Side By Side in DISTRESS at Punta Cana!….I knew that too would be a grabber.

The miles and miles of sand beaches on the east end of DR are spectacular. I imagine that is what motivated Julio Iglesies and two other investors to buy some 18,000 acres of the eastern end of DR and over time have turned it into a semi eco friendly resort. Our approach to enter the marina through the reef was well marked once we could see the bowling ball sized markers in the ocean. Crab pot markers show up better than these do. To ad to the confusion, a newly constructed marina next door also laid out a line of identical balls in the ocean.

We unknowingly had snagged a discarded crab pot line on our starboard propeller while we were motoring on our SB engine only. We had both engines running through the cut but still only the SB in gear. When we came into the marina area, Angie engaged the port engine to turn the boat toward the fuel dock. Pludwunk, pludwunk, pludwunk went the strangled propeller. Uh Oh! Concrete pylons, boats on the docks, and one 48’ space (we’re 42’) off our quarter and slightly upwind in the 18 knot trade winds.

Without two engines a cat has as much control as a 30’ rowboat with one oar. There is not enough room to power up and out, or distance to drop the anchor, or time to get another cup of coffee to clear our tired heads. So here we go, a one oared semi controlled crash. The 3 Spanish speaking locals on the dock don’t understand our predicament. Probably because we are yelling in English and don’t have time to go below and get out our English to Spanish dictionary to explain what our distress is. Fortunately Minon emerged and was able to gather we only had one engine and were “drift-crashing” using the wind and one engine.

We let the boat drift in such a way that the bow was closest to the wall and just clearing the pylon in front of the boat and securing the bow line. They then shortened the line as we reversed and swung the stern into the space. “Squish!” went the fenders. It was a perfect crash landing. Lesson learned: put both engines in gear before docking when you need them.