Turtle Cove,

Providenciales,

Turks & Caicos Islands
21.47.141N
72.13.605W

For some crazy reason I couldn’t sleep last night and ended up getting up to readjust the lines to keep the Palace from dancing around in the slip so much. I kept hearing her fender smack the piling on the finger pier and then bounce off. When I climbed outside, I could see her swing from one extreme to the other both at her bow and her stern, so she was all over the place. Dale, of course, slept through everything.

When morning finally dawned, it was overcast and humid. The weather report states that the storm we’ve been hiding from has been upgraded to a sub-tropical status and has been named Andrea. Yesterday, we had the distinct impression that we were going to miss most of it but now I’m wondering about it. We have a window of about 24 hours in which to move north before tucking in again before the next predicted storm passes through. Mayaguana is protected by a reef system too and is on the southern side of the island which should afford us better protection. It will take us approximately 10 hours to transit if we motor all the way. The vessels that arrived late today said that the swell had diminished to 6’ with 12 second intervals; in other words, big rollers.

While I updated the blog, Dale hiked into town to access an ATM machine and buy some tomatoes. By the time he returned, I had just about finished up.

We’ve spent some time getting to know our neighbors in the slip nearby. Chris is from South Africa and Laura is from Alberta, Canada. They just purchased their 47’ Leopard Catamaran and will be taking it to Trinidad for hurricane season and to prepare it for crewed chartering. Apparently they’ve been in the charter business for some time but this is the first time that they will be using their own vessel for the enterprise.

Late afternoon was marked by the arrival of two more sail boats which were berthed on either side of us. One, a single handler, arrived from Rum Cay and the other had a crew of 3 men who plan on leaving tomorrow about the same time as us but making a straight shot to Georgetown. Chris & Laura will also be leaving at the same time but will be heading directly to the BVIs.

June, the Customs/Immigration officer came by a little after 5pm with her 3 daughters in tow to sign all of us out of the country. Chris & Laura invited us and June and her family aboard for drinks and munchies. At first the children were very quiet but after a while they warmed up to us and were soon babbling away. June is a native to the TCIs, born on Grand Turk, although she has lived on just about every island throughout the TCIs at some point or other in her 19 years as a Customs officer. Her husband, a policeman, is a St. Vincentian. All of her children, however, were born in the US. Although I didn’t ask how she managed that, I suspect that she is one smart cookie and planned it that way.

After June and the girls left, we told Chris & Laura that we were heading over to the little Italian restaurant across the harbor for dinner and they were welcome to join us. They agreed and we had a wonderful evening discussing everything from the differences (pro and con) between cats and monohulls to whether it would be better to maintain a boat over a long period of time versus buying a new one when you were ready to take off at a later point.

As we walked back to the dock, lightening was flashing in the night sky pretty frequently. We wished each other good transits and most likely will make the journey out of the marina and to the cut in the reef together in the morning. I hope our luck holds with regard to weather but I have a feeling these next two months are going to be a challenge with the persistent lows that seem to be developing around us.

Turtle Cove,
Providenciales,
Turks & Caicos Islands
21.47.141N
72.13.605W

You know, I miss sleeping in dry, air conditioned comfort. You get acclimated to living without some of the creature comforts we’ve become accustomed to living with on shore but it doesn’t take any time at all to adjust to air conditioning. This particular marina charges you a minimum amount for water and electricity whether you use it or not , so . . . We’re plugged in and turned on. By the time we leave here, I’ll be so spoiled, Dale will have to let me run every single fan on the boat until I can re-acclimate to living without again.

After listening to the weather this morning, we figure that we’ll be here until at least Thursday when the waves are predicted to moderate to something we can travel in. Our slip neighbors on a 47’ catamaran came in late yesterday evening and told us that although things are extremely calm inside the marina, the outside was deteriorating rapidly. In fact, he said that the cut we had come into earlier in the day will most likely be impassable by this afternoon or evening. He said that waves were breaking over the fringing reef and that they left their anchorage further to the south to come in for protection. They plan on leaving the same time that we do but will be heading in the opposite direction toward the BVIs.

I spent the better part of the morning, collecting my hand written notes of our travels over the past couple of days and organizing them so that I could update this blog. Dale went in search of an internet connection for me and came back with a credit card looking thing that has a scratch off pass code. Good! Maybe I’ll do some banking too.

We took another walk around the boardwalk and stopped for a couple of salads at a place called the Tiki Hut before wandering through some of the shops along the road. I got directions to the nearest grocery store from the waitress and maybe tomorrow morning we’ll head in that direction for some fresh produce as its about a mile away starting with an uphill climb.

Back on the Palace, we tucked away our Caribbean charts and pulled out our Southern Bahamas charts to plan the next leg. Our calculations reflect that it will take us a full day to head north to the next island of Mayaguana. This means that we’ll have to head out of the marina very early in the morning and most likely have to motor the whole way in order to arrive before dark. It also means checking into the Bahamas. We can now say, with authority and experience, that this is the most expensive country in all of the Caribbean to clear into and we’ll need to find an ATM before leaving here in order to do so. I guess we’ll add that to our list of things to do tomorrow.

