
For those of you who are interested in finding out more information about spending hurricane season on the historically safe from storms North Coast of the affordable, friendly and beautiful Dominican Republic, then this should help explain a lot more …….
Hurricane Irma came close to the North coast in September 2017 passing 50 miles north of Puerto Plata as a Category 5. Neither Irma (2017), Maria (2017) or Fiona (2022) who passed North of Puerto Plata say 60 miles offshore as a cat 2-3 caused hardly any damage to the North coast ports/beaches. Therefore as usual, Puerto Plata Province provided a safe-haven in the water for the long-term live-a-boards and stored vessels at Ocean World Marina who were all tied securely spider-web-style on the very strong concrete docks that have big bollards on them, or some of the Ocean World Marina clients decided to come out on the hard in our boatyard on steel base frames to spread the load with tie downs where everyone was safe and sound on the water or on land with no damage occuring.
The Weather person trusted by many mariners over the years throughout the Caribbean is Chris Parker of the Marine Weather Center. It’s been mentioned and reported by many that he likes the Puerto Plata Province for hurricane protection, no doubt due to the following factors:
1. Hurricanes at this latitude tend to move from east to west, so from Sosua west to Ocean World Marina & Boat Yard plus to a slightly lesser extent, Luperon Harbor, they have their backs to a very large mountain range called the Cordillera Septentrional Mountain Range. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordillera_Septentrional The range’s highest point is Diego de Ocampo mountain at 1,250 metres (4,100 ft), located near Santiago de los Caballeros in Santiago Province. There are several small plains between the range and the Atlantic Ocean coastline.
2. Then there is the huge Cordillera central Mountain Range https://en.m.wikipedia.org/…/Cordillera_Central… which is the principal mountain range in the country that runs east–west, and includes the four highest peaks in the Caribbean: Pico Duarte (3,098 m/10,164ft) also known as the Dominican alps that gets snow in winter, La Pelona (3,094m/10,151ft) La Rucilla (3,049m/10,003ft) and Pico Yaque (2,760m/9055ft).
Both of these mountain ranges protect the North coast of the Dominican Republic from Hurricanes by breaking up storms and driving them offshore so it’s never been recorded as yet of a direct hit from Sosua Puerto Plata and further West up the coast from here.

Here is a historical overview from NOAA (The National Hurricane Center) going back 100’s of years and if you type in Dominican Republic you can see full records over the years Historical Hurricane Tracks where they either get driven away from the North coast out to sea or can also get driven across the South Coast when they exit Puerto Rico. One bad one, David, exited the Eastern Caribbean and travelled straight for the Dominican Republic South coast across the Caribbean Sea so that was not the norm, and unfortunately with anything to do with nature, it cannot be predicted or controlled but the stats give one a very good idea of a general pattern and it’s the captains call as always.
The below very interesting information was taken from an article in “Passagemaker” magazine 2019 where it was reported that Chris Parker (one of the most well known and respected marine weather prediction centers) explained the science behind his thinking ………
“Prudent mariners know the right-front-quadrant (relative to its forward motion) of a hurricane is typically the most dangerous part. In the right-front-quadrant, not only do winds blow toward the path of the hurricane, but strength of wind increases by the forward speed of the hurricane, and we typically find about 90 percent of tornadoes and waterspouts and most destructive microbursts in this quadrant.
Conversely, left-quadrant (relative to its forward motion) of a hurricane is its “navigable semicircle”. In the left-quadrant, wind blows away from the path of the hurricane, we subtract two times its forward speed from the “max sustained wind” (usually found in the right-front-quadrant), and we typically see fewer severe weather events. Let’s illustrate the difference in wind speed due simply to storm motion.
Let’s examine a stationary Category 2 hurricane with 90 knot sustained winds. Now put the hurricane in motion at 10 knots of forward speed. The moving hurricane will support 100 knots (Category 3) winds in its right-front-quadrant, but only 80 knots (Category 1) winds in its left-front-quadrant. In addition, although hurricane structure varies, with most west-moving hurricanes along the latitude of the Northern Caribbean, the bulk of inbound tropical moisture feeds from the south into the right-front-quadrant while air feeding into the left-front-quadrant is pulled from the north (less-moist mid-latitudes).
