Visiting Grand Turk

 By Bob

Getting away from Provindenciales known to locals as ‘Provo’, the main hub of the Turks and Caicos island group out to the smaller, quieter, less tourist influenced villages that are along the edges of a large shallow bank where the ocean bottom rises from great depth to nearly none for many square miles is taking a step back from a distinctly ‘get there now’ pace to another less distinct pace, like leaving the fast speeds of the freeway to meander on two lane backroads. Even though our meandering is mainly over water, and generally we try to sail or motor in mostly straight lines from one point to another, we could feel the suddenness of our need to get somewhere diminish along the miles of bright aqua hues that are the Caicos Bank. 

 

The Underwater World of the Turks and Caicos

 The calm feeling of floating underwater, weightless and free (except for all of the scuba equipment we have strapped on). In the spirit of the jungle tours I gave you in Panama, (here and here) here is an underwater tour of TCI. 

Help!

Late afternoon, on a mooring ball, about a quarter mile off  the coast of Grand Turk Island, in the Turks and Caicos, while sitting in the salon of the boat, I think that I hear a very faint "Help!". I listen and soon it comes again, very faint, and not too close to Rhapsody. I go up on deck and look around and see a man on a Stand-up paddle board (SUP). He is probably half a mile off shore and 100 yards away from me. He repeats his cry and I shout " What do you need?"  " I need help". "Can you get over to our boat?" I ask. " No" he says. It is becoming obvious that the current is carrying him out to sea, and the sun is on its way down. 

By this time Bob has joined me on deck, and together we lower Melody, our dinghy, and Bob takes off to rescue the man. 

What do you do when your dive buddies are sharks?

Dive buddy - One who you share the dive with.

Over the years I have had many different dive buddies, but the most memorable ones are when the underwater critters choose me to accompany on the dive. I have had a variety of animals join me, but the most impressive recently have been Caribbean Reef sharks.

Picture taken by Rivers as the shark swam between us.

Blue

 One of the first things that struck me about the Turks and Caicos Islands was the color blue.  The sea is seen in incredible shades of blues and greens and turquoises. Herman Melville wrote an entire chapter in Moby Dick about the color white. This is my pictorial on the color blue.

Even the satellite shot has beautiful shades of blue.

The Journey from Panama: Chapter 8, Reflections

What a trip! Six days planned out to go straight from Panama to Turks and Caicos, sailing, avoiding high winds and currents, turned into  11 days with way too much hand steering, too little sleep, and too much wind and current in our faces.

The Journey from Panama: Chapter Seven, We arrive, at last

Heading into Great Inagua at 2 AM, bone tired, slightly loopy, but oh so happy to be there, where we could get fuel and continue on. I was on watch as we approached the harbor, trying to make out which lights were on shore and which were boats we should be avoiding. Coming into a new harbor in the dark is something we try very hard to avoid. Fortunately we did have a Bahamas guidebook which said that the harbor at Matthew town, where we were headed, was an open roadstead anchorage, meaning that it was clear of obstacles and all we had to do was to pick a spot and drop the anchor. Super easy if you have a functioning windlass to lower and retrieve the chain, a little more complicated when you have to pause at 20 foot intervals to tie a retrieval line onto the chain, but we managed.

The Journey from Panama: Chapter Six, We get a break

By Bob

As we rounded the south eastern tip of Cuba it was mid day of day 8.   24 hours more of hand steering from Navassa left us a bit fuzzy from all night cat naps again.  Light fluffy clouds and bright sun followed us past the rocky cliffs and wooded plateau that was our only glimpse of this 600 mile long island. 

The Journey from Panama: Chapter Five, North from Navassa

 6 hours late, still low on fuel and having no autopilot and no windlass to assist in anchoring and we took off from Navassa. We knew we didn't have enough fuel to make it to Turks and Caicos so we weighed our options. The winds were still whipping down the channel between Haiti and Cuba, the same channel that we were trying to go up. We were determined to sail as much as we possibly could to save what fuel we had so our route was aiming us much further west into Cuba than we wanted. For hours I was watching Navassa recede into the distance, unfortunately it was remaining on our stern when I was hoping that we would be passing it on the starboard (right) side. If Navassa was on the starboard that would mean that we were making progress up the channel, in the direction that we wanted, but alas that was not to be.

The Journey from Panama: Chapter 4, Six Hours to Raise an Anchor?

Navassa Island- where to go when you really  want to get away from it all!

Navassa Island as seen from the Space Station

The Journey from Panama: Chapter Three, Anchoring and Fuel Issues

   Click here for Chapters One and Two if you missed them.

The Journey from Panama: Chapter one, Departure

 It should only take 6 days. The weather, wind and waves should all be mild. It should be a relatively easy passage.

Lies, all lies!

Passing through "The Parking Lot" at the entrance to the Panama Canal. Apparent Wind speed, 14 knots, True wind speed (not taking in the speed of the boat) 7.8 knots,  depth 139 feet, 612 miles to go at 7.3 knots. All our clothespins clipped below the plotter.

We did it!

 We broke free of Panama, however Panama did not let go easily. I am tired of posting sad stories, so I will make this one a celebration. I will tell you that our predicted 6 day passage took us 11, and we arrived in the Turks and Caicos battered and exhausted. But that story will have to wait because I am so happy that we made it! I know that the disaster stories (fires, lightning, mechanical failures) are what more people read (you people have issues!) but you are going to have to be patient and celebrate with me. We are finally free of Panama after over a year and five different attempts to leave!