Amulet underway

On our departure from the Dominican Republic, we came across a couple of pods of Humpback whales, one of which was breaching madly. We also had dolphin follow us off the bow, but only for a couple of minutes.

I didn't realize it until our arrival, but Turks and Caicos is a separate, independent country from the Bahamas. This of course requires the expense of a separate cruising permit, and separate customs visits, both in and out......oh well, such is the price of paradise.

We had a nice broad reach overnight sail for 130 of the 160 miles to Turks and Caicos, whereupon the wind gave out, and we powered the remaining 30 miles, making landfall at Great Sandy Cay, which is an uninhabited island at 1230 on Wednesday, March 15th. We spent the remainder of the afternoon swimming in the aquamarine waters, and also took the dinghy ashore to explore the tide pools on the leeward side of the island. Two bald eagles resided on the island, and tons of small lizards, who undoubtedly fed the eagles. There were two catamarans who joined us in the anchorage. It was a very pretty place, and a highlight of Turks and Caicos.

During our morning weather over the SSB during our passage from the DR, we learned of an approaching sub-tropical ridge which would provide too much wind for a couple of days for our movement. Oh boy, here we go again. I scanned the charts for a suitable anchorage, where we could wait it out for 2-3 days and settled on South Caicos Island, which was 25 miles distant. We left the relatively unprotected area of Big Sandy Cay at 1100, and arrived to the protection of South Caicos at 1600. It took a couple of tries to get a storm bite on the anchor, and at that, we were only in 9 feet of depth. With us there were 5 other boats in the anchorage. South Caicos is a point of entry, so we spent the morning clearing customs, visiting the library ladies (one of the featured volumes was "DOS for Dummys"), and exploring the town, which took about 10 minutes. On the way back to the boat, we discovered that our inflatable was leaking water pretty badly, so now in addition to a slight air leak, it was leaking water. We returned to the boat to try to find the leak, but were unsuccessful.

The following day, we took it stayed on board in the morning, then walked a mile or two to a fancy resort to have a drink in the afternoon. We had dinner at the local restaurant, which served some pretty good ribs.

On Friday, March 17th the wind had subsided enough so we were able to move toward the town of Providenciales, where I was to drop off Howard and Mary and pick up my cousins Bob and Sharon Johnston. Our plan was to stop at an intermediate harbor on the way at the north end of North Caicos to spend the night, but when we got to the harbor entrance at 1730, there were large breakers over the entrance of the harbor, to enter would have been clearly a foolish thing to do. We pressed on, arriving to an anchorage inside the reef at St. George's Cut at 2245, and a bit hazardous entering the reef after dark. With the computer and radar, we made it OK, and anchored in 11 feet of sand.

The following morning we radioed our marina, Blue Haven Marina in Providenciales, and they sent out a pilot boat to guide us through the very shallow reef to the Marina. Without pilot boats, the marina would not have any business. The pilot actually took us outside the channel for about 1/4 mile, which was a bit disconcerting, but our faith was well-placed. Following arrival, we went to work in an effort to repair our inflatable, which now had not only an air leak, but a water leak as well. Several of the seams were loose leading us to the conclusion that after 4 years of heavy use in the tropical sun, it had simply outlived its service live.

We got the boat cleaned up and on Monday, March 20th, Bob and Sharon arrived. We were able to phone them just before they caught their flight out of Seattle, and Melinda graciously met them in Seattle with the spare Zodiac from our garage (note to self: carry a spare tender). I got them settled into the boat, and cleared out of customs for the Bahamas. There was just one hitch, our laundry with the promised one day service, had not been returned.

Tuesday, March 21st at 0830, I returned to the boat, anxious to depart for Acklins Island in the Bahamas, and found that our laundry had been mixed in with the laundry of 6 other boats. Not having a photographic memory of what exactly we turned in, I did the best I could, and in the end only forgot one pair of Melinda's shorts. Really a snafu on the marina's part......

Photo is of "Amulet" from ashore on the uninhabited island of Big Sandy Cay, the first (and best) stop in Turks and Caicos.....