Despacho! or Final Preparations to Depart Luperon and The Luperon Curse

A weather window has opened today and we are in the final stages of preparation to depart this muddy pond. For $25 we had Papo's man scrub the bottom of Sarah. Probably overdue since the water is so rich in...um... nutrients... that the bottom growth has been prolific. In fact, for the first time in weeks, the head is bringing in adequate amounts of water when we flush. There was probably a family of crabs living in the water intake.

Dan spent the majority of Saturday cleaning about twenty feet of chain that had been incrusted with sealife. He put three scrub brushes together around the chain with hose clamps to scrub as we hauled and let out the chain repeatedly. Then took a screw driver between each link to remove the barnacles.

Dan is heading into town now for last minute provisioning, to clear with the port authority and, *fingerscrossed*  to pick up our despacho. This shouldn't cost us more than $30 and shouldn't take long. We hope. 

We have already been burned by the Luperon Curse in the past week. The Luperon curse strikes without compunction. It has been known to sink ships, destroy relationships, and motivate sailors to sell their vessel and fly home. The most insidious version of the Luperon Curse comes when you decide to never leave. The land and the people can be so beautiful many cruisers buy a hut or build a house up on gringo hill. For Sarah the curse decided to mess with some very expensive equipment. Our windless came back from the machine shop more broken then when we sent it out. And our dinghy engine outboard has been acting up. But we won't let this slow us down!

50 hours to Puerto Rico! Dan intents to get the despacho for Samana but we hope to be able to sail straight through the night. We should have 10-15 ENE winds while crossing the Mona passage. If things are too rough or Bela has not adjusted we will spend a few nights in Samana. We will update you on the dreaded Mona Passage on the other side!

Everyone wish us luck!

 Our friends on S/V Ixion leaving early this morning. Follow that morning sun east!

Last view of the anchorage.

Thank you to all the wonderful live a-boards and locals that made our two month stay in Luperon so much fun we were afraid of never leaving ;-)