We ended our evening being entertained with fireworks right off our starboard side. We’re not sure what the holiday might be (Hero’s Day?) but we had ring side seats for the celebration. The big finale had sparks landing on boat decks, condo roofs, and grass all to the inside of us but I think everyone enjoyed the display regardless of the sudden stomping at the end.

Turtle Cove,

Providenciales,

Turks & Caicos Islands
21.47.141N
72.13.605W

32.0 NM
5.17 Hrs.
6.1 Avg.
7.2 Max

Current Odometer: 7446.0

We lifted anchor at 7 am and headed out to Sandbore Channel in beautiful clear water that was the color of Windex in the deeper 20-30’ areas. Even at these depths, you still could see clearly the corals, sponges and the occasional barracuda on the bottom.

We rounded north to Northwest Point which is located outside the reef that lies off Providenciales and then back south to Turtle Cove on the island’s northeast shore (the bank is roughly shaped like a triangle in this area.) Although our chart plotter reflected deep water for the entire trip, there were a couple of times that we jumped up and made quick turns to deeper water to avoid the reefs that extended out in our direction. Nothing like getting the ol’ ticker pumping when your depth finder goes from over 500’ to less than 20’ in a minute.

We radioed ahead for an escort through Seller’s Cut, then waited with a 57’ powerboat until a little skiff came out and led us through the circuitous route onto the bank, through the reef and coral heads and finally through the very narrow zig zag entrance into Turtle Cove Marina. Surprisingly, our chart plotter was very accurate for this area but we still were grateful for the guide in.

We were directed to the fuel dock and then handed the paperwork for clearing into Customs and registering for our stay at the marina. Until we cleared, however, we were not allowed to refuel. About 2 hours later, the Customs/Immigration officials arrived and processed our paperwork. I’m not complaining, they came to us and in the meantime, it gave us time to fill out our paperwork, take showers, tidy up a bit and relax in the cockpit.

Once we were officially here, we brought down the “Q” flag, hoisted our TCI courtesy flag and refueled. We were directed to a slip which is way too big for us and hooked up to power and water. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then gave the Palace a thorough wash down. We’re still tweaking the lines trying to center the Palace in the slip and yet allow us to reach the finger pier to get off. For some reason, this time its easier said than done with stationary docks, a 1.5’ tide and what appears to be a constant ebb and flow around the tiny peninsula that we’re on.
We climbed off the Palace about 5pm and walked along the boardwalk that wraps most of the way around the marina. We found ‘Sharkbites’, a restaurant that is supposed to have the best wings for miles around, so we stopped in a had a few. Although a bit salty for my taste, they were very, very good.

Nasty weather lies to the north of us; coming from around Jacksonville no less, so we’ll stay here until it passes.

Sapodilla Bay
Providenciales,
Turks & Caicos Islands

21.44.482N
72.17.342W

45.6 NM
7.21 Hrs
6.2 Avg.

Current Odometer: 7415.0

We hoisted anchor at 7 am and carefully weaved our way out of the anchorage and onto the path that would lead us across the TCI bank and eventually to Sapodilla Bay. The water was crystal clear and more blue green than the shallow waters in the Caribbean which were more green blue. It’s hard to explain but trust me, the Atlantic is a different color than the Caribbean.

The bank is about 10’ all the way across and in a couple of places, we needed to avoid the little patch reefs that lay in our way. We hit our waypoint on the western side and turned to the next one that lay outside of Sapodilla Bay on the eastern bank. It was about this time that Voyager hailed us. They were quickly catching up to us from behind. It seems Voyager had listened to Dale and the captain of “Maggie” yesterday and knew that we were heading back to Jacksonville by July. They too were heading to Jacksonville in about the same timeframe but wanted to reach Georgetown fairly quickly so that Mrs. “Voyager” could fly home for a few weeks. We promised to look them up when we got to Georgetown since we’re heading in the same direction.

We reached Sapodilla Bay about 2:30pm and anchored outside but in front of everyone else since they were all pointed west. Strange winds have been blowing, if any have been blowing at all. Voyager was right next to us but since we both intend on leaving again at first light, neither one of us moved to lower the dinks and introduce ourselves but waved from a distance instead.

We’ve decided that the marina that Gerry & Nicky told us about would be a good place to tuck into until the swell and waves die down from the unusual weather that is happening north of us. It’s protected by a surrounding reef and it’s tucked behind a peninsula inside of that. The only hitch is that its rather tricky to get into. It’s suggested that you radio ahead and have a skiff come out to guide you in on your first time there. We’ve e-mailed a request for reservations and will have to confirm before we get too far around the island to make sure that there’s “room in the inn.” Otherwise, there’s deep sand right where we’re at; although with the weather coming in from the north, it might get a little lumpy.