Passage on the North and East Coast of the Dominican Republic

Well, after a long wait for good weather, we departed Luperon, Dominican Republic on December 9, 2015 at 5:00 pm.  The best time to travel is during the night and early morning in this part of the DR.  The officials made us leave the harbor prior to sunset, however, the seas are still rough until hours later.  After 55 miles and 14 hours later, we arrived at Rio San Juan at 7:00 am to anchor for the day and get some rest.  We pulled anchor at 7:00 pm that day and traveled 82 miles and 16 hours to reach Puerto Bahia Marina in Samana, on the east coast, at 11:00 am the next day.  This is a great marina with pools, restaurants, fuel, laundry, Wi-Fi, boaters lounge and a mini-market.  We traveled with several other boats and two of them, China Rose and Ever After, joined us in the marina.  We met up with some other cruising friends we had met in the Bahamas, Honeymoon Forever, and they showed us the ropes and helped us get supplies.  Of course, all this calls for a jello shot celebration!