Welcome to the Turks and Caicos
05 March 2006 | Turks and Caicos
We had a good 8 hour passage from Southeast Point in Mayaguana to Sapodilla Bay in the Turks and Caicos. Woke at 4 am so we would arrive in the TandC with good light. Anchor down at 12 noon in Sapodilla Bay and Paul (from Dreamweaver) and I went ashore to clear into Customs. The boys had taken down the Bahamian flag and now the Q-flag was flying. It is a yellow flag one must fly until after you have cleared into customs, then the TandC flag is raised. Only the captain is allowed to leave the boat to clear in, and since this is a US documented vessel and since Menno is a foreigner that makes me El Captain! No problems celaring in- did have to pay $28 in weekend fees..
The Turks and Caicos are a British Dependent Territory and are named after a cactus! The scarlet dome of the Turks Head cactus reminds one of the Turkish fez hat! Christopher Columbus discovered these 8 islands and 40 cays in 1492 on his world tour. The Spanish enjoyed the isles for awhile as did many pirates during the 16th and 17th centuries. Anne Bonny and Mary Read were two female pirates who hung out here for a while on Parrot Cay! The Loyalists also stopped here when they were booted out of the US and set up some cotton plantations on some of the outer islands. There is your history about the Tand C!
Went into "town" to get some things at the grocery store. Not much of a town, but nice grocery store! The Tand C is very popular with the Scuba diving crowd and there are many, many resorts located on the north shore of the island. There are over 1000 shipwrecks located around the TandC islands! Many of these date back to the 1600 and 1700's.