Thursday, March 5, 2020

Turks & Caicos
21.45.631N
72.13.429W

Today was one of those mixed bags; some good; some not so good.  I awoke early this morning at 5:30 hearing a boat getting underway, thinking it was Louise and Robin I popped my head up to take a gander and saw that it was the large blue party boat heading out.  I did see movement on Zandolee, so I got dressed and headed down in their direction to see if I could lend a hand tossing off their lines.  Louise appeared from behind me and was all atwitter about how she hadn’t set an alarm and they were late getting out.  It was 5:45 so I really don’t think they were all that late and the sun was just peeking up.  Once on the boat, Robin started the engines, I handed them their lines and they left without any issues. 

However, the big blue boat that had left at 5:30 appeared to have anchored just outside the harbor.  Then the tender to the boat came in and the boat’s captain said that he needed to have the marina call customs.  By this time Dale was up and we could only guess at what had happened that caused this scene.  As long as customs was being called, might as well check out ourselves as we have 24 hours from the time we check out to the time we need to leave.  So we thought.  As it turned out, when the officials asked Dale when we intended to leave, he told them day break tomorrow morning, well within the 24 hour time limit.  But . . . we were charged extra for overtime for both customs and immigration.  Their explanation, daybreak is outside of their normal working hours, so its considered overtime.  Not the time we actually checked out midmorning on a workday, nope over time.  I was fried.  Dale was resolved that we are at their mercy. 

I worked off my energy in sweeping and scrubbing floors, washing and hanging out the laundry until Dave and Brandy from Stargazer came by to take me shopping.  They are having more issues with their boat repairs and I really feel for them as I know how frustrated I am when things aren’t going right.  In any event, I was able to pick up my final items and some ice cream bars for them for being such good sports and we all headed back to the marina to talk Dale into joining us all for lunch over at the Green Turtle Marina. 

We had hoped to stay there originally but were told that they couldn’t get catamarans into their marina due to silting issues.  However, their restaurant was in fine working order and we had a marvelous lunch with Dave, the owner, and Caitlan, his daughter.  We’d met Dave when we first got here during the first pot luck dinner we had but had never put two and two together until today.  In any event, I forgot how angry I was at the officials when I listened to what Dave and his family had to endure running a business on this island for over 50 years.  They must have the patience of saints.  One really cool thing, his permanent home is in Ocala, FL.  Just a stone’s throw from us. 

Ready to Leave Southside Marina

Once we got back, we busied ourselves getting ready to take off tomorrow.  We folded and put away all the clothes, paid our bill and then after helping another boat tie up, asked if they would help us in moving to an outside slip so that we could make a clean getaway at day break tomorrow morning.  This was done without mishap or loud voices.  We even looked like we knew what we were doing. 

I made a casserole for dinner so that we will have some left overs for our transit over the next 30 hours and we’ve entered the waypoints to guide us from here to there.  We intend to leave about 5:30 am, cross the Caicos Bank to meet with the others somewhere near Big Sand Cay.  Then with any luck we’ll transit over night and arrive at Ocean World in the Dominican Republic around noon.  At least that’s the plan. 

This time, we’re really on the move.  Wish us luck.