Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

I was buddy boating with a guy from

Panama to the USVI. We were separated in the Windward Passage due to bad weather and he arrived off the harbor of Puerto Platta about two hours ahead of me. I had the chart of the harbor and he didn't. This was way before GPS was widely used and everything was done with paper charts, hand bearing compasses and your eve balls. It was at night and he decided to use the range light to enter the harbor. While he was trying to locate the range he hit the reef. Those of you who know Puerto Platta, he landed right under the oud Spanish fort El Morro. He hired a fishing boat to pull him off but I arrived before it arrived from inside the harbor. I used my surfboard to paddle into the boat and when the fishing boat arrived, retrieve the tow line. I was on board for the entire time that the recovery took and then spent a couple of weeks helping him get to Puerto Rico.

Messages In This Thread