Turks & Caicos

It's amazing what you can do with an all but barren rock in the ocean if you throw enough money at it!  That is surely what has made Turks & Caicos into the vacation destination it is.  Money, plus great sunshine, shallow aquamarine water, good diving, and perfect winds for kite boarding!

Originally inhabited by Taino people from Hispaniola, the island was depleted of its population by the Spanish and left more or less behind to be found by British loyalists bailing out of America during the Revolution and Africans liberated from illegal slave ships.  Salt, fishing and cotton were the early subsistence industries. 

Now, the major industry is tourism, fueled by that water, wind and sun combo, and offshore banking. Plus construction, fueled by all of the former.  And of course, fish and conch.

The north side of the Providenciales, the population center on the Caicos, is one long strip of hotels on a calm azure lagoon dotted by people at play.  And that strip is backed by a swale filled with vacation homes and condos.

Down the middle runs the Leeