Passing Turks and Caicos

Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Sat 15 Jun 2013 09:29
21:35.7N 072:31.5W
 
We have just passed the western tip of Turks and Caicos and are now headed north-west for Mayaguana.  Just 60 miles to go so we should arrive at around 14:00, with the sun well overhead.  This means we will have good visibility for negotiating the reef entrance and picking our way between the coral heads across the lagoon to the anchorage.
 
The wind has gradually veered at the same rate as our course has curved northwards, remaining at a good spinnaker angle the whole time.  The parasailor, which we put up on leaving Tortola, has flown all the way without a single collapse.   And finally, to make it easy for the two of us to get the big sail down, the wind is gradually dying away and should be down to about 10 knots as we approach Mayaguana.
 
We had a lot of shipping crossing our path this afternoon.  Looking at the chart, I guess much of the traffic from the Panama Canal, that is bound for the Mediterranean and Baltic, passes through the gap between Cuba and Hispaniola and then to the south of Turks and Caicos.