DR – Some of our Experiences

Over this journey, we’ve made friends with a lot of boats.  Actually, we have made friends with the people on boats – but we know everybody by their boat name – i.e. we’re simply known as Love and Luck.  One of our friends is Seas Life – aka – Ryan and Sheena.  In Luperon, they rented a dirt bike for a few days to tour the area.  One of those days Ryan came by and asked me if I wanted to take a ride.  Now – I’ve been on the back of a motorcycle once in my life – and it was pretty-much terrifying.  However, the opportunity to see more of the countryside was too tempting – so I hopped on the back, and off we went.  The first 5 minutes were pretty scary, but once we got out of town, it became fun.  We went on a handful of dirt roads, through a small river, down the beach, and over a really pretty mountain pass.  We also passed a lot of modest country homes, some guys playing dominos by the side of the road, and a few herds of cows coming home from pasture for their afternoon milking.   It got a little exciting when one of the cowboys (probably 15 years old) thought it would be funny to steer his herd towards us as we passed by.  Anywhere else, I might have gotten a little upset that this kid was messing with us – but the mischevous smile that he flashed us instantaneously changed my mood and  made me smile too.  I wish I had taken a camera to share some of the great sceenery, but I’m not sure I would have been able (or willing) to release my grip on the seat handles long enough to take picutures…  All in all, it was a really fun afternoon – thanks again Ryan!

As Lucy described in one of her posts, we all went to the dentist.  Here’s my take on the experience…

One of the things that draws cruisers into the DR is healthcare.  It is generally very good – and very affordable.  Doctor visits, lab work, and basic preventative and emergency care are free.  Other care – including dentist visits – are very inexpensive.  Given that, we decided that we would get our 6-month teeth cleaning while in Lupreron.  We got pretty good directions from the folks at the Puerto Blanco marina – and found the modern-looking building with a large ramp, Dominican flag and ‘tooth’ signs in the front

When we walked into the office, it looked like any other small dentist office I’ve ever been in – except that, instead of outdated magazines to help pass the time, there was a big TV showing action/adventure movies dubbed into Spanish.  While we were told that they took walk-ins, since we are a party of 5, we planned (and expected) to just make an appointment for later.  To our surprise, we were told to hold tight – as we were next.  Julie went first, and before she came back – it was my turn.  I was ledto the room – and again – it looked ‘normal’ – more or less the same as my dentist growing up in Longmeadow, MA and my most recent dentist in Wilmette, IL.  I sit down in the chair, and before I lean back into the chair, the hygienist puts the ‘dentist bib’ on me.  She then hands me a folded-up paper towel and walks out the door.  OK – this throws me a bit off – as now, I don’t know what to do with this towel.  Given that I was a bit grungy looking (it had been a while since my last good shower), I figured I should put the towel on the headrest and lean back.  I sit there for a minute or two, and the hygienist comes back to get started.  Starts off like any other cleaning – and then, she gives me another towel and has me rinse out my mouth – and I realize that the towel was for me to clean my face (oops… my family had a great laugh about this – as they all figured it out the first time).  Anyway, after a quick rinse, the hygienist puts some gel on my gums.  Oh no…. I really hope this isn’t numbing gel – as numbing gel means discomfort is on the way.  While the hygienist leaves my mouth for a minute to get a tool, I sneak a quick ‘taste’ with my tongue – and my fears were confirmed as the tip of tongue started tingling and goes numb.  Turns out the tool she was grabbing was some sort of electric scraper – and it was definitely uncomfortable – for only about 2 minutes.  The rest of the cleaning was quick and painless – until the hygienist tells me that I have 4 small cavities.  Yikes – I haven’t had a cavity inyears…. Ugh.  Looks like I’m coming back for some fillings.  Note – the uncomfortable part of the cleaning is the same procedure my first dentist in Ridgefield CT used – so I’m not implying at all that the dentist wasn’t good / modern / etc…. Also note, that uncomfortable part was why I changed dentists – turns out I’m a wimp at the dentist…

