Parrotfish Poop, Potcake Pooches, Unexploded Ordinances and Cakes and Tacos!21:44.19N 72:15.47W
Tenacity47
Wed 20 Feb 2013 00:06
Our once thoughtfully conceived plan to sail directly from St Thomas
to Florida via the Old Bahama channel was scrapped in favor sailing
to Culebra, (part of Puerto Rice) then sail North through the
Bahamas. The change of plan was due to several nasty cold fronts,
otherwise known as “Northers”, blowing through the area. We were
soon convinced that the Old Bahama Cannel may not be the most comfortable
or safe way to go being as how it’s February and these Northers tend to blow
through often this time of year, and can be really nasty.
Culebra was a few hours away, and we anchored in Ensenada Honda, and
originally hadn’t planned to go ashore, but did. And once ashore we fell
in love with the place!! Such a welcoming small town feel.
Quite Spanish, laid back and full of character. There are lots of
cruisers hanging out and a good mainland U S “ex Pat” population, even
though it is a U S Territory. There are no big stores, just 2 small
grocery stores, mom and pop style, a library, a barber shop, a
bakery, a few gift shops, a dive shop near the ferry landing, a few small
hotels, some funky restaurants, a gas dock, a marine hardware store, a church,
many roosters, several cats and a few horses. Nothing new and out of
place. But there is a well maintained brightly painted orange lift bridge over a
tiny canal that apparently was built for two fishing boats. We never did get the
full history of this bridge but we did enjoy it’s unusual character.
We did visit Culebra’s biggest tourist attraction, Flamenco Beach,
and besides loving it’s incredible beauty, we also fell in love with the dozens
of cats who live there and are friendly with people. We also visited a great
little museum and learned that The U S Navy used Culebra as a bomb testing
area for many many years, causing so many locals to leave, and then later the
locals revolted, and after much talking to the US Government,
the Culebrensans got their island back and got the U S Navy to pull out and
leave them alone!!!! But, we did see signs to watch your
step due to “Unexploded Ordinances”. Made the walk to another beach more
of an adventure indeed.
We left Culebra planning to head to Mayaguana in the Bahamas, and
hopefully arrive there before the next big Norther that was scheduled to arrive
in a few days with a vengance. But it was looking like we weren’t going to
make Mayaguana so we headed to the Turks and Cacois islands. This was a
ballsy decision because we have no charts for the Turks and Cacois, and we
discovered that our GPS does not have detailed info for this place either.
All we have is a cruising guide that has very little visual info. So we
contacted Bob Pratt at South Side Marina in the town of Providenciales,
also known as Provo, on the island Cacois. Bob guided us
in with specific way points and advice to anchor off of French Cay over night so
we could arrive to South Side Marina in the daylight. Anchoring off of French
Cay was very weird, we were surrounded by open ocean, but in 15 ft of water!! We
could see the bottom in the moonlight!! And we could hear whales but not
see them!!! We had a nice quiet evening but still held watches throughout
the night.
In the morning we saw French Cay, and it is just a very low small strip of
beach!!!
We then followed Bob’s way points in and were tied up in a safe slip
in plenty of time to meet Bob , check in with immigration, go for a
walk, trade a few books, start laundry and meet the neighbors at a daily
informal “Happy Hour” under the cabana.
We learned that pretty much all the other boats in the marina were doing
the same thing we were, waiting out the bad weather, which came in later
that day and stayed for 2 days. We rented a car and toured the
island and even though it was chilly and cloudy, we found the island of Cacois
beautiful and friendly.
We noticed that there are these dogs everywhere. EVERYWHERE, and that look
sort of alike, same size, medium to large, similar shape, sort of shepherd
like with down turned ears, many brown, some black and tan, some pets and most
wild. short but thick hair, and sort of friendly and very street
smart. Turns out these dogs are called ” Potcake Dogs” a mixed
breed dog that over many generations have become their own breed and are
named potcake after a traditional island food that the locals would feed
to the dogs. Now there is an overpopulation problem and the local
government is beginning to deal with it. Many folks are trying to adopt them as
pets. The few we met were very sweet and I think they would be awesome
pets!
One thing we found fascinating about Cacois is it is made of Coral.
And unlike all the other islands that we have been visiting, that erupted
from the sea s volcanoes, the island of Cacois emerged as the sea receded
away. It is low and scrubby, the water is brilliant turquoise and in some places
as clear as a swimming pool! It is a wonderful island!!
The name Cacois means “String of Islands” and the neighboring island Turks,
is named after a cactus flower that looks like the red Turkish hat called a
Fez. I guess an island named “Fez” isn’t as appealing.
BUT by FAR, the best bit of new info we learned about this
place, is that for MILLIONS of years, parrot fish have been
eating coral with their sharp teeth. Imagine, parrot fish,
eating coral for millions of years. Lots of coral, lots of hungry
parrot fish. And then, the parrot fish poop out the coral , and it
comes out like sand. So for millions of years, this is what has made
up the sandy beaches of the island of Cacois. So the sand that we’ve been
walking on is really FISH POOP!!! Beaches made of million year old
fish poop. Which is........
Better than walking on Potcake Pooch Poop!!
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