I write a quick update whilst doing bridge watch from Dominican Republic to Fort Lauderdale. Don't worry I'm looking out of the window at the same time.
As I recall the last I wrote was about the crew time in BVI's. Well we left there and headed to the Dominican Republic which, for my sake, will now be known as DR. The Dr was most definitely a great ending on this yacht.
We were moored in a marina with its own "Ocean World" and Casino. We visited the Casino as a crew a few times and whilst Hannah ended about £400 up, I was down, not happy. I've been to Casinos about 5 times and I've work out that from my winnings and losses I end up about even. So back at even I have decided never to gamble in a Casino again, they are the devil!
We also did the Ocean World experience, a Sen Lion Encounter and a Dolphin Swim. Sea Lions are actually quite scary, whereas the Dolphin still remains one of the cutest things on this planet. A guy on our boat actually dislikes dolphins for being 'too' cute, "cute and they know it".
Also in the Dr is a beach called 'Cabarette'. This beach is world famous for being one of the best places in the world for wind/water sports such as kite boarding and windsurfing. On any given day there are about 50 kites flying and 50 windsurfers out there. I went there for a day and found out why this is. Apparently the conditions are perfect. There is a shallow reef off the coast which creates the perfect size waves for jumps, also the breeze blows across the beach, this together makes the best combination of angles for catching wind and wave. People come here especially for this.
Another day off we had myself and 3 of the crew went to visit the 27 waterfalls. We arrived at a v-small ranch and for a small fee booked the trek to the 12th fall. We were given a helmet and a life-jacket, on the 20 min walk to the 1st fall we wondered what they were for exactly. The walk to the 1st fall consisted of us wading threw a few rivers and sampling the face masks provide by the natural clay in the river, of course we just drew warrior marks on our face. Then we reached the 1st fall and it became clear what all the protection was for. We had to physically wade, pull and climb our way way up each waterfall. Going from fall to fall meant swimming up a narrow river with high canyons either side. The rock formation was beautiful. When we reached the 12 waterfall I wanted to continue to number 27 but, as my crew pointed out, we were too late, it would be dark soon. So we set off but and this was where the real fun started. Twelve waterfall we had to make our way down. Some of them over time had smoothed out the rock to form natural water-slides and the ones that didn't have a slide, well we just jumped. I would say that the second to last jump was the highest, I am 1st to go, no problem- stand on the edge...look down... jump... scream... splash, I'm alive, all is well. Now its Hannah's turn- same as above without the scream (I think she was too scared to scream) and now it's mick's turn (our Aussie Engineer) and it goes a little something like this- approach the edge... look down... shake head... step back... approach edge... look down... fell the pressure form the 2 girls who just did it... shake head... climb down a few meters... shake head... say no... (after about 10 minutes of this)... jump... scream like a girl... splash, all is well. Then its Macca, no worries, even a back flip!
I went to the DR with my parents when I was younger. We all got food poisoning and I fainted whilst playing mini golf. All in all my mum didn't quite rate the holiday and tars the DR with the same brush. But it was a great place and if anyone goes, please to the 27 waterfalls, you won't regret it!!
We left the Dr and headed North for 7 hours to a place called 'Silver Bank' where we were promised a chance to swim with the whales. We had guest on for this trip, just 4 days.
I'm sure there is some scientific reason to why the whales come here but if you want to know it you'll have to google it, I'll tell you what I know. 'Silver Bank' is a bank (go figure). It is situated in the Atlantic Ocean, its closest land fall being the Dominican Republic. From 2000 meters deep in comes up to 200 then the bank is about 20 meters deep, with a lot of bogies. I imagine that a lot of vessels have met their demise here. There are actually 2 wrecks there that you can snorkel around. The whales come here around this time of year to give birth and mate. Mainly what you see is mother and calf, they stay here until calf is strong. we had a guide and he took us in the boat to go and snorkel with these giant mammals. We would have to slide in the sea as quiet as possible (like a seal) and hover above. Basically what went on was the mother would lie on the bottom, about 10 meters deep, and calf would tuck itself under her head. Then every 3 minutes the calf would have to come to the surface for air. He would come up right next to you, play around for a little, practicing his tricks I guess, then he would go back to mummy. The calfs we were swimming with were about 3-5 weeks old, small on the scale of things but still the size of a small truck. The calf would do this for about 30 minutes, until the mother needed to breathe then they would move on. I had a great time there and we had some great encounters with whales.
So like I said, when I started this I was on watched heading to Fort Laurderdale where I would be leaving the yacht. I am now sat in Bangkok airport after 27 hours of traveling, waiting for my connecting flight to Koh Samui where my mummy and daddy are waiting to pick me up.