No location in the western North Atlantic is completely safe from hurricanes, but if we were looking for a relatively safe spot, it would lie on the north coast of a large, mountainous landmass. Almost all hurricanes move in a general westerly direction during most of their time in the tropics. Later they turn north, then northeast or east-northeast. There are exceptions, but this is the usual pattern. If a west-moving hurricane passes along or just north of the north coast of a large mountainous landmass, then harbors along the north coast will experience the less-strong south side (left-front-quadrant) of the hurricane.
If a west-moving hurricane passes over a large mountainous landmass, dry air and tall mountains disrupt the hurricane’s structure causing rapid weakening of the entire system.
If a west-moving hurricane passes south of the large mountainous landmass, then it is so far from the north coast that conditions on the north coast are mild” ………………………….
Luperón is dead center of the circled area in the image below and Ocean World Marina & Boatyard in Puerto Plata is just to the right. From this you can see that no hurricanes have had a direct hit on the North coast since tracking began way back when https://coast.noaa.gov/hurricanes/#map=2/50.11/-31.1&search=eyJzZWFyY2hTdHJpbmciOiJOb3J0aCBBdGxhbnRpYyBPY2VhbiBCYXNpbiIsInNlYXJjaFR5cGUiOiJiYXNpbiIsImNhdGVnb3JpZXMiOlsiSDUiXSwieWVhcnMiOltdLCJtb250aHMiOltdLCJlbnNvIjpbXSwicHJlc3N1cmUiOnsicmFuZ2UiOlswLDEwMzBdLCJpbmNsdWRlVW5rbm93blByZXNzdXJlIj. The few hits have all been tropical storms, which are represented by the green lines.

Here’s a FB post by “Bums on a Boat” who also did their homework on the N coast storms https://www.facebook.com/share/p/158uF3rk2y/?mibextid=wwXIfr
LUPERON: During passing storms, some of Ocean World Marina’s smaller high speed vessels motor up to Luperon to their friend’s docks or some take a chance to go up there to try to find a space. Latecomers to Luperón marine protected wildlife Eco bay should also get permission from the Armada/Navy to run lines from their vessels into the Eco protected mangroves that surround the harbor and put out anchors to hold them off. Always remember that all owners/representatives in Luperón should always stay with their vessels during hurricane season to watch out for the many unattended boats that break free from moorings or drag anchor and also to be able to motor into the storm to take strain off your anchor (silt bottom so many drag) or take strain off the unknown moorings. Remember that it’s always best anywhere during a storm to have someone with your boat for security reasons. Sometimes the large and very large commercial vessels that hide out there from all around the country and the Caribbean, also drag anchors as did a huge Panamanian inter-island ferry in 2020 during 45-50k gusts channeling down through the entrance, but thankfully the crew were onboard to handle the vessel when it was bearing down on other frightened vessels! https://www.facebook.com/groups/502195700382567/permalink/887034545232012/?mibextid=W9rl1R and here’s a good link for taking precautions re theft https://www.facebook.com/groups/502195700382567/permalink/1454231868512274/?mibextid=W9rl1R . In Luperón, after the TS passes, you must come out of the mangroves straight away as they are environmentally protected as the whole bay is as well as the land surrounding the bay so hence why properties on the land going down to the bay are also governed by environmental rules and laws. This is also why you must see the Armada/Navy to get permission to do any work on your vessel on land around the bay or on the water and definitely not use muractic acid in your heads or undertake work with other toxic products. Also make sure to extend your boats stay whilst there prior to 3 months being up with a Navigational Permit so that you can see the rest of the very different N/NE and SE coast and more when you leave Luperon after season. https://www.facebook.com/groups/502195700382567/permalink/1366057507329711/?mibextid=W9rl1R
SAMANA: Many long term vessels in Marina Puerto Bahia headed for the Los Haities hurricane hole for protection from Fiona in 2022 if they had a max. 5.5ft draft (Bruce van Sant reports 6ft but it could now be silted up) and weathered Fiona as a cat 1-2 after passing over the Samana bay and peninsula as below. Many boats broke their moorings/dragged their anchors in Samana Town Anchorage so sadly ended up on the rocks and beach. The ones from Marina Puerto Bahia who made it into Los Haitise’s small hole were safe but some others with deeper drafts, who had to stay on the marina, had a really scary time riding out huge waves on their strong concrete docks! We now see some of the marina’s long-term vessels with deep drafts who can’t get into the Los Haitises hole coming up to us to haul-out for season.
