Dominican Republic - Isla Beata

Transiting from Haiti to Dominican we knew we had a challenge ahead of us. Isla Beata.

The village of cape Beata where we dropped the hook to wait our weather was a quaint fisherman's village. These fisherman where the only ones who populated the island in addition to us who were the only sailboat there. Our first interaction with the Dominican people began when we were taking a nap after the passage. We heard a knock on the hull and went outside to see a small boat with the navy and 5 other guys. They had multiple assault rifles on hand and they asked to come on board the boat. After a brief search and a few cold beers, they were satisfied that we could stay on their island!

We paddled our dingy on to the beach to explore the area. the beach was littered in lines with drying fish and small shacks and tents where the fisherman slept. The island had large iguanas rooming about that Bella enjoyed sniffing. We stopped at a small wooden structure that appeared to be selling a few items. We asked for some potatoes and they gave us 10lb for $10. As we only had a $20 with no change, they gave us 2 freshly caught red snapper fish instead. to get these fish, we met a boat coming onto the beach with fisherman that were just bringing in their fresh catches for the day. We picked two out and we were on our way!

We ended the day with a BBQ and watched the sunset as we thought about the challenge ahead of conquering Cape Beata.

This is cape that jets miles out into the ocean that can be quite treacherous at times as the sea can present some dangerous conditions for boaters. The reason for this is that the strong easterly trade winds have no where to go and channel around the cape causing confused and high seas and strong winds. We have friends who we met in Bahamas do this very same trek and they ended up with blown sails and several crucial repairs. We timed the weather accordingly and attempted to round it under the best possible conditions. As we approached the cape, the headwinds picked up to 25knots with some higher gusts. We were appropriately reefed so the wind was not as much of a concern. The seas however as a result were not happy and they easily picked up from 3feet to 6feet and they were all over the place so it was difficult to steer the boat into the looming seas. Our strategy after further discussion was to head to further offshore to avoid worsening conditions and give us the right angle to round the cape on sail. Did I forget to mention we only had a headsail as our main sail track was is need of repair? After a few hours of waves crashing over the bow beating into the wind, we finally successfully rounded the cape and put it all behind us!!