Back in the Saddle

Stage 3 Turks & Caicos –South Side Marina to Wheeland Cut: 24 Jun 09

Sunset over Wheeland Cut

This is what they call “staging”.  It’s simply a matter of pre-positioning yourself to ensure the following day is a nice quiet day sail allowing plenty of light to anchor before you set out the Rum Coolers or Beer Buzzers.  We chose Wheeland Cut, a wide but rarely used hole in the coral reef on the northern side of Providenciales in which to hunker down for the night.  We were in virgin territory and felt like real explorers.  Thankfully, the wind died, the seas slackened and the mozzies forgot about us – so we rested peacefully before our scheduled early morning start.  Hopefully on the way out, the Motleys wouldn’t graze WJ3’s keel on lurking coral heads; we were keen to start our “Bahamian Banks Drift”. 

But we just don't want to leave this...

Just as a political aside, we understood that TCI was brewing up a momentous political storm.  It's said their Governor General (appointed by HRH Queen Elizabeth) is on the edge of sacking the current day government due to alleged corruption.  Amongst other things, it seems that monies ($5m) given as hurricane relief have just vanished.  I need to get my facts straight though as we were only hearing local gossip, but we were told to check out tcijournal.com as a reference.  Don't be surprised if it's shut down - seems a little criticism hurts...

From: South Side Marina, TCI  Lat/Long: 21 45N  72 13W  Date/Time: 24/6/09: 1140

To: Wheeland Cut, TCI  Lat/Long: 21 51N  72 18W  Date/Time: 24/6/09: 1600
Time Taken: 24nm (4.5hrs)  Distance (this year): 1066nm (244hrs)
Distance Total (since 2008): 2015nm  (412hrs)   Fastest Speed: Not noted**
Weather: Winds SW 7-10kts; Seas 2-4ft; SW swell; ripples over banks
(**Another nerve racking trip across the Sandbore Channel threading our way past coral reefs and large bommies)

Two Friendly Potcakers

Stage 3 Turks & Caicos – Sapodilla Bay to South Side Marina: 21 Jun 09

Whilst trying to find somewhere to check in, our trusty Cap’n found a small marina in Cooper Jack Bight where we could refuel, re-water and do our washing.  There was a large IGA nearby to take care of reprovisioning, Customs came to us and a Dive shop worked out of the marina.  And they had 24/7 internet!  SOLD!  We’ll have 3 nights please.

Park your boat here Mister...

It was time to treat ourselves after our 5 day slog.  The South Side Marina is cruiser-friendly, even if their channel was somewhat hair-raising.  Five feet noted Cap’n Chaos on the way in.  Little did he know that our depth sounder would register 4.7’ on the way out!!!  We have a draft of 5.5’.  Technically, we needed roller skates fitted to our keel to make it into our berth….

Lunch with Bob

Our host Bob had a Sunday lunch date arranged at the Bay Bistro Restaurant and we were invited.  The open air restaurant overlooked the famed Grace Bay Beach - miles and miles of silky, white sand and endless turquoise.  We looked out for Jojo, the resident protected dolphin, but as it was Sunday, he must have been in Church.  We did meet Fred however, who runs a horse-riding business further down the beach.  He had spent his morning giving his lovely charges a teeth cleaning session.  You learn all sorts of things when you travel.

A "Get out of My Hair Day" at last!

Cap’n booked himself a dive trip.  Incredibly, the Banks average about 12’ of the clearest turquoise waters over a platform of coral reefs and islands.  On the edge, they instantly drop into the deepest of trenches.  Diving these areas is called “diving the wall”.  Himself had a day of two wall dives out from West Caicos, which he enjoyed immensely, seeing a huge leopard ray, which had a little school of remoras swimming with it.  He also saw the only crayfish in the Caribbean Sea!  Yes, it is out of season – but it seems they’ve all gone somewhere on holidays too!  The crays, tuna, mahi mahi and bonito, in fact any edible fish, have all left the building – we’ve not seen any at all!

 GS had a peaceful day working madly on catching up with internet chores.  Isn’t skype a wonderful thing?  Best of all, she got to meet Effie and Gemma, two potcakers who had taken up residence at the marina and now almost owned it!  

Potcake is the name given to a stray or homeless dog/animal on the islands.  Gemma was missing her owner, the marina manager who was away on holidays, so she set about making herself very comfortable for the night on board WJ3, all meals included!  Who could blame her?  We lit our barbecue and shared (with Gemma who insisted!) the best, freshest food we’d had since leaving home.  Then tucked her into bed, as you would too!

From: Sapodilla Bay, TCI Lat/Long:21 44N 72 17W Date/Time: 21/6/09: 0730

To: South Side Marina, TCI Lat/Long:21 45N 72 13W Date/Time:21/6/09: 0830

Time Taken: 4nm (1hrs) Distance(this year): 1042nm (239.5hrs)

Distance Total (since 2008): 1991nm (407.5hrs) Fastest Speed: Not noted**

Weather: Winds SW 10-15kts; Seas 2-4ft; SW swell

(**Good shelter from SW in the marina – normally the “quiet”side; milky green water due to ongoing resort & marina dredging nearby)

Sapodilla Sunrise

Sapodilla Sunrise: 20 Jun 09

One of the joys of cruising is meeting folk, especially fellow Aussies.  So here we were, setting out our anchor in Sapodilla Bay, in the middle of nowhere with 3 other yachts.  One was occupied, the rest deserted, perhaps for the summer season.

