Hello from Luperon!
Thank you all for your emails and birthday wishes. We hope you are well and happy, and enjoying spring, wherever you are. We’ve had a wonderful time here since our last email to you. My 50th birthday was a perfect day. Greg’s friend Cory from the Turks and Caicos flew out for my birthday weekend. We spent the day wandering around town, showing him the sights, and then ended up at Captain Steve’s for dinner. We had a lovely dinner, Greg and I had lobster, shrimp and grouper. We indulged ourselves with a decadent cherry cheesecake for dessert. A local baker and ex-cruiser Marty made the cake for us. All and all it was a wonderful way to spend my “bi-centennial”, surrounded by family and good friends, in a beautiful and lush environment.
Easter weekend was very different for us, but in a good way. We are finding that the further away from North America we are, the less we miss the hustle and bustle, and the commercialized holidays that we have all been brought up with. On Good Friday the town of Luperon closed down, and everyone went to one of the beaches close by to spend the day relaxing and partying with their families and friends. Friday night the boys were invited to a “jam session” with some of the local musicians at Puerto Blanco Marina. They were pretty shy, but Brett learned quite a few new chords and played along when he could. It was more difficult for Dylan though, as he plays the soprano saxophone. There were three guitars and one flute so Dylan had a hard time trying to fit in. He is used to reading notes, and playing music from books, not “winging it”. Still it was a good experience for both of them, we are very proud of them, and it was a very enjoyable evening for all of us. On Sunday I made some “Paska”. For those of you that aren’t familiar with it, it’s a sweet bread that is a German/Mennonite tradition at Easter. I put the traditional icing and sprinkles on the buns, and the boys ate their fill. I haven’t made paska for years, and what a treat it was. So our Easter was spent without any chocolate goodies, just being thankful for each other, for all that we have, and enjoying the beautiful setting we are in here in the Dominican. What more could one ask for?
Our first 15-day Visa here expired so we have now renewed it for 3 months. We don’t plan on being here for that long, but just followed standard procedure. Greg has been making quite a bit of progress on the exterior of the boat. He has been working on the exterior of the pilot house, the starboard side and the two rear portholes, sanding and grinding and getting rid of rust. On Friday he managed to get a coat of primer on the side of the pilot house. He says it makes him feel better to have some visual progress! It has been really, really hot, so he has to pace himself. A few days we have hit 100, but most days it is between 85 and 90. Inside the boat is fairly cool, we have fans running but our air conditioning is not working, as there is a problem with the salt water pump, another project. We had our refrigeration quit on us again, and it turned out the sea strainer was filthy and clogged up, so Greg cleaned that all up. It worked for a while and then quit again so Greg changed the electric pump. The new one we bought in Ft. Lauderdale has been nothing but a problem. Greg now has the old pump, which he fixed up, back on and everything is working 100 per cent once again. Other than that, things have been working fine on the boat. Last week we had Papo, a local, come over and clean the bottom of our hull and dinghy. The water in the harbour here is dirty, and we had lots of algae and barnacles growing. We will have it done again before we leave. Papo also sells bottles of drinking water, the large blue ones, for about 2 bucks for a 5 gallon jug. He delivers to your boat so that is a pretty good deal. He also sells and delivers bags of ice and diesel.
Last Monday, our friends Opus sailed into the harbour, a very welcome sight. We haven’t seen them since we left the dock in Georgetown. They are anchored nearby and we have been taking them around town to help them get oriented. It’s amazing how many people we know here. Opus commented on the way we are greeted by so many people. Tuesday morning we took them into town to do the “produce truck”. That was a kick for them. One of the locals there likes Greg, so as soon as we arrive, he pours him a strong coffee in a little cup, (like an espresso) and Greg sits down by the side of the road with his coffee in one hand, cigar in the other, and watches me shop. Another truck pulled up so Jim and I went to check it out, and it was a guy selling fresh chickens so I bought one. It was a good size, two pound chicken with the head lopped off, cleaned out but still had the feet. The boys got a kick out of that. We cooked it up that night and it was delicious. I am so enjoying the different produce and meat here, and cooking things in new ways. I find I am basing my meals around vegetables with meat as a side dish, instead of the other way around. We are all losing weight, which is wonderful. Last week I had to find some line to put around my shorts to keep them from falling off. Maybe we are just melting from the heat, but I think it is the combination of both heat and lots of healthy food. My men are so enjoying the food that I have now been promoted to Galley Admiral, from Galley Wench!
Last week the boys were invited to a local outdoor bar called Shaggy’s, to play. There were about 8 people there, just a casual group, and they all got a real kick out of hearing the boys, and were very impressed by them. We are of course, very proud of them. Spending time together as a family, and especially, a lot of time with our boys, has made us appreciate them so much more. Not that we haven’t always loved them dearly, but all their lives people have told us what good kids they are. Now that we are together 24-7, Greg and I see it first-hand. They are really great kids! They are polite, intelligent and compassionate. They devour books, and carry conversations with adults like mini adults. They are responsible. We have been letting them get out on their own with the dinghy. They spend their mornings doing schoolwork, and then have the afternoons free. Greg works on the boat most days, so on days when I am too busy or just don’t feel like going anywhere, we give the boys a few pesos and they take the dinghy into town. They go over to Captain Steve’s, have a coke and play a few games of pool, and then come back to the boat. They have also been doing a bit of fishing. We are told that the mangroves here filter the water, so I told the boys if they catch fish, I will cook it. Everyone else here eats the fish and they haven’t died from it, so it must be okay! So far no luck, but I am sure they will catch something one of these days.
I always have chores to do on the boat, which I do between helping the boys out with their schoolwork as needed. My “housework” is definitely scaled down from our 2500 square foot house in Yellowknife. I vacuum the floors about 2-3 times a week. It’s amazing how much crud can get on a boat in the middle of a harbour! I wash the floors weekly, as well as clean the fridge on a weekly basis. Then there is always dusting and polishing, windows to clean, and heads to scrub out. I also do a lot of baking, our bread and buns and the occasional cake and batch of cookies to keep the crew happy. That plus cooking three meals a day keeps me pretty busy and out of trouble for the most part. The time just seems to fly by, and before you know it, another week has gone by. We plan on being here roughly another two weeks, and then heading for the Virgin Islands. We only plan on stopping by Puerto Rico for night if need be. Here is a website that will tell you more about the area we are in: www.luperoncruising.com.
I have attached some photos of the area as well to give you all an idea of where we live for now. We will be going into Santiago, one of the larger cities, to provision before we leave here. We will email before we leave, so you know we are underway. Love you all, and miss you so much. Keep the emails and phone calls coming, we love to hear from you. Our phone number again is: 809-203-5609.
The Dutch Dreamers
No comments:
Post a Comment