Los Haitises Day Sail

The Los Haitises is one of Samaná's quiet wonders — a low sea cave near Playa Frontón, on the far north-west coast, where light entering from beneath the surface fills the chamber with an electric, luminous blue. You swim in under a low rock arch, so it is reached only from the water, by boat or with a guide; there is no road to it. The day sail is built around it, paired with the leeward coast's clearest beaches and the reef of the Los Haitises mangroves, named for the mushroom-shaped coral heads along the bottom.

We leave Marina Puerto Bahía and sail west along the leeward coast, the trades on the quarter and the dry, cactus-and-divi-divi landscape sliding past to starboard. The morning's first stop is one of the great west-coast beaches — Playa Playa Rincón, with its double reef, or Playa Rincón — for clear water and a snorkel before the day boats arrive. From there we work up toward Playa Frontón and the Los Haitises itself, timing the swim into the cave for the calmest light of the day.

The Los Haitises mangroves, off the coast near Playa Frontón, is the snorkel and dive site that pairs with the cave — shallow coral heads shaped like mushrooms, abundant fish, and the clearest visibility on the island. Lunch is on deck at anchor in a sheltered cove, with a swim again after. Divers can arrange to dive both the Los Haitises mangroves and the deeper sites here with a local operator. We sail back to Marina Puerto Bahía on the afternoon breeze, the long leeward coast unrolling astern.