The Life of Brad: June 2026 - Hit Two Coral Reefs, Arrived in Luperon, DR, Nate's broken leg, Back to Canada

In this month, I made it to the Dominican Republic where I will store the boat during hurricane season, but not before I smashed it a little on a few coral heads in Turks and Caicos. Spent some weeks in Luperon and gave my buddy boater Nate a hand due to his broken leg which happened days after we arrived in the DR.

Captain's Log 2026.05.31 - Anchor: Big Sand Cay, Turks and Caicos 21 11.589N 71 15.035W - 26 NM

Notes: Coral hit x 2 @6:15 and 6:45 due to flat light couldn't see coral and first one wasn't clear on chart. Then two engines and sail close haul for 6kts. Dropped slightly bent starboard keel in the clearest water I have seen and readied to sail to the DR.

Ah Crap! Hit Coral, TWICE! Early morning I wanted to get over to Big Sands Cay to stage for the overnight to Dominican Republic so I was moving the boat with the sun low and unable to sea the coral heads just below the surface. Hit #1 was only 5 min underway staying close to the navigational line on Navionics, but not close enough to the line...What a horrible sound. Once I passed all the crunching on the hull I dropped anchor and jumped in to assess the damage on the port hull of the boat. The hit occurred at 7ft deep and my draft is 3ft and luckily gouges were lower on the keel and rudder. Not the end of the world.

I pulled anchor and got underway with the plan to go a safer route and the way I came in the day before. At 10 ft water depth I thought I would be very safe even if I went over coral heads (which I had been doing for months around Bahamas and Turks and Caicos with no hits). Well I got that wrong and cut the corner a little too close to get back on the previous path, Smash. Hit #2 was now on the starboard hull and caught the keel less than 12 inches below the hull and bent the rudder slightly although enough to cause interference while turning the wheel. That would need to be repaired before the over night as autopilot was not able to operate correctly.

Low gouge on keel

bent keel, tight spot on hull

Rudder scuffs from coral and
from previous sand contacts

Going from Ambergris to Big Sand, rougher than expected.

lots of seaweed

Beautiful Big Sand Cay was absolutely spectacular and I would have stayed a night, but we had to go do to the weather window we had.

Just about to Big Sand

Captain's Log 2026.05.31 - Buddy Boat: Podapod/Cpt Nate P - Anchor: Luperon, Dominican Republic 19 53.942N 70 57.305W - 89 NM

Notes: Calm sea first half which was good solo in the night. 4kts wind E. Prop engine needs 5 min warm up, not peeing consistent. Took high course to not undershoot Luperon. Last 5 hrs 11-12kts close haul. 5 miles East of target so probably an extra hr at sea.

Switched engines intermittently to
pull seaweed off the props throughout trip.

Were doing it! Nate up ahead

The view for the next 7 hrs

Full moon, but cloudy

Cruise ship off my bow on the way in to Luperon, will I get passed it?

Mountain landscape

Seemed like a long way when
you have only slept 2.5 hrs

Paid 4 months $320 usd to Papo
for a mooring ball

This is where the boat will be for 4 to 5 months to wait out hurricane season.

Luperon has quite a few expats and about 200 boats on mooring balls and only 10,000 or so locals living there. Puerto Plata is the biggest close city about 1 hr away. There are a good 10 restaurants with similar food and of course prices are way better than Bahamas! Lunch is about $5 to 10 usd.

Customs: Helpful to speak Spanish, the customs, immigration, port authority and agriculture are all in the same set of buildings between the dock and town so you can't miss it. It took about 30-40 minutes and $100 or so to get through all the paperwork. Friendly people here and in Luperon.

this is odd, both are two way??

Titanic resto

The way in to the sheltered hole

Got my DR flag up

Garlic tack bread, GF

Goats

Delicious at "Downtown" cafe

Path back to the boats

The Break: Early in the month Nate got on his electric motorbike and ripped up and down the beach and all around happy as a kid until the end of the day when we caught up and he wanted to show me a wheeling...He fell, he broke his leg in two spots and we got him to a few hospitals and eventually a surgery and eventually back to Luperon to recuperon.

Tough break for Nate. Now I had two boats and two dinghies and two motorcycles (one was Dustin's) to handle.

Don't get that mud on your boat!

Papo and sons transporting a
mooring barrel

Lots of friendly dogs

King of the log?

Gregorio hospital doesn't have
running water?

He's in "big" pain yet texting

Off to Puerto Plata

Clinic Brugal, not the cheapest!

A good location

Fire Hall

Tibia break

Fibula break

Waited a few hours until this
guy put support on the leg

Still said he was in lots of pain
The taxi guy from Luperon and
I waited around until 12am.
Nate got a room around 2am.

