Kumbaya - A magical anchorage at Los Haitises, in Samana Bay

Who: Juliette, Hubert and their 4 children: Louise 11, Agathe 8, Paul 6 and Bertille 3
Where: Dominican Republic
Multihull: Nautitech 46 Open
Blog: www.laventuredekumbaya.com
Facebook: juethubdolley / YouTube: Le voyage de Kumbaya

 We have to be patient before continuing our route westward. And this will allow us to visit some beautiful ports of call that we hadn’t planned on going to at the start. We are discovering and tasting the joys of the West Indies and are really enjoying it. We pushed our Nautitech 46 Open, all sails out, north to the Dominican Republic. A delightful stopover and a country of contrasts. Its east-west orientation makes sailing impractical, so we took advantage of the land for a while. There aren’t many authorized and sheltered anchorages, and only one turned out to be superb. In fact, it was one of our top 3 favorite anchorages: Los Haitises National Park. There’s a hint of Along Bay, between Asia and Africa. An oasis of calm in the middle of a mangrove populated by thousands of birds. From sunrise to sunset, we marveled at the spectacle of the flying and diving pelicans, eagles, egrets, frigate birds, herons, etc. Dinghy rides in the middle of this very well protected park allowed us to discover caves and other geological meanders. We were all wide-eyed! What a magical atmosphere to drive into a mangrove, turn off the engine, observe nature and listen to the deafening silence. Suddenly, the flights of birds and all the fauna that are specific to this ecosystem appear, plunging us into a kind of Amazonian world. Back to civilization, we have also greatly enjoyed the Dominican Republic marinas, an unrivalled luxury in the surrounding area. A country not to be missed if the wind takes you there! After a dive in the island of Hispaniola and a nice crossing of the Caribbean Sea from north to south, we enjoyed Curaçao. We can now finally plan to head to Panama, by the end of the year