SV Meshugga - Turks & Caicos - Grand Turk, Six Hills & French Cay

Turks & Caicos - Grand Turk, Six Hills & French Cay

SV Meshugga

Nicholas & Deidre Mace

Tue 4 Feb 2020 18:43

21:25.57N 71:08.23W

Sailing with Geneker and full Main Puerto Rico to Turks & Caicos

Wahoo Steaks for Dinner and enough left over to make Pickled Fish ... Yay

We went to the north of Grand Turk to enter the channel to North Creek, but found it too shallow for us. Turning around we south, on the west coast, to the South East bay of White Sands Beach (as a westerly was blowing), we spotted a Couple of Humpback Whales.

We dinghied around the south end of Grand Turk to the Freighter Dock at South Dock where we were able to get ashore with the dinghy to Clear In. Interestingly, Customs charged us ‘overtime’ fees as we arrived in Turks & Caicos waters on Sunday, even though we cleared in on Monday morning during normal office hours, as one has 24 hours to Clear In. Fees are $50 for Customs, $15 for Overtime, and $15 for Immigration. Cash Only.

Beach to the side of the Freighter Dock with Cruise Ship and beach full of Tourists

We took our bikes ashore at White Sands Beach as the Freighter Dock was to high and difficult to get our bikes off. Along the sand roads from the beach into town there were some interesting sights.....

The main town of Cockburn was tiny with Salt Pans, Hotels and Guest Houses - and not too many stores. We cycled through and around it, and found much to do or see. The whole island reminded us strongly of Veldrift on the South African West Coast.
Beach scrub, white rubble, stones, sand and Salt Pans.

The Local church St Thomas Parish looked bright and fun.

Apart from a couple of main roads around town, all roads were compacted sand. We are happy our bikes have Kendra thick walled tires for off-road use as well as tar.

Two days were more than enough in Grand Turk, and so we set off again. We sailed across the Caicos Bank, keeping a lookout and dodging the Bommies (coral heads), and stopped overnight at Six Hills Cay. A restful night, we set off again next morning, still acrossing the Caicos Bank, to French Cay.

The water at French Cay looked inviting and we kitted up for a snorkel, which we heard would be good as F rench Cay is close to the edge of the Caicos Bank and depths quickly drop of into the 1000’s of meters.

Sargent Major and a school of Blue Stripped Grunt under a ledge

Peacock Coral Trout

This Spotted Eagle Ray came cruising in from the deep, across the sand flats between Bommies cruised around and off he went. We saw him again later in our dive - or maybe another one.......

Nicholas checking out what’s under every rock and in every cave

Blue Parrot Fish

HoneyComb CowFish

The Eagle Ray has an incredibly long whip. He has a wing span of over 2 meter and weighs over 200kg.

French Cay is a Wildlife Sanctuary

Sooty Terns. They are highly pelagic only returning to land to breed. They are graceful in flight and dip down to the water to snatch prey, they do not plunge-dive into the water like many other sea birds.
They were not happy with us venturing close to the scrub where they had numerous nests. We did not go close, and have no photos of nests, eggs or chicks.