As far as I know, these are the only ones running a day charter business in Samana now.. Go Samana | Tours et Excursions P?ninsule et Baie de Samana - Attractions, Activit?s, Quoi Faire, Voir, Visiter ? Samana, R?publique Dominicaine When the whales get here in January there will be more excursions to see them
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sailing from key west
no, and even that is not right.. do not know HOW to get in touch directly with the catamaran! But it is there.
Well I have found this thread fascinating - thanks for this OP! I hope you made your decision and whatever it is we would all love to know what you decide to do... I was going to add Cap Cana (the 'expensive' side of things here in PC) but I see I was beaten to it. Loved the photos... the diet, hmm, need to do it but probably not that way, lol.. as for the lobster... drool..
Let me tell you a little bit about the trip from hell.
We took off from Port Bahia, in Samana Bay on the last week of September 2011. The first two hours was absolute heaven. It was exactly how I envisioned a fantastic sailing trip to be like.
We were cruising at about 6 knots heading northwest, hugging the north coast of Samana. It was September 26th. It was hurricane season, but the weather forecast was good. We got a late start waiting for the Dominican Customs officials to finish eating their rice & beans.
The sun was about 45degrees up in the sky and the mountains along the north coast were nothing short of majestic and surreal looking. The mountains were ominous, green, and towering over us after we turned west at the end of the bay and started heading down the coastline. I took my clothes off and got comfortable.
Let me back up. A week earlier, Hawaiian Tom came into O’Shay’s in Cabarete and told me he was helping a friend in Samana take his 42 ft sailboat up to Charleston, South Carolina. It was a trip of a lifetime. It was a sailing trip I had always wanted to do. We were going to Turks & Caicos first where the plan was to eat, drink, and chase women…not necessarily in that order. After that, we were going to head towards the Bahamas and cruise through the Mona Passage and look for mermaids and virgins.
I was eating a bag of Doritos that I bought in the marina before we took off from Samana. I was laying down on deck naked and completely mesmerized by the mountains we were cruising past on the north coast. The thing that struck me most was that there were no people along these stretch of mountains. There were no houses. There was no construction. The mountains that ran along the north coast near Semana Bay were completely void of people or construction. I had never seen such a vast, green, unoccupied space on this island. It was almost as if the island was uninhabited. It was completely empty and stark looking. But it was incredibly green as well. It was beautiful.
About two hours into the trip we started hitting some bigger waves. I didn’t care. I worked on ships for twelve years. I had cruised through the outer regions of many, many hurricanes and storms. I’ve cruised through 30ft waves on the way to Bermuda and lost sight of the horizon for up to two hours. I watched passengers puke their guts out and projectile vomit across ships stern in 35mph wind. I’ve seen hundreds of passengers line up in a single file to take turns vomiting into our ship’s flower pots while me and my co-workers sat at the buffet table eating scrambled eggs.
But this was different. This was not a ship. This was a 42ft sailboat. I had never been sea-sick even once on five different ships that I worked on. Now, here I was in maybe 5 foot waves and I was puking up Doritos overboard and feeding a school of dolphins that was following us. The two sailors on board—Hawaiian Tom & Captain Jeff were cracking up and laughing. I was laughing in-between heaves of cheese inspired Dorito vomit. After a while, they were saying, “How’s it going Mr. Cruise Director?” and then adding, “What? You feeling a little sea-sick…here’s another bag of Doritos for you.” And then they Hee-Hawed and feel on the deck rolling with laughter. That was ok. I was happy for them. I occasionally looked up from my vomiting and laughed with them. I didn’t care. I knew my stomach only held so many feet of intestines. Besides, I thought, how bad can it get?
Well, apparently, it could get much worse. The first two days of sailing, I vomited up my small intestines. I lost 10lbs the first four days into the trip. That's not a joke. After my small intestines came out, I heaved up my large intestines. Now I was relived because I had no more stomach to vomit up. This was the perfect diet. It was working. I was getting skinner by the hour. I could feel it.
After stopping in Turks & Caicos islands and spending 3 days there drinking, eating, sleeping, drinking, and then eating some more, Tom and I rented some bicycles and explored the island. The water around Turks & Caicos is aqua green and amazing.
Because there was not enough wind to carry us on, we ended up staying three more days in Turks& Caicos exploring the island, drink, women, and food…not necessarily in that order. I realized that i was traveling with some very experienced sailors that were not only professional sailors, but also professional drinkers and womanizers as well. These were true professionals. More on that later.
After spending $7 for coffee and $12 for small sandwiches at one of coolest, most laid back caf?’s I’ve ever been to, The Green Bean, i was nearly broke and ready to move on to the next island. I figured with my new slim figure, I could probably dance a little to pick up some extra money to see my through. These Caribbean islands must have gay Go-Go bars somewhere. Right?
