My experience with Johnny Dominguez

My dream for the past 10+ years has been to have my own boat and learn how to sail. I am so infatuated with the water and just want to be surrounded by her all the time. When I was 18 I moved to Florida and worked at a freediving shop for 2 years. During this time I got my STCW to start looking to crew on yachts and struggled to find any jobs. February 2023 I went to the Philippines for a freediving internship and was there for 7 months. I got in to a bad accident and came home and started working to save money to fund learning to sail.

I quit my job and started looking for sailing opportunities. I learned that you could sail hitchhike a few years back and have not been able to stop thinking about it. I was having a hard time finding people on Crewbay and FindACrew because I wasn't being as consistent as possible. After a while I thought it might be a good option to finally post on these Facebook groups for sail hitchhiking, not really expecting much. I got several messages and comments.

One message in particular was for an Atlantic Crossing from Johnny Dominguez on June 10 discussing a crossing for the 6th of July from the Dominican Republic, going to Spain. He stated that there would be an instructor on board as captain. I asked why he wanted to use sail hitchhikers for the crossing and he said that the hitchhikers are only responsible to wake the captain up during night watches if anything looks wrong, and because it is cheap, this way he doesn't have to pay for help as well.

I started to ask questions about the opportunity and started to get to know him. And we connected well quickly. He recently purchased this boat and has been sailing on it since. Originally he had told me that he was sailing to Spain to figure out how to charter the boat in the Mediterranean. It is a 77 foot CNB beautiful sailboat with 5 rooms and 5…

Her written account of how she found the offer and got to the boat. What happened after she boarded is summarized below; more of her own words can be added when she is ready.

For business filings and a public civil docket naming Johnny Dominguez a/k/a JD Rex / Vestige LLC, see Public record.

Also documented

After she arrived

She flew to the Dominican Republic for the July 6 departure and went aboard CAP II. After the first night, she reports that he quickly began raising sexual topics. She tried to avoid that and went to bed. The next morning he approached her again and continued pressing her for sex. She describes being afraid, worn down by the pressure, and far from home on his boat when sexual contact occurred.

Another woman, Katrina, came aboard and was pressured in a similar way. Katrina is older and better able to push back; the two of them left the boat soon after. She recorded much of this in a diary and on video soon after it happened. She is home now.