We spent several days waiting for weather, going into town to do some big time T-shirt shopping for John, taking the guagua to Sosua (a tourist town east of Puerto Plata), and making use of the marina pool. And, let's not forget the wonderful ice cream in Central Park either. Then on April 1 we attempted our big move down the coast. Leaving as early as we could (we had hoped for 8am, but didn't get our despacho until 9:30) we headed out. It was raining, there was a calm sea with 6-7 ft north swells -- but with a long period it was comfortable. Then just after noon the winds started whipping up and were crazy -- from every direction. The wind chop on top of the swells was very rough. Knowing that we had another 36-40 hours to go with nowhere to duck into to escape the north swell, we looked at each other and decided. We had to go back to the marina. Feeling defeated, but thankful that the marina was still so close, we arrived a couple of hours later. Other cruisers on the dock had heard our radio call that we were coming back and we had a welcoming committee there to help us with lines. It felt good to be safe and sound, but we knew now that we had a few days wait before we would again get a weather window. So that it wouldn't be a total loss, we went to the Ocean World dolphin show and were pleasantly surprised with the acrobatics of both the dolphins and the trainers. We may just go again!
Sounds like you had an April Fools sail! Glad your back in to port safely. Enjoy the weekend. A Chamber of Comm. weekend here in DC. Celebrating the holiday with my kids and new grandson. Love the pics you guys put up. Be well.
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