We left Turks & Caicos and spent 6 days at sea where, after three days in the middle of nowhere—and I mean nowhere--the engine on the boat stopped working completely and started hissing and making a lot of bad, horrible screeching noises. It was not a healthy sign. Despite numerous tries to revive it—including trying to give it CPR (I’m certified) & shocking it with heart defibulators—the engine could not be brought back to life. Oh well…how bad could it get?
After the third day at sea we got hit by a storm straight out of the Old Testament; it was epic; it would have made Noah and his Ark proud. I sincerely thought that i was in a really bad dream. First, because I was still vomiting up the last of my organs; Secondly, because the waves came at us at between 6ft to 8ft and threw us around like a cork in a bathtub. I tried to vomit some more, but I had nothing left but a few teeth & cavities in my mouth. The waves were relentless and pounded us for three days and nights straight. Somehow, I managed to lose another 5lbs, for a grand total of 15lbs of weight loss in 14 days. So I had that going for me. I felt skinny.
Just when things could not get any worse, it got worse. The heads were backed up and so the toilets were unusable and spilling over. The smell was horrendous. There was two years of poop sloshing around in the toilets (The sailboat had been sitting in Samana bay for two years). I had to tie myself with a harness to the side of the boat and then try and take a crap off the back of the boat while 6ft ocean waves came up and gave me a huge enema. It felt good.
It started pouring so I went downstairs to try and die. I left a note, a last testament of who should get my student loans. Two windows above me started leaking around the rubber seals and started dripping salt water on me throughout the night so that in the morning i had a half inch of salt caked around my eyes and mouth and they both remained glued shut. The salt was like superglue around my eyes and mouth, only stronger. I couldn't open my eyes until I ran warm water over them and then scraped the salt away with a butter knife. I was extremely dehydrated and my urine turned the color golden-brown. It looked like soup.
Because we had no working engine, when we arrived to South Carolina, we had to tack back and forth for 12 hours in order to get into the river channel that comes up from Charleston, South Carolina. I was ready to jump overboard after eight hours of tacking back and forth, but the captain kept on insisting that we only needed a few more tries to make it into the river channel. We had no engine. It took 12 hours to navigate 12 nautical miles! That's not even a slight exaggeration. But Captain Jeff and Tom were both excellent in their experience.
After 6 days at sea, when i finally stepped off the boat i couldn't walk because the sidewalk was moving, the ground was moving…and it kept on moving for an additional 8 months and hasn't stopped moving two years later. I still have to grab a hold of the walls when I walk down the street.
NOTE TO SELF: NEVER, EVER, PURCHASE A SAILBOAT!!!!!!!!!
...unless you want to lose weight!!
We took off from Port Bahia, in Samana Bay on the last week of September 2011. The first two hours was absolute heaven. It was exactly how I envisioned a fantastic sailing trip to be like.
We were cruising at about 6 knots heading northwest, hugging the north coast of Samana. It was September 26th. It was hurricane season, but the weather forecast was good. We got a late start waiting for the Dominican Customs officials to finish eating their rice & beans.
The sun was about 45degrees up in the sky and the mountains along the north coast were nothing short of majestic and surreal looking. The mountains were ominous, green, and towering over us after we turned west at the end of the bay and started heading down the coastline. I took my clothes off and got comfortable.
Let me back up. A week earlier, Hawaiian Tom came into O’Shay’s in Cabarete and told me he was helping a friend in Samana take his 42 ft sailboat up to Charleston, South Carolina. It was a trip of a lifetime. It was a sailing trip I had always wanted to do. We were going to Turks & Caicos first where the plan was to eat, drink, and chase women…not necessarily in that order. After that, we were going to head towards the Bahamas and cruise through the Mona Passage and look for mermaids and virgins.
I was eating a bag of Doritos that I bought in the marina before we took off from Samana. I was laying down on deck naked and completely mesmerized by the mountains we were cruising past on the north coast. The thing that struck me most was that there were no people along these stretch of mountains. There were no houses. There was no construction. The mountains that ran along the north coast near Semana Bay were completely void of people or construction. I had never seen such a vast, green, unoccupied space on this island. It was almost as if the island was uninhabited. It was completely empty and stark looking. But it was incredibly green as well. It was beautiful.
About two hours into the trip we started hitting some bigger waves. I didn’t care. I worked on ships for twelve years. I had cruised through the outer regions of many, many hurricanes and storms. I’ve cruised through 30ft waves on the way to Bermuda and lost sight of the horizon for up to two hours. I watched passengers puke their guts out and projectile vomit across ships stern in 35mph wind. I’ve seen hundreds of passengers line up in a single file to take turns vomiting into our ship’s flower pots while me and my co-workers sat at the buffet table eating scrambled eggs.
