About a year ago when I was heavily researching boats and cruising in general, I spent time on a forum called cruisersforum (cruisersforum.com). Like most social networks there is a lot of static there but there are also many folks with valuable insight and unique experiences. I struck up a conversation with a guy named Byron who loved diving and catamarans just as I did. He told me he lived in Turks and Caicos and we agreed to meet up when Hideko and I made it out there.

So here we all are. What an amazing couple!! Bryon and Polly, along with Polly's son Trevor, came by the marina in the morning today and we spent the entire day together. They took us all over the island. Provo is really spread out, there is no real center of activity. We would have never found all of the cool places they took us to on our own.

We had lunch at the Conch Shack, which is a must. We watched the guys clean live Conch out on a table on the beach and had fresh Conch fritters and Conch Curry. We also stopped by Turtle Cove Marina which is the only real commercial marina. The shipyard is a shipyard and the Leeward Marina is mostly a base for all of the charter operators with one dock. Turtle Cove is quaint and has shops and restaurants.

We went shopping at the Graceway IGA grocery store and bought an entire grocery cart full of stuff. Trevor helped me pick out the top shelf peanut butter and jelly sandwich supplies. This is the best grocery store Hideko and I have seen since Florida and we went nuts. It was not cheap though, a full cart with UHT milk on the bottom rack was about $800!

We picked up a few things at the ships store as well. Most of the chandleries south of Florida have had primarily power boat stuff. It was no different here but they had the essentials. Like Mic says, maybe not what you want but certainly what you need.

We had a great dinner at the Caicos cafe. This place is run by a French gentleman and the food is fantastic, as you would expect. Hideko (native Japanese mind you) personally thanked the owner for the best Carpaccio she had ever had.

Byron has more dives than I'll ever have and told intriguing stories as we enjoyed dinner. Polly is a technology consultant and has the luxury of working from wherever she likes. They are looking into cruising cats and we are hoping they join us for some sailing in the months/years ahead.

At the end of the day Byron and Polly dropped us back off at the boat. Who would drive strangers around an island all day long, hanging out for exciting activities like buying groceries? Byron and Polly.