Trevor Nygaard's video: The Friendly Pirates ep 23: The Dominican Shakedown Sailing Turks to Dominican Republic

Arrrgghh maties, welcome to another episode of the adventure, and what an adventure it turned out to be! We wrap up the passage from Turks & Caicos to Dominican Republic and start transiting the north coast to Luperon, but not without some challenges along the way. Halfway through the sail all was looking well but a storm at sea in the middle of the night quickly changed that. Sailing at night is one of my favorite things to do as it gives you an opportunity to exercise other senses since vision is out of the equation. The worst part about it is that you are unable to judge storm clouds effectively like you can in the day enabling you to take action by diverting course and preparing the boat. A telltale sign of a storm arriving is a cold wind, and often as soon as you feel that on your skin its too late and things get interesting quick. As soon as I felt it I immediately rolled in my headsail and put in an additional reef in the main, had I not done this it could have gone much worse, so I was feeling quite prepared for the challenge ahead! What I was not prepared for was how long it lasted. Its quite common for squalls to hit you out in the sea, lasting anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. This was not the case for this storm as Neptune dished out 10 hours of fury at me when I was already 12 hours into the passage, leaving me strapped to the helm for the remainder of the sail. If that wasn't enough excitement, I got one hell of a welcome to the country in a place called Monti Cristi. Grab an ale, rum or any other beverage of choice and enjoy the story of arriving into the Dominican Republic! If you are enjoying the adventure and would like to help support improving it along the way, you can kick a few coins to your favorite pirate here: https://www.patreon.com/thefriendlypirates Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefriendlypirates/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thefriedlypirates Twitter: https://twitter.com/trevornygaard