After a night of revelry and good food in Caicos we set out the next day for Luperon. It was another very quiet night of little wind and smooth seas. We were warned about a large North swell and how that may effect entry into Luperon which sits on the north coast. One guy had done it before in larger swells and convinced us it would work out so off we went. We hooked another Mahi, this one being the largest this year and set out over night once again. As dawn broke we made out the ominous outline of a mountain. We haven't seen one in three years of cruising out here and let me tell you it seemed quite majestic. It was cloaked in rain and gray clouds. Seemed kind of surreal to see that sort of thing after spending so much time in the Bahamas and it's low lying scrubby islands. The swell was probably 6 to 7 feet but very well spaced. We made a single file line and crept in to the entrance. All seemed so easy until I turned to look back and saw a huge wave developing. It was like one of those Hawaii 50 type of waves and it looked huge to me. I was getting concerned about how to manage it as it quietly vanished along a shoal. Not even a small ripple followed us in and we rounded the corner into Luperon. Like many a cruiser I have heard the good the bad and the ugly of this place. I expected a filthy harbor, boat boys offering to reliev us of any extra money and the dreaded Comandante and his entourage of officialdom looking for bribes. None of this could have been further from the truth. Instead we encountered a nice harbor with no more pollution than any other, The nicest people one could hope to encounter and the many officials we were required to meet were all very professional, courteous and not one of them hinted for a bribe of tip. We have only been here a short while and already we feel as if we could spend the rest of our lives here. Being always restless though I'm sure it will be just a mater of time until we move along.
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Comments [3]
Not much that I know of really discusses the Turks and Caicos Islands and therefore we saw them as simply a staging point to get to Luperon in the Dominican Republic. We came in with a couple of other boats and we all seemed to have the same plan. I had heard that Caicos was primarily a sunny beach with big hotels and nothing for the cruising sailor. We were surprised to hear a net in the morning hosted by the local Marina and even more surprised to hear them call boats by name (us) that were miles away anchored out. Most marinas don't give a hoot about anchored boats either. Simon the Marina manager invited us all over for a potluck barbecue. He even sent a truck out to pick us all up. It was a great event made even better by the musical stylings of Robin from Solveig. He was a folk music aficionado and kept the party going well into the night. Simon and his wife were genuinely gracious and any boat "staging" in Caicos would do well to call Simon. He is trying to make cruisers feel appreciated in Caicos and he did a great job.
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Having left the festivities of Georgetown behind us we moved on to Rum Cay. It was a real tough day of beating incessantly into wind and waves. The one bright spot being the landing of yet another great Mahi. Rum Cay proved to live up to its reputation as a rolly anchorage and we got to experience it in all its glory for a week. We did manage to do some snorkeling and captured a couple nice fish and the biggest Lobster I have seen yet. The island is fairly undeveloped and has small roads going all over. We managed a walk to the windward side of the island and were presented with a gorgeous view of reef, bluffs and crashing waves. Our highly anticipated weather window to go east proved to be less exiting than we had hoped for as we were unable to sail. I still prefer motoring to smashing into waves and wind so off we went. Early the next morning we passed by the island of Myaguana and turned south to Caicos. We also turned off the engine and had a great sail south for half a day. Just like that we were out of the Bahamas.
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