Destination Guide · Samaná · Winter Base (Dec–Apr)

Samaná Bay

The winter chapter — Marina Puerto Bahía, calm green bay water, and the humpback whales that calve here from mid-January through March.

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From Spanish Water

Winter base (Dec–Apr)

Best time to sail

Mid-December to early April. The fleet is in Samaná only for this winter window — peak whale presence in the bay runs from late January through late March. Outside this window the yachts are back at Spanish Water in Curaçao.

Samaná Bay is the winter base of the fleet. From mid-December through early April — the months the humpback whales court, calve, and nurse here — Cap II, Flying Wing, and SISU operate out of Marina Puerto Bahía on the north shore of the bay, on the Samaná Peninsula of the north-east Dominican Republic. Each April the yachts sail south again to Spanish Water. We do not have two bases; we have one fleet that follows the season.

The bay itself is the draw. Samaná Bay is long and sheltered, running east to west and opening to the Atlantic at the bay mouth — calm green water in any trade-wind state, ringed by green hills, and just under twelve nautical miles across at the wide end. From the marina, Cayo Levantado lies four miles out and the karst-mangrove wilderness of Los Haitises sits twelve miles across the bay. Above all, from mid-January to late March, the bay is the courting and calving ground of two to three thousand North Atlantic humpback whales — mothers and calves come right inside, breaching, slapping, and singing within sight of the deck.

Marina Puerto Bahía is the only true yacht marina in Samaná Bay — one hundred and seven slips, customs and immigration on site, full service, and the boutique Bannister Hotel folded in along the dock: restaurants, infinity pools, a spa, and a concierge that handles the shore programme. Direct flights into Samaná El Catey (AZS) from Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, and Paris-Orly bring most guests in; the rest connect through Santo Domingo. It is, by quiet design, the way the right clientele arrives.

Anchorages

Marina Puerto Bahía

The winter berth — 107 slips on the north shore of the bay, accepting up to 150 ft LOA, with customs and immigration on site, fuel, water, 100 A power, and the Bannister Hotel along the dock. The only real yacht marina in Samaná Bay and the obvious place to board.

Samaná Bay (open anchorage)

The wide, sheltered green water of the bay itself — calm in any trade-wind state, with the long view of Los Haitises across to the south and Cayo Levantado to the east. The cruising water from which whales are seen from deck through the winter season.

Bahía de San Lorenzo

The gateway anchorage into Los Haitises on the southern shore, twelve miles across the bay — flat water at the foot of the karst mogotes, the obvious overnight before a mangrove-and-cave day in the park.

Ashore

Bannister Hotel

The marina's boutique hotel partner — restaurants, infinity pools, a spa, and a concierge that handles the shore programme. The natural first lunch ashore on boarding day, and a calm extension of the yacht for guests who prefer a night on land.

Santa Bárbara de Samaná

The small bay-shore town beside the marina — a quiet walk ashore, a working malecón, and the easiest provisioning stop on the peninsula. Guests staying in Las Terrenas villas transfer in by road from the north coast.

El Limón waterfall

A forty-metre cascade in the green interior of the peninsula, reached by horseback or a short hike — the classic shore excursion arranged through the marina on a settled inland day.