Two days later, I go back to get my fillings.  After getting a bit lost and taking a self guided tour of downtown Luperon, a guy selling fruit from a small storefront pointed me in the right direction.  I get to the office – now with a pineapple in my bag – and still a bit early, as I feared this may happen.  After a short wait in the lobby, I get into the room and confidently hold on to my paper towel as I lay back onto the chair.  The dentist starts talking to me in Spanish – to which I reply back with a blank stare.  He gets somebody from the office to translate.  ‘Raise your hand if you feel any discomfort’.  ‘No problemo’ I reply – good to know that the raised hand is the international symbol for ‘ouch’ at the dentist.  Just then, two things happen at once.  First, he fires up the drill – with the unmistakable, and universally ‘bad’ high pitched whirl.  At the same time, a rooster crows right outside the window of the room I am in.  Now – notice that I didn’t mention anything about novocaine or any other tooth numbing procedure.  That wasn’t an omission –  there wasn’t any…. So, now, I’m sitting in a chair with a dentist who I can’t understand who is about to drill into my teeth without any novocaine as a rooster crows a few feet away from me.  All that flashes thorough my mind is ‘what series of bad decisions got me to this place?’  I also reflexively raise my hand – well before he gets anywhere near my mouth.  Oh well, here goes nothing I think and drop my hand and sit tight.  Turns out to be the least painful set of fillings I have ever had.  About 5 or 6 times, the drill hit a sensitive spot – I raised my hand, the dentist reacted and pain stopped immediately.  After what seemed like only a few minutes (maybe 10 or 15), I was completely done and walking out of the office – no pain, no numbness – just feeling great.  Turned out to be the easiest set of fillings I’ve ever had.  Guess the decisions that got me to that point maybe weren’t that bad.

As Julie mentioned in one of her posts, we’ve been following the advice of Bruce Van Sant on our trip so far.  Bruce is the author of A Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South – the ‘bible’ of traveling from Florida to the British Virgin Islands.  His advice / guidance is based on his 80,000 + miles of traveling this part of the world over many, many years.  Two interesting things about the book.  1) It works!  By following his advice, we’ve had a relatively painless trip through the “Thorny Path” – as the trip from FL to the BVI is known.  2) Bruce’s writing style is blunt.  In the book, there are two ways to do things – his way and the wrong way.  Based on point #1 – I tend to believe that he is right – but the way parts of the book are written and an unflattering picture of him on the cover of his book have garnered him the title of ‘grumpy guy’ on our boat.

When we heard on the twice-weekly cruisers net that Bruce was going to be giving a talk at the local marina – we couldn’t wait to meet ‘grumpy guy’!  We got there early and saw him surrounded by a handful of other ‘fans’.  When the crowd thinned, we walked over to say hi.  He was nothing but friendly, gracious, and cordial – not a hint of grumpiness.  We had a nice conversation and got this nice photo.

He then gave a good talk – mostly a Q&A session.  While he wasn’t at all grumpy, he does has a bit of edge – and isn’t afraid to share his philosophies and opinions. After 7 months and a whole bunch of miles since casting our lines from Racine WI, I find that I have become especially aligned with his philosophy of what makes a good sailor.

Bruce spent decades sailing up and down the Caribbean – and, I think it’s safe to say, he has probably ’seen it all’ when it comes to sailing these waters.  From this experience, he has learned what works and what doesn’t.  A lot of his ‘what doesn’t’ experience came from listening to self-proclaimed ‘heroes of the open seas’ telling tales of how they overcame completely unexpected foul weather and used their tremendous sailing skills to weather the storm (both literally and figuratively).  These guys (always guys) didn’t know that 9 times out of 10, their ‘completely unexpected’ weather was actually rather likely given the current and longer-range forecasts.  They just never bothered to check, because, in their minds, they were great sailors who can handle any conditions.  So, while these guys would call themselves great sailors, Bruce doesn’t agree.  In his talk,  he proclaimed this several times that these guys were ‘losers’ – partially for pretty good comic effect, and partially because I think he believes it.  His philosophy (and one I’ve adopted) is that the true test of seamanship isn’t how well you can get yourself out of trouble, but rather, how well you can put yourself in the right position to avoid trouble. (Note, this doesn’t apply to professional delivery captains, Coast Guard and Navy sailors, etc – just ’normal folks’ like us).

In theory, this is easy to do – you just wait until you get a good weather window before you move to the next port (which is pretty much what we’ve been doing).  In practice, however, for us this means that we can’t stay in some places as long as we’d prefer – like how we had to leave the DR early and missed seeing some friends.  It also means that we have to bypass other spots we’d like to see (i.e. Samana – also in the DR).  And sometimes it means that we have to stay some places longer than we’d like.  While these inconveniences seem difficult at the time, they are a lot better than getting stuck in ‘avoidable’ nasty weather.  Now, unpredictable things can and do happen, and with the right attitude, those situations become adventures. It’s another thing, however, to find yourself in an uncomfortable spot that you could have easily avoided.  Those situations aren’t adventures – those make you feel like a loser.  Luckily – we’ve kept those to a minimum…