But this was different. This was not a ship. This was a 42ft sailboat. I had never been sea-sick even once on five different ships that I worked on. Now, here I was in maybe 5 foot waves and I was puking up Doritos overboard and feeding a school of dolphins that was following us. The two sailors on board—Hawaiian Tom & Captain Jeff were cracking up and laughing. I was laughing in-between heaves of cheese inspired Dorito vomit. After a while, they were saying, “How’s it going Mr. Cruise Director?” and then adding, “What? You feeling a little sea-sick…here’s another bag of Doritos for you.” And then they Hee-Hawed and feel on the deck rolling with laughter. That was ok. I was happy for them. I occasionally looked up from my vomiting and laughed with them. I didn’t care. I knew my stomach only held so many feet of intestines. Besides, I thought, how bad can it get?
Well, apparently, it could get much worse. The first two days of sailing, I vomited up my small intestines. I lost 10lbs the first four days into the trip. That's not a joke. After my small intestines came out, I heaved up my large intestines. Now I was relived because I had no more stomach to vomit up. This was the perfect diet. It was working. I was getting skinner by the hour. I could feel it.
After stopping in Turks & Caicos islands and spending 3 days there drinking, eating, sleeping, drinking, and then eating some more, Tom and I rented some bicycles and explored the island. The water around Turks & Caicos is aqua green and amazing.
Because there was not enough wind to carry us on, we ended up staying three more days in Turks& Caicos exploring the island, drink, women, and food…not necessarily in that order. I realized that i was traveling with some very experienced sailors that were not only professional sailors, but also professional drinkers and womanizers as well. These were true professionals. More on that later.
After spending $7 for coffee and $12 for small sandwiches at one of coolest, most laid back caf?’s I’ve ever been to, The Green Bean, i was nearly broke and ready to move on to the next island. I figured with my new slim figure, I could probably dance a little to pick up some extra money to see my through. These Caribbean islands must have gay Go-Go bars somewhere. Right?
We left Turks & Caicos and spent 6 days at sea where, after three days in the middle of nowhere—and I mean nowhere--the engine on the boat stopped working completely and started hissing and making a lot of bad, horrible screeching noises. It was not a healthy sign. Despite numerous tries to revive it—including trying to give it CPR (I’m certified) & shocking it with heart defibulators—the engine could not be brought back to life. Oh well…how bad could it get?
After the third day at sea we got hit by a storm straight out of the Old Testament; it was epic; it would have made Noah and his Ark proud. I sincerely thought that i was in a really bad dream. First, because I was still vomiting up the last of my organs; Secondly, because the waves came at us at between 6ft to 8ft and threw us around like a cork in a bathtub. I tried to vomit some more, but I had nothing left but a few teeth & cavities in my mouth. The waves were relentless and pounded us for three days and nights straight. Somehow, I managed to lose another 5lbs, for a grand total of 15lbs of weight loss in 14 days. So I had that going for me. I felt skinny.
Just when things could not get any worse, it got worse. The heads were backed up and so the toilets were unusable and spilling over. The smell was horrendous. There was two years of poop sloshing around in the toilets (The sailboat had been sitting in Samana bay for two years). I had to tie myself with a harness to the side of the boat and then try and take a crap off the back of the boat while 6ft ocean waves came up and gave me a huge enema. It felt good.
It started pouring so I went downstairs to try and die. I left a note, a last testament of who should get my student loans. Two windows above me started leaking around the rubber seals and started dripping salt water on me throughout the night so that in the morning i had a half inch of salt caked around my eyes and mouth and they both remained glued shut. The salt was like superglue around my eyes and mouth, only stronger. I couldn't open my eyes until I ran warm water over them and then scraped the salt away with a butter knife. I was extremely dehydrated and my urine turned the color golden-brown. It looked like soup.
Because we had no working engine, when we arrived to South Carolina, we had to tack back and forth for 12 hours in order to get into the river channel that comes up from Charleston, South Carolina. I was ready to jump overboard after eight hours of tacking back and forth, but the captain kept on insisting that we only needed a few more tries to make it into the river channel. We had no engine. It took 12 hours to navigate 12 nautical miles! That's not even a slight exaggeration. But Captain Jeff and Tom were both excellent in their experience.
After 6 days at sea, when i finally stepped off the boat i couldn't walk because the sidewalk was moving, the ground was moving…and it kept on moving for an additional 8 months and hasn't stopped moving two years later. I still have to grab a hold of the walls when I walk down the street.
NOTE TO SELF: NEVER, EVER, PURCHASE A SAILBOAT!!!!!!!!!
...unless you want to lose weight!!
That is certainly NOT a diet I would contemplate, Frank - but your story telling is absolutely FABULOUS... I loved it, you got me smiling and laughing, I am sure you can now do that too when you look back on your big adventure... I would say 'stick to cruise ships'... then you can laugh at the others on your fab diet!