Putt putt putt…over came a fellow cruiser, an American in his little dingy. “Are you the real thing or is that flag just bogus?” he called out to us.  “We speak strine and we’re fair-dinkum!” we answered back somewhat indignant!  At that stage we wished we’d taken serious strine coaching lessons from our mates Squiz and Ingrid back in Nepal.  Never mind!  Mo and his Aussie partner, Margaret occupied that solitary cruising boat.  We invited them over to have a beer or two and find out their story.  Seems they were heading home to Drummoyne (yes that’s in Sydney, even!!).  Now, how’s zat for coincidence? 

They say there are more than a million Aussies living overseas.  I think we’re well on the way to meeting them all!

Deep (really deep) Thoughts

Deliberations along the Thorny Path

The Thorny Path is a popular term given to the trek made from the US to the Caribbean, usually by Snowbirds* heading south into the tropics.  It is made mostly over winter months, across a few nasty passages and always bashing into those relentless trade winds.  Hence the title “thorny”.  I’ve read that many a cruising dream has crashed along this challenging route.

This was our reward at the end of a passage

The Caribbean has some dark deep waters.  We had already crossed the Anegada Passage.  Now we faced both the Puerto Rican trench, the second deepest in the world, and its nearby cousin, the Mona Passage.  The Mona strikes fear into the hearts of many cruisers.  A 60 mile passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, its unpredictable currents, deep waters (16,000 ft) and rough shoals equal brutal waters.  In both these areas, huge volumes of water tumble into deep trenches, creating massive, underwater waterfalls.  Not far away, the Gulf Stream, perhaps the world’s largest maritime river at 45 miles wide, is flowing northwards at a rapid 2.5 knots.  In the middle of the Bahamas Banks lies the Tongue of the Ocean.  This crevasse drops to a mere 8km deep.  Don’t think we’ll be snorkelling that one!

Mixing it up (and keeping us on our toes) were some amazing evening thunderstorms that raced out from Puerto Rico to about 30 miles off the coast.  Each evening, a line of dramatic thunderstorms and lightening spears are released by a mix of land heat and the setting sun.  Sometimes these storms dissipate to squalls or showers. Other times they can grow into monsters; intense storms that some say are fiercer than those in the North Sea.  Again we were lucky as we watched threatening rain-filled clouds and lightening crack the skies around us. We could have seen worse.

May & June are months when the otherwise constant NE Trades quieten down and are replaced by south-easterlies; a precursor to the hurricane season when winds become tropical revolving storms.  Off we went lickity-split, taking advantage of fair winds and following current.

Well we do need a holiday too!

 

*Snowbirds is the term given to North Americans (& Canadians too, I guess) who travel south to winter six months in the balmy waters of the Bahamas or Caribbean.  I wonder what they’d call Aussies going north to the Whitsundays – Pelicans?  Penguins?

Don' Touch Dis

Stage 3 Turks & Caicos - Culebra to Providenciales: 16-20 Jun 09

A Leap of Faith along a Thorny Path

Our giant leap of faith was of course, five straight days of sailing….challenging or tempting fate for the GS!  Anyway, there’s little to report except another barracuda and a thankfully uneventful crossing.

So five more non-stop days of this

We had tossed up whether to follow the well travelled thornless path – south coast of Puerto Rico; wait for good weather to cross the MONA Passage (Please! Whispered reverence when speaking of these treacherous waters!) and then hiking up the north coast of the Dominican Republic.  Our need for speed had made us take the adventurous route and simply sail the passage between the Banks and the largest of the Caribbean islands – just like they did in days of old. 

And five more days of tweeking this & that.  But actually sailing!

The weather ranged from calm (motoring) to enough wind to give us a pleasant sail.  So what did we do?  We wore our harnesses, slept lightly in the cockpit, took turns at keeping watch for passing ships (fortunately not many) and made sure the ipod was well charged.  Our Cap’n-of-the-strong-stomach read a book-a-day and did all the cooking.  Don’t feel too sorry for him; all he did was open cans or make up cups-o-soups or 2 minute noodles, whilst GS survived on her potato crisp ration.  As the Cap’n read & slept, so the GS slept & read. 

Docked at South Side Marina

We had hoped to make landfall at French Cay, once a French pirate lair, now an isolated marine park on the southern edge of the TCI Bank.  However, our arrival at 4am and growing respect for navigating coral reefs in shallow water persuaded us to keep going to the “Freighter Channel”.  In the early morning light, even this deep water channel seemed to have bommies lurking at every turn so we rounded West Caicos and in better light headed for the Sandbore Channel; a mere 9.5nm of nervousness.

Sailing past Turtle Rock along the Sandbore Channel

So, in the space of 5 days, we had saved ourselves at least 2 weeks of day sails…thorny indeed but incredibly fast!  Our reward is to sit here in the magnificent warm turquoise waters of Sapodilla Bay, Turks & Caicos Islands.  Hallelujah brother, pass the beer!!

From: Cayo Pirata, Culebra Lat/Long: 18 18N  65 17W  Date/Time: 16/6/09: 1010

To: Sapodilla Bay, TCI  Lat/Long: 21 44N  72 17W  Date/Time: 20/6/09: 1230

Time Taken: 500nm (98.5hrs)  Distance (this year): 1037nm (238.5hrs)

Distance Total (since 2008): 1987nm  (406.5hrs)   Fastest Speed: Not noted**

Weather: Winds light to brisk, mostly ESE 10-20kts; Seas 5-6ft; SE current

(**Mixed bag of thunderstorms out from Puerto Rico; following breeze & current to push us along at a leisurely pace; no whales!)