Marina Zarpar, Boca Chica

reef behind us at the entrance

The entrance to the channel that leads to Marina Zarpar is quite interesting especially with big swell running as was the case when we entered. On both side of a narrow channel big waves were crashing. On the port side not more than 50 metres away a surfer was on his board riding a wave!

This reminded us of entering the Knysna Heads many moons ago.

We were met by Raul and sidekick on a launch to escort us to our mooring.

We had some problems picking up the mooring in the tight space and strong wind, but nothing compared to the boats that came in the next few days. It was a comedy of errors orchestrated by Raul & co. If only they could just hand over the mooring line and get out of the way.

Marina Zarpar is a nice & friendly marina in a beautiful setting with bathrooms kept spotlessly by Isabella. We found it too expensive. It is in a third world country with third world workers with first world prices!

marina and moorings in gin waters

A mooring (you are not allowed to anchor) cost U$ 18 /day. This give you free wifi and use of bathrooms. The marina restaurant charges  double for what you can find outside after a 15 min walk.

We were waiting for our friends Kat & Joern of S/V Ritmo di Vita on their way from Venezuela, so we had to stay another week.

Luckily we met Frank Virgintino (prolific writer of everything about sailing and seems like he has some interest in the marina) and he organised some discount for paying in advance.

dinghy sailing on open sea with the reef in front protecting the beach 

Tony loving the music!

cruisers of 13 different nations.

Tony Torres of the marina organised a cruisers evening. The Marina supplied the meal and rum punch and live music.

It was a lovely evening with good music (Tony himself turned out to be the lead singer!), very interesting conversation between the crew from 10 sailboats with 13 different nationalities

lunch @ N$50 per meal (enough for 2 people)

Boca Chica is a nice colourful tourist town. In the two & half weeks we often walked along the beach to town, got very cold beers at various places, found “Hawaiian print” shirts @ U$ 8.5 each and a full meal of fried fish  for two for U$ 8.

Boca chica street scene.

where is the carnival?

The boat fridge was giving problems and first I cleaned all the cooling water pipes, then replaced the relay , tried to fix the cooling pump a few times and eventually with the help of Lisa Torres at the marina imported a new pump from USA. Every time I wanted to work on the fridge I had to disconnect the gas line and remove the stove to get to the fridge compressor & pump! And by every evening put all back again so Christelle can cook!

flower power.

At last Ritmo di Vita arrived at 4 o’clock in the morning, we met them at the entrance and guided them in onto a mooring.

The next few days we visited and went together to Boca Chica and also took the bus to Santo Domingo.

another great evening on Ritmo di Vita.