Luckily Dustin a great free diver and engineer was still in Luperon when we got there and was able to get under my boat to put some epoxy putty on the coral damage that occurred in Turks and Caicos to stop the fibreglass from absorbing more water. Thanks to Dustin for the repair work and Kendra for lending me the underwater putty!

This stuff is pretty good, but
pricey $24 a tube.

Dustin doing a little fishing first

port keel damage

port rudder

Star rudder

Chunk out of Star keel

repair

looking good

Well earned lunch for Dustin
at the Polish restaurant

Off to Puerto Plata to check in on Nate. Rented a car for $30 usd a day from Adriel.

Not bad, propane powered

A little video of the road to Puerto Plata.

Actually a very nice room
$175usd /night

Cops texting

Back to Luperon

Good temp until about lunch then hot!!! 32C

Dustin is young and capable

Oh, the wind and current has some how got all our boats different directions.

Close to the mangroves

Luperon playing Puerto Plata

DR famous for high level baseball

I love these so much!!!

How does Messier tolerate
Subban...what a clown

Side story: we are moving to 3x speed, christ!

Dustin's ketch for sale
He took 2 or 3 buses and stayed the night
in Santo Domingo to finally fly out of
Punta Cana to Poland.

Nice entry to New Amsterdam

Farming gear

Packing up bits and pieces; Jib

Taking care of Podapod

Still got these water maker parts

Lots of meat places

A very sweet street pal

Again to Puerto Plata; this time to pick up Nate and bring him back to Luperon to recover for the next months.

Nice lunch at Skina a block from the hospital

Nate's surgeon Wendy
He was in good hands
All in was under $10k for
a week stay and surgery

The Arizona Cowboy out

Needs attention...

Jib leach needs attention

Solar system dongle needs att.

SUP clips needs attention

End of boom needs attention

Lots of $5 lunches at La Fe

Down goes the hammock

Ah f it!

On a moto again

Dustin's moto

Evenings actually cool nicely

1 usd to 57 DR pesos

Took Nate's electric moto for a careful ride not wanting the same fate as him.

Little sample of the sound of the electric moto.

Looking to Atlantic

Playa Grande

Astrid's Cafe

Meeting some newbie sailors

SOB moment as the wind grabbed my spinnaker and whipped it to the back of the boat. Sacre bleu!

Messing with solar panels that had weakened a lot over the past 3 weeks. Took a week to determine that the wires were undersized and connections needed to be cleaned up.

what...

grounding cable, why?

The connection is inside, wtf?

Nate's eating pretty good

Cows and horses along the road

Papo and crew setting a mooring barrel.

Some odd moments
trying to move a
boat with no motor

Finally ripping the mesh out

Decided to take the E Moto for a bigger ride to Cambiaso Village and beach including Playa Quintino. Thankful to have a bike with knobby tires for this ride.

Sample of the road to Cambiaso

Septic clearly important, lol

While waiting for my lunch at one of the local beach shacks in Cambiaso I went to check out Playa Quintino as well.

Playa Cambiaso

Incredibly hot sand walk requiring my flip flops

Glennis's daughter pointed me in the right way

Playa Quintino

If there is good snorkeling here, I didn't find it

Pretty good lunch with a coco for $18
at Glennis's shack

Back in the Lup

Got myself a haircut $3.50
including a shave

Nate feeling good with Dr. P

The helmet holder didn't hold
the helmet off the tire

Oops, stepped on a bolt

Luckily I had a good build up
of skin on my heel

Damn rubber backing failing

Debating using the bbq anymore
So dirty after only 5 uses

"Downtown" is a pretty good lunch spot

Livestock roads

A sample of the wind to come over the next months. This is about 20kts.

A 60ft new neighbour

Time to lock down the boat and leave for the hurricane season.

water maker inside

Sealed up the composter

Dehumidifier in place

Chau

Ricardo bringing me to shore
and to the airport

Happy trip

Propane is big in DR

Great lunch spot in Imbert

La Cocina de Yoma

Long ride to the airport

Used a lounge pass for a few drinks

Westjet to Toronto

I'm not sure why I bought this

Back in Calgary finally...

My home away from home

Pampa Brasilian Steakhouse

Top sirloin, yummy

Tasty riblets at Swigs

Cheap chocolate! 2x for $1.25
at Dollorama

The once great Calgary Tower
now eclipsed in the skyline

Oops, need to clean that out

Nate and Chris at Gogi all you can eat Korean

2nd Annual

More stuff that will be here
forever...

Heading up to Lacombe to see Mitch

After meeting Mitch and Avi in the Bahamas and finding out they live only 2.5 hours away in Edmonton we decided to connect midway at The Nursey Golf Course which has the longest hole in Canada (780 yard par 6).