I needed somewhere that I could sit and work, and Ken and TJ work in a place around the corner – the offices of DR1.com, which is a website for English Speakers in the Dominican Republic with news, features, bulletin board etc. They work in the office with an American guy called Lu, a Brit called Lee and another Brit called Robert – the owner of the company.

Media stuff on everyone’s screen, everyone working away but taking breaks every now and again to tell jokes, a dart board on the door…

All it was missing was a pole-dancer who worked upstairs and I could have been home.

A wonderful guy called Román Cid who had seen my videos on YouTube (Week 1 – 220,000 hits and counting! Woo! THANK YOU YOUTUBE!) got in touch and really, really helped out – he managed to get hold of the shipping timetable for the week for the entire country, so we knew a) there was a boat leaving here for Jamaica on Thursday and b) a boat left for Jamaica TODAY from… yep, you guessed it… Puerto Plata. The place I just came from! Goddamn it!

Román came into the office and wrote out an email to a guy who had a boat going to Cuba this weekend, who seemed keen to allow me passage, but, worried that I might get stuck in Cuba (although I’m sure none of my wonderful yacht friends Kerri, Andrew and Henry Hauck would let that happen), I decided to aim for Jamaica and then hit Cuba from Florida. It may cost a fortune, but at the moment, I think I’m just going to have to take the bitter pill.

I’ll be getting to The Bahamas from Florida too (yes there is a day trip – cheap too!) so if I can just get to Jamaica…

Román wished me all the best, what a great guy and hurrah for the Internet eh? I spent the afternoon online to Hugh, wonderful Hugh who made phone calls and sent emails and eventually it seemed like we where getting somewhere.

So, the ‘Linge Trader’, departs Thursday, goes via Haiti. There was a boat. I just had to wait for them to say ‘yes’.