Once it was clear that we weren't going to be across the ocean as soon as we had hoped, the Domonican Republic is a country that we tentatively decided to skip. But then San Juan wasn't as conducive to supply runs or laundry as we had anticipated, and we found a resort with a marina who also has a good off season rate, so we decded to drop in for a bit.

We were on Samana Bay, the big bay on the northeast side of the island. When we arrived, hurricane Beryl had just passed 100 miles to the south, and I think the storm's approach lead all of the airplane tourists to cancel their vacations. The result was us having the run of the place to ourselves.

Pool to ourselves

Lots of starfish

We spent a couple of days doing boat work, refreshing the laundry, and drinking pina coladas at an empty infinity pool looking out over the bay. Then, we rented a car and checked out a town about an hour away. Before we left, we anchored on the south side of the bay at a national park, where we spent some time checking out caves and failing to find some of the other attractions.

Cave exploring

Our final stop was off the coast of Playa Cayo Levantado, informally known as Bicardi Island. Depending on the source of information, the Bicardi corporation owned the island, or filmed its commercials there, or both. It is the spot over there with the pretty turquoise water, and it had some pretty beaches. Off the beaches were full of vendors catoring to tourists with food, drinks, tourist trap souvenirs, and Cuban cigars.

Bicardi Island

We had a minor mishap where we were hurrying back to Velvet Elvis from the island, and we couldn't get the dinghy motor to start. We ended up paddling back, and when I pulled out the keys to unlock the door, the dinghy's kill switch fell out with it. We had forgotten to reconnect it, and that's why we had to paddle.

A friendly Canadian (redundant) had motored up to offer us a tow back to our boat. He was a little too late to help, but we had a beer and some good conversation to cap off our stay.

The waves were still way up when we left. It was a few days' sailing to Great Inagua in the Bahamas. The cost of properly clearing in didn't make sense for our planned one-night stay, so we hung out on anchor. We met the people on the only other boat there, and they scouted the island and couldn't find a restaurant open for the off season anyway.

From Great Inagua, we sailed another couple of days to the Raggad Islands, where we held up at a beautiful beach that we had to ourselves. A maintained hut tells the tale of visiting cruisers during the high season, but the single boat we saw at Great Inagua was infinitely more than the number of boats sharing this anchorage with us.

One more mishap here: after lots of succesful flights, I finally missed the landing with the drone. A gust of wind, a tiny roll on a wave, and it teetered on the transom before falling into the deep. It kept broadcasting a picture. I retrieved it from the bottom and got the battery out as quickly as I could, but it never did recover.

Two more days of sailing brought us to another pretty spit of sand with turquoise water, also controlled by the Bahamas, but this one was even more desolate, without a Bahamian civilization within a hundred miles.

When we pulled up the anchor at this island, it would be the last time that we churned up another nation's sand. It was homeward to Key West.

A few more pics from the Bahamas:

Hog Cay, Raggads

Island to ourselves