Witch, we have not visited
Haiti recently but we did visit there in 2002 and later talked with a Belgian sailor who, while working for the UN, lived aboard his
boat for 3 years there. The answer to your Q, based on our experience and his comments, is that it all depends on where you go.
Because of multiple previous reports from those who had preceded us, we chose to visit Ile a Vache, a large island of ~10,000 Haitians on the S coast. It was idyllic in many ways, completely safe (several excellent
anchorages on the N shore at the W end; the people were warm, welcoming and a joy) and it was, to my mind, like finding a 1930's National Geographic and being able to walk thru the picture on the front cover. E.g. there was a shipwright building one to the typical unballasted all-purpose sailboats on the beach, just him and an apprentice, and they had two tools: a saw and a hammer. Took them most of a day to saw one or two long planks for the
hull. The native
women would go to the well each morning, each with a tall clay pot on their
head, and the little girls would follow their moms while trying to balance their small pots. (To add some contemporary reality to the scene, the well
water was a source of dysentery to the villagers, many of whom got quite ill drinking it...but they no alternative).
Ile a Vache is across the bay from Les Cayes, one of the major cities, and that's one reason its so safe to visit. The UN worker told me it's considered the 'resort area' (in fact, former French cruisers had built a
hotel adjacent to the anchorage we used - altho' there were rarely any guests) and the Belgian snickered at me when I said we'd visited Haiti. "Not the real Haiti," was his reply.
I'd bet that today Ile a Vache is the exception to the
rule and not typical or what one's experience might be elsewhere in Haiti, just as it was when we visited.
You'll find many threads on the DR so search is your friend. We thought the DR's S coast was excellent cruising and much more accessible than its N coast, which is usually the only one most cruisers try to visit.
Jack