The crossing of the Caribbean sea from Aruba to Dominican Republic is not considered ideal for two reasons. Wind and waves will come a bit ahead of the beam and November is still hurricane season. Some cruisers choose to do island hopping eastwards along the ABC islands and offshore Venezuelan islands eventually back to Grenada and then northwards along the Windward islands insted of a direct NNE course over the whole Caribbean Sea.

On the other hand winds are still reasonably light in November,the risk of hurricanes low and todays hurricane tracker systems very accurate. Moreover currents on this route are mainly favourable allthough setting due west in the last part.

November 5 we found a good window for departure and early morning we moored alongside at Barcaidera for customs/immigration. Checking out went smooth and we got our Zarpe (most important paper for check out of any country) as well as our spear guns that had been held in custody.

Once out at sea we encountered 2m seas with short period slightly ahead of the beam and allthough setting sails and launching the paravanes it was a heavy first 24 hrs at sea.