Providenciales - Turks & Caicos Islands 21:44.57N, 072:17.32W
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Sun 17 May 2009 16:17
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Our sail across the Caicos bank yesterday ended
just before sunset when we arrived in Providenciales, the most developed and
touristy of the Caicos group. This is where the jetset spend their time in the
high class resorts, flying direct to the international airport from
the USA or UK. It' seems a million miles away from where we had just spent
the last few days, anchored off a small but happy fishing community complete
with various abandoned cars, boat wrecks and unfinished shells of properties
that may not see occupancy.for a very long time. Amazing how 40 miles can make
such a difference.
Yesterday we were fortunate. We had not made a
specific plan to get up early to head across the Caicos bank,as the weather
has been so up and down recently. An early start would have been better but then
we thought from reading the pilot that if we ran out of daylight then
dropping anchor in 10 feet of water was the norm with miles of shallow
water and a sandy seabed to hold the anchor. What we didn't expect and
therefore allow for was the short sea state that built up with the
20knt following wind that blew us across that expanse of shallows. Whilst
anchoring would have been technically feasible it certainly wouldn't have been
pleasant, and in hindsight,having just endured a very windy night at anchor here
in the relative shelter of an anchorage behind a headland being anchored
out in the banks would have been intolerable. So our departure from Cockburn
Harbour was just about on the limit for us to get across comfortably before
it became too dark to keep an eye on the seabed, especially as some 15
miles of the trip had us in water with just under 6ft under the keels.
Scary!
Now we are here we need to achieve two objectives
1) Stock up with some fresh provisions & 2) Clear Customs &
Immigration. Both could involve some hiking or moving the boat to another
location. Watch this space.
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