Sometime during the night, I spotted the lights of a ship but couldn't pick it up on radar. I spent half an hour trying to find it on radar, while it kept getting closer. Then Roy got up for his watch. He couldn't see it on radar either, but he could see its starboard light, so we knew it was going past us in the opposite direction. Finally we found it on the radar screen.
We had to motor-sail today, due to the strong easterly trade winds. I'm really kicking myself for making Roy turn off the engine last night. We'd be a lot better off going to Luperon than Monte Cristi. It will take us another day to get from Monte Cristi to Luperon, bashing against the wind and waves all the day.
As we got closer to the Dominican Republic, the wind kept getting stronger. Soon it was blowing more than twenty knots and we were zooming along at seven knots with big waves crashing over the deck. We were hoping to make Monte Cristi in daylight, but we're so far east that the sun sets nearly an hour earlier. By the time we reached the entrance to the harbor, it was pitch dark. Roy had managed to lower the mizzen sail and the mainsail and he'd furled the staysail, but the headsail was messing up again. He was only able to get it partly furled, and the sheets were flogging like crazy. One of them hit his lip and really hurt. His lip's all swollen. Thank goodness it didn't hit his eyes!
The wind was howling and the waves were knocking us around. I didn't see how we could possibly get an anchor to hold under those conditions. I was really scared. I was afraid we'd blow all the way to Haiti. Roy was out on deck, struggling with the headsail, while I was trying to steer into the harbor by radar. Then he had me shift into neutral and go out to help him get the anchor ready. I wasn't much help, but finally we got a hundred or so feet of chain spread out on the deck. Roy shoved the anchor over, and to our great relief it held. Did it ever feel good to be settled down for the night! Roy even managed to get the headsail wrapped up temporarily. His strength and energy and stamina and know-how are so amazing!
We ate a fast but filling supper. Roy was going to see if he could get anything on television, but the inverter shorted out, so now we can't use the microwave oven, the toaster over, the hot water heater, or the TV, except of course when we're at a dock with shore power. I went right to bed and slept like a log. Roy stayed up a while, checking the radar to be sure we didn't drag. Then he slept like a log too.
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