Cockburn Harbour, South Caicos - Turks & Caicos Islands - 21:28.61N, 071:32.42W
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Thu 14 May 2009 22:38
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We arrived just off the Turks and Caicos Islands
shortly after midnight. Not having good information for this area we opted to
motor to within one mile of the off-lying reef on Grand Turk's safe leeward
(west) side, duly backed the staysail, put the helm hard over and shut the
engines down. We maintained the watch system (it was Nikki's watch) and drifted
for 2-3 hours in the lee of Grand Turk before running slowly under the
staysail across to our intended destination of South Caicos some 17 miles to the
west to arrive around dawn. That plan worked (for a change) and we duly
arrived in Cockburn Harbour South Caicos when we could actually see what we
were doing. Sailing along at 5-6 knots in a dark empty ocean is all
very well but approaching land we are unfamiliar with or don't have
sufficient pilotage information on is another matter and we prefer to spend an
extra night standing off in deeper water stooging around until we can see where
we are going.
We anchored in 8ft of water on a soft sandy sea bed
(quite deep for this harbour) and let out over 40 metres of chain due to a bad
weather forecast. We were the only yacht in the harbour. Astern of us
stretching for 50 miles were the Caicos Banks - shallow coral reefs, in
some places only a few feet deep. Dragging onto the banks could
be disastrous. Close by a lived-on rusty looking 40ft steel fishing trawler
type boat from Arkansas Texas was anchored, They waved as we passed. They
didn't look terribly Texan to us.
Athough the Turks and Caicos are a
British Colony it's still necessary to go through the clearance procedures when
coming from another port - in our case St Thomas in the USVI's. Besides, they
usually want some $$$ from you. So, with the dinghy launched and Nikki on
guard duties I duly motored ashore with the
ship's papers across the choppy water kicked up by a breezy tradewind and headed
off to find Customs and Immigration officers to report our arrival. This
clearance would also cancel out the time now running on our visa for the
USA, as US Immigration in St Thomas stated that we would have to "be
deemed to have made a meaningful exit from the USVI's which are USA
territory" . We need the maximum 6 months on the USA mainland and the visit to
the USVI's had already started the 6 months period allowed at any one time
ticking down.
Once ashore I went to seek out Customs. When
in doubt ask a local they say. So I did, a young man, who without
hessitation said he would take me to Customs himself. I would never have
found it, so thankyou to him, it was a kind gesture. Inside the Customs office I
was met with more friendly faces from behind the counter. The formalities of our
arrival in the TCI's as they are called was watched over by an
extremely flattering but tatty picture of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh taken
in their younger days. The same pictures probably adorn official buildings in
crown territories throughout the world. In fact the Queen had visited South
Caicos many years ago. In grim contrast in the back office an interview
could be heard with a local politician on the TCI radio station - the
subject - Freedom for the Turks & Caicos Islands! What good
timing!
Having paid the required $15 entry fee I was then
requested to visit the Immigration offices to present the stamped Customs form
etc. This proved slightly more challenging, si I asked the way from
another local man who was sat outside his house texting on his mobile. He
gave full directions, only back in the direction I had just
walked in the seering heat from, then adding those five magic words
guaranteed to ensure the very opposite conclusion - "You just can't
miss it". Well, I did. I walked down one road then up another, then
round the next corner until I was back on the same road as before, as the
man with the mobile phone could clearly be seen in the distance. Desperation
suddenly took hold and I flagged down a large old American car that had
stopped at the T junction next to me. The window was wound down an inch or so, a
worried face on the other side. When I asked for the direction to the
Immigration office the lady behind the wheel started to describe
the wayand then said - "jump in, its easier if I take you there". Another
act of kindness and I had only been ashore 30 minutes. The car had seen better
days, the seats looking as if a large rotweiler had been locked inside at some
time in the past and had become very angry and destructive. "You're lucky Honey,
if this had been Nassau I would have just drove on by" I had
been tempted to reply that if this was Nassau I certainly wouldn't be
standing on street corners asking directions, but that was as much as she
could say in the 30 secs or so it took to drive round the next corner
straight to the Immigration office. I had in fact already walked past
it twice, but then without any outside signage to give any hint
to it's actual function how was I supposed to know.
