En route to Turks & Caicos for New Years Eve
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Tue 1 Jan 2013 15:53
The Turks & Caicos proved more difficult than the Bahamas on account of our boat's draft. The main town is Providentiales, (Provo to those in the know), and this is where it all happens. There was an anchorage and a marina on the northern coast which although it seemed to be the centre of everything was too shallow for us, there were places on the chart where the depth in the entrance channel was down to just 1.2 metres. Some friends of ours, David & Suzanne, on Suzie Too had visited the island last year and had stayed on the south side at the Sapodilla anchorage. Their boat draws more than ours so we were certain anchoring here would not be a problem, so that is were we aimed for.
We left Georgetown in gorgeous calm weather, too calm for sailing, and had a great first night with flat seas and a flat boat - this was not going to last though! The trip was about 3 days and 2 nights in total, so we left about 4pm to arrive about lunchtime on the 3rd day. On the second night the weather changed for the worse, and we had big seas and high winds, both on the nose! The boat was rolling like mad, and sleeping was impossible. We had seen on the chart an anchorage just outside the entrance channel to the bay and thought we would be able to hang off there if we arrived when it was still dark - as it was we arrived in daylight and what a good thing that was, the anchorage would have been completely untenable, a lee shore with huge rocks everywhere!
Once we arrived we had the usual task of washing the boat down and getting things straight again. That done, John and I went ashore to see what we could find -the short answer was nothing! We left the dinghy on the beach and walked to the road - there were a few large beach houses but nothing else at all. After walking for about 20 minutes we realised we were getting nowhere and headed back. Then we decided to try and find the marina to see if they had a dock where we could leave the dinghies. We only made it about half way as the sea was too rough to continue. On Sunday morning we all got together to decide what to do. We had spoken to the dockmaster at the marina and he had given us some waypoints to an anchorage closer to the marina that would be an easy dinghy ride away. We moved the boats round and then went ashore. Sunday was a beautiful day, again flat calm seas and hardly any wind at all. We all went ashore for a well deserved lunch out. When you look at the map of Provo, everything seems very close together and easily accessible but this is not the case, so we got a lift to the Turtle Cove Marina, where we had lunch from the dockmaster who also picked us up again later on. There was no other way of getting around other than having a car. We had discussed renting one previously, but it is a good job we didn't. For New Years Eve we had decided that instead of going ashore at night we would have a meal on our boat. During the day we were going to go ashore and check out, and maybe do a bit of provisioning, as the last time we had been able to buy any fresh food was Christmas Eve. The weather soon changed those plans. The storm started at about 2am and went on for about 24 hours making launching the dinghy safely, completely impossible. As the day wore on it was obvious the weather wasn't going to improve so we had to cancel our plans for the evening. We couldn't believe that the weather was so bad we couldn't get 50 metres to the boat next door, but there you are. New Years Eve was very quiet for both boats and we all just chilled out and went to bed early! The biggest disappointment was not missing out on the dinner etc, but that it was going to be our last night together with Pat and Stuart. They need to be in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, by the 4th January and are going straight there, but as we don't need to arrived until the 8th January we will stop off en-route.
All was not however lost, New Years Day dawned much calmer and we had a breakfast party on our boat before we went ashore to clear out. Pat and Stuart brought a bottle of champagne, and we had melon, followed by scrambled egg, with smoked salmon, jalapeño sausages and toast - perfect! We had a great last meal together. We will hopefully catch up in Antigua in April or May.
When we left the Turks and Caicos we decided to head towards the north coast of Puerto Rico and stop off at Arecibo and maybe San Juan on the way to Fajardo.