Sailing Life Day 49: Walking around Luperon, Dominican Republic!

I know I skipped the last three days of my “daily online diary” but will do that later after I get some rest! Haha ❤️

Some people thought that I’m not meant for sailing life because of my “skills” or thought I wouldn’t like it.. but I think by now I can say that I unexpectedly super love this life and I know that one day I’ll be good handling our boat even on my own! It’s a steep learning curve, but I believe that even without skills.. you can do it by having the eagerness to learn! I’m very eager to improve! 🤩🤣

The thing I’ve learned most from our adventures since 2013 is to be adaptable to anything and be fearless! I have a lot of fears in life (I’m not very matapang), but when I want something, I’ll make sure that I’ll do my best to get it done (not always perfect but at least I did my best)! So, the last few days were another crazy cool adventure that we will never forget in our life.. we’re newbies, but we bravely made it and survived the first leg of the “Thorny path of the windward passage”.. some people (more experienced sailors) said it’s very uncomfortable to do it and you need a very careful route planning, great weather window and a skill to handle the boat! I’m glad Captain Jonathan and I work very well handling our boat! Can any experienced sailors out there add some tips or information below to explain the windward passage to our other readers?🤓

We were doing 7 to 8 knots of pure sailing during our Day 47 to 48 but the Caicos bank was a “hardcore” (very uncomfortable) for us because it’s too shallow (only 5 to 7 ft below our keel) with a lot of coral heads and with 18 to 20 knots of wind (up to 30 knots of gust) and crazy waves! We also had to endure sleeping in the banks on our first night since we couldn’t sail at night where we almost lost our anchor! Haha.. more story of that later! But the point is, our whole boat is in total mess after our 4-day passage! Saltwater all over the sheets and couch because of the waves when we forgot to close our hatches while underway so today we had to do the laundry!

Yesterday, I met a young guy who introduced me to his mother to do the laundry. I could handwash it but too much for me so we brought it to Mama Lydia - 3 full bags of a month worth of dirty clothes, four bedsheets and around eight towels and she only charged me 1,000 Pesos! The exchange rate here in the Dominican Republic is 49 Pesos = 1 USD (same as the PHP) 🤗

I already stopped with haggling on our travels as I believe people will treat and charge you the way they know they deserve.. more satisfying to give than to cut from this hardworking individuals! I sometimes try to haggle in supermarkets though - asking the manager if they have special deals! Hahahaha! 🤩

After that, we went to the internet office and paid for wifi access on the boat.. yep they have wifi in the bay! Only 750 pesos for two weeks. I bought a sim card (100 pesos) yesterday with five-day unlimited internet (for 140 pesos!). Gosh, crazy affordable unlike my $35 per week for 15GB in the Bahamas! Lol! This week is going to be catching up with work again.. I have 20 travel coaching clients waiting for me this week!😇🙏🤩

Decided not to cook today and we ate at a local carinderia and only 250 pesos for our three meals of local Dominican food for lunch! Super yummy too, taste like Pinoy’s Kaldereta! 🤗🤗

We walked around and made an appointment for my hair treatment tomorrow after church.. yep hot oil, head massage and hair cut! Let’s see, and she said it’s only 450 pesos! Wooohoo! 😛😻

I love the locals and the vibes here. We’ll be renting a big motorbike next week to explore the town! ❤️ Hope you’ll join this crazy cool journey.. this is my kind of country to visit and explore so we’ll be mostly outside of the sailboat after I clear my work schedule while Jonathan is “busy” working on his random boat projects! Haha🤪🤪

P.S. Jonathan and I can speak Spanish (only basic for me) since we lived and traveled around in Latin America for almost 3 years (7 months in Peru, 3 months in Costa Rica & 6 months in Colombia) and other months exploring Latin America (we visited almost all countries from Mexico to Argentina except Uruguay, Paraguay, and French Guyana)🤩