Again, friendly faces were in evidence behind the
desks and the business was soon concluded. The 'Freedom for the Turks and
Caicos' interview was still in full swing and getting quite lively, so I
took my leave and once outside radioed on the handheld to Nikki to say
I was on the way back to Ajaya via the supermarket, although I had forgotten to
take the shopping list as usual. Inside the general store which was devoid
of shoppers, the shopkeeper was avidly listening to the radio - that interview
again. Having picked myself up from the floor from shock to pay for the
bread it was back to the boat with a loaf of South Caicos most
nutritious multigrain wheatgerm with no preservatives loaf, which, at
$5.50 immediately became the current winning contender in the 'Just how
much can you possibly pay for a loaf of bread when cruising'
competition.
Our afternoon entertainment sailed into sight later
in the day as another yacht appeared through the harbour entrance. Any pleasure
and excitement they may have derived from their arrival, no doubt looking
forward to a cool sundowner was quickly dulled when they went hard
aground in the shallow waters near the ferry dock. What then started as a minor
inconvenience turned first to major inconvenience and then up significantly in
status into the 'what the hell are we doing here' catagory. With all
sail quickly set to induce as much heel as possible the newish looking
yacht of French extraction looked a splendid picture of sailing
elegance - except it wasn't elegently sailing anywhere. It was truly stuck
fast. Time for some local help, and help they did, for over an
hour huge amounts of petrol and diesel were
consumed, producing much horsepower from the various craft. But
still the stranded yacht wouldn't budge. The situation looked desperate and
we ourselves had nothing powerful enough (except the binnoculars we were using
to eyeball the situation) to assist in their recovery either. Finally,
after an hour or so, when they must have been running out of
ideas they decided on a method that would be totally impossible
on our catamaran, but which has been used over many centuries to work on ships
bottoms. Careening. A line taken from the masthead at right angles to,
in this case one of the powerful local boats. If it didn't work then their
mast couldpossibly break! So, with all sail set, 20knts of wind on the
beam, engines at full throttle and with gunwales well under the 55 ft yacht
suddenly heaved and then shot forward, the keel
free from the clutches of the seabed at last. Once the sails had
been furled and power taken off they re-layed it's anchor in less shallow
water, only then to spend the same sort of night at anchor that we were about to
spend - wet and windy!
We had been warned to expect some incoming bad
weather and we weren't disappointed. By gale and by bucketful the wind and rain
came. Today is the same, overcast with periods of heavy showers. a
good day to catch up with household chores onboard. Mid-morning,
we received a visit from the steel 'Texan' fishing boat cook (not Texan)
offering us two snapper. A largish one about 1ft long and a smaller one
about 9 inches. When asked how much he wanted, he said - "nothing". He had
caught a bucketful of them in the morning and had some spare. We gratefully
accepted, for after all, free fish when loaves of bread are eyewateringly
pricey all helps to balance the cruising funds. However, to tell a
truth they weren't actually free after all. The big one certainly was,
but the small one definetly wasn't. Whilst I was scaling and gutting
the little one it slipped out of the hand and bounced down the 2 back steps
into the water to drift gently down to the sea bed 8ft below, no doubt to
the delight of waiting crabs and other crustaecians. I was told in no
uncertain terms to go after it, whilst being handed a mask and snorkel
at the same time. I dutifully jumped in. Retrieving the fish was
easy in 8 ft of crystal-clear water but forgetting to take off the new
$12.50 'water resistant' watch bought in St Thomas before I started to swim
meant that the watch ceased to function almost immediately after only a week's
use. So the little fish had cost after all! Notwithstanding the scrape
marks left behind from the fishermans dinghy when coming alongside in the strong
wind - Oh well, - C'est La Vie - as they say in
paradise.
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