive with mountains looming in the background behind the coastline. Were met quickly by 5 gov't. officials, including the port commandant in full uniform, all of whom had to come aboard all 3 of the boats. Very polite and accommodating, but, of course, all wanted a little money for their help. I expect this is the way it will be for a large part of the trip from now on. Mark describes Manzanillo best as a frontier town. A small port with a quaint little central plaza surrounded by a few streets of small shops and bars. People are generally shy, but once the ice is broken seem eager to interact with us gringos despite our very limited Spanish. There is a small open bar right where we are anchored and everyone is ready for an El Presidente and some relaxation. Following day was spent catching up on sleep and doing boat work. Were also joined by a 4th boat manned by a woman and her daughter who are making their way to Puerto Rico so now there are 4 in our little pod.

Everyone is ready to see some of the country so we rent motoconches (small motorcycles) and head out for Dharbon a town on the border with Haiti. Everything here takes time. About 2 hours to shuttle us from the beach to get the cycles, find gas and get started. No gas station here, but found a guy selling gas from a small shack. Gas was in beer bottles, so 4 beers of gas took care of each bike. Goats, chickens and cows everywhere. They have all decided they have the right of way and it's difficult to argue the point. Have no idea how the people figure out who owns which animals. Country here is arid and relatively barren. Poverty is the norm, but the people seem to not be bothered by much of anything. Very few cars and small motorcycles are the thing for going anywhere. Yes, Lisa, your father can ride a bike and will borrow yours when I get back. Were going to the Haitian market in Dharbon, but by the time we got there and took a quick look everyone sort of lost interest as the market seems to be mostly fruit and things like that. We are a bit of a curiosity as we are obviously gringos (and the only ones we saw during our stay here) plus one or other of the bikes seems to get lost from our group every few minutes requiring a major re-grouping which is difficult in a sea of motorbikes with no driving rules. Found a local restaurant for a late lunch and had everything from goat to fish. Food simple, but very good with a cost of $3-6 per meal. Stopped on the way back at a roadside bar for more El Presidentes and had fun talking with some of the local people in our limited way. Following day planned to get some diesel for the boats and go into town. I'll digress here for a minute so you can see how things actually work in this part of the world. Yesterday, we paid one of the guys who has been doing things for us to get the fuel. Fuel has to come in jerry cans from another town and is supposed to be here at 9:00. 10:00 no fuel and our guys are on the beach waving at us. Cost of fuel is 10 cents more/gallon then they thought so they didn't get it. Gave them the extra money (we only wanted about 30 gals) and they were off again. Returned about 2:30 with fuel in 2 large containers. Spent the next couple of hours transferring fuel to smaller containers and shuttling it from the beach to the boats in the dinghy. So passes another day in paradise. Planning on leaving tomorrow morning for Montecriste about 20 miles up the coast where there is supposed to be some beautiful reefs for snorkeling. Mark and the other captains went ashore at 8:00 to check out of the port and we had hoped to be on the way by 9:00. It's now 10:00 and no sign of their return. Ah well, as they say here, Manana.

For anyone interested in some of the more mundane aspects of the trip, I include the following. Since leaving Fla., we have been traveling southeast. Guess what the prevailing wind direction is in this part of the world? From the SE. So, since sailboats can't go directly into the wind, this is a difficult route to take. We have been fairly lucky and have caught wind shifts from other directions that have allowed us to sail about half the time. However, we are now in the Trade Winds which blow everyday from the E/SE. Since we are on the NW coast of the DR, we now have to go W directly into the Trades until we pass Puerto Rico. This is tricky, so the strategy is to look for unusual wind direction or move at night when the Trades die down and a land breeze from a different direction may allow you to sail. Once past PR, we make a right turn and should have glorious sailing with the Trades on our beam for about 800 miles through the Caribbean. Will check in later from our next stop.

Stuart