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January 16, 2005
Hello to all our family, friends and fellow MTOA members,

It has been about six weeks since the last newsletter. We are still at Luperon in the Dominican Republic and because of the time lapse I thought an update would be useful to allay any fears for our well being.

Arriving at Luperon on December 3, 2004 we were gladden by the sight of such a well-protected harbor, friendly folks, considerable boating community (about 80 boats in the harbor) and a fair infrastructure for provisioning. On anchoring we found the bottom to have the consistency of Jell-o and the Delta anchor broke free with the first stiff breeze. Of course that had to happen at 2:00 AM. The next day, with anchoring trials at several places in the harbor all having the same poor results, we finally gave up with the Delta (with all chain) and put the Danforth anchor out on rode. It grabbed, probably buried itself to China, and has held ever since in winds up to 40 knots. Still, with each hard blow someone in the harbor drags and it would be foolhardy to be overly confident of our security.

Luperon is a rustic village with more small restaurants than anything else. The food is mostly fried chicken or fish with rice and beans. The streets are paved and there is little crime. It is one of the few places in the Caribbean where you can keep a dinghy tied to the stern without much fear of it being stolen. Several times a week pickup trucks with vegetables for sale run up and down the streets and with a wave they stop for anyone, anywhere. Their wares are of acceptable quality and so-so priced, but the best deal is clearly the wonderful huge avocados for 35 cents each. They are easily three to four times the size of avocados you see in US supermarkets. There is an old marina in the harbor that we considered had better food than most places in town, yet their dock is a ratty mess most cruisers wouldn't wish to be tied to. Another marina is in the early stages of a slow development but, has little dock space. Mostly it is best to stay at anchor where we have been pleased that there have been almost no bugs. So few bugs in fact that we are concerned for the health of our growing population of geckos which have been nurtured since they found refuge on Francesca last year at Panama.

A few other notes for cruisers who might be heading this way. Here at Luperon, bottled water is 25 cents a gallon and diesel fuel is $2.75 gallon. We hear that fuel is less than $2.00 at Puerto Rico.