Pulled up the anchor and got an early start.  What a beautiful day.  The kind of day that makes you want to think about not stopping at Punta Macao.  How about keep heading to Punta Cana.  Why stop there?  Why not go all the way to Puerto Rico?   We could hear,on the VHF radio, a few other sailboats somewhere around us and they were going straight through.  Maybe we should too?  (Obviously we hadn’t learned our lesson)  A few hours later we run right into a fishing net, wrapping it around the starboard engine.  The engine stops.  Here we go again.    Dan has to suit up and jump overboard in the middle of nowhere.  I make him tie a rope around his waist to keep track of him.  The fishing net is wrapped around the prop and he has to take a knife and go under the boat to cut it loose.  It takes awhile. but eventually he gets it free, luckily without cracking his head on the boat. 

We are underway again but when we hit the storms later on, we take it as a sign we need to stop at Punta Macao for the night.  Later we can still hear the other sailboats on the VHF.  They have a rainy night ahead of them.  I am so glad we stopped.

We are no sooner anchored than the coast guard came out on the pretense of seeing our paperwork.  There are a lot of people on the beach, having a big party.  The translator guy with the coast guard tells us that he wants to make sure we are safe here and that no one boards our boat trying to smuggle to Puerto Rico.

“There are crazy Dominicans here.”  He adds, “I’m Dominican too but I’m not crazy!”

He tells us that we can stay and they will have a boat patrol the harbor.  Of course, it would be nice if we could give them a little something for this.  What a salesman!!!  Of course we don’t believe they will patrol the harbor, nor do I believe a crazy Dominican will become a stowaway on our boat, but we give him a little something anyway.

There is alot of activity on the beach, and he tells us that they have much “laughter”.  At least that is what I thought he said.  I just nodded.  He said it again, “So if you want you can come to the beach.  We have much laughter.”  Again I nodded.  I really needed much laughter, but I was really just exhausted. 

Later Dan told me he was saying lobster!  I really could have used some lobster!!! 

  We moved the boat today in preparation to head to Punta Macao.  The island is really pretty and we got to anchor next to the cruise ship. 

It just won’t stop raining here.  I am so tired of it.  I am tired of looking at the dirty water. The flies are unbelievably bad here.  I can’t keep them out or kill them fast enough.  Today was the worse.

We haven’t been able to bring our trash up to the dock because of the rain, so three bags have been sitting on the back transom.  Today there was a break in the rain so we decided to take them in.  I wasn’t feeling well to begin with, and it didn’t help when I looked at the dirty water outside our boat and how it was making a brown stain on the transom.  I watched logs, coconuts, plastic bags float pass our boat, and then…. a huge dead frog.  For some reason this just grossed me out. 

“You’re lucky you didn’t see the maggots on the garbage bags!” said Tristan.  Seeing my horrified face he quickly added, “Dad washed them all off.” 

I looked at the bags of garbage that were now in the dingy, waiting for me to sit next to them.   My glamorous life!

We made it to the dock and Dan took the garbage to the trash can.  We needed to find a grocery store to pick up just a few things.  We also went to the internet cafe to check the weather.  I had hoped we would be leaving the next day, but no.  We were trapped here  one more day.   The grocery store we went into had a good supply, but it was dirt floors, and no lights inside.  I just knew a rat was waiting behind a box of cereal.  But no.  We made it out of there unscathed.  Dan wanted to get lunch but I really wasn’t into it.  I was tired of walking in the mud, the heat and the flies. This is really unusual for me.  Normally I have no problem dealing with the worse conditions, taking it in stride, but today I just couldn’t do it.  I was acting like a princess. 

There was a small local cafe Dan wanted to go into, but I just couldn’t.  I wanted to go into the nice cafe in the new area the cruise line had built.  Dan really wanted to eat local.  Here comes the meltdown.  I informed him I was not walking through any more mud, nor sitting outside a dirty street waving off flies.  I was going to the nice cafe with the white tablecloths!!

We went to the nice cafe with the white tablecloths.  It really wasn’t much more expensive than the local place, and it was clean and bright.  I was happy!  Sadly it didn’t last.  I noticed Dan doing something with his foot.  He looked at me sheepishly.

“There’s a maggot in my sandal,” he said in a low voice.  I gasped as it fell out of his shoe and onto  the floor.  The maggot was huge and was making a beeline for my purse.  Could it get worse???  It did.

 “Kill it!”  I hissed.

He stepped on it and it made a big splat on the floor.  I was going to throw up.

“I need to get that picture out of my head!” I said holding my hands over my face.

“Think of ponies!  Think of ponies!” cried Tristan.

We need to get out of here!