Gran Turk crossing 21 26N 71 09W

Agua Therapy
Don Graham Glenys Graham
Sat 13 Apr 2013 12:01
April 11th

The later part of the journey was not nice at all after having such a
great downwind sail. The swell at 3 metres and a little confused at
times which threw us about again and then slapped us twisting us into
the next roller, oh well it is the Atlantic again.

We decided not to fly Big Red at night again, the wind increased so did
the sea so we had only just taken it down when a squall with lots of
rain and 30 knots of wind. In fact we had 5 squalls at night not good
but at least the boat had a good fresh water wash taking the salt away
is always a good thing.

During the last night a lovely bird came and joined us for the journey,
it was the first night, Don said he had seen it trying to land on the
parasailor.

It was black with a white head, quite fluffy, it stayed on the guard
rail until the morning.

When we finally came into Gran Turk it was pitch black so we had to
circle about until first light, we were both very tired, the coast line
of Gran Turk is protected by a reef so we did move south to South dock.

Our position now is in the anchorage facing a lovely quiet beach, there
is a cruise liner dock further south and twojettiesboth are concrete and
very high.

Went ashore and tied up the first big dock, and climbed the very rusty
vertical ladder I noticed the 3rd step down was moving, then walked
along to the commercial landing area. Luckily we saw a couple of guys
one of which was a customs guy, he took us to the office. The office is
a tin shed with no signs so we could have walked forever. The office has
quite a few staff, friendly and supplied us with the paperwork to check
in the boat and us, after taking the 50$ fees which then gave us 7 days
of cruising the area.

We walked along to where the dive centre and a few bars so we could get
some local info, it seems like a pretty laid back place from what we
have seen except for the area cruise ships come in although we didn't
take a closer look. A liner did arrive around 1 so it was time for us to
go.

The tourists arrive and are taken on small boats to swim and snorkel but
I don't think there is too much to see.

I will try and update the other blog soon.

Off now going to explore the beach and go for a snorkel on the reef.

BFN

Agua Therapy

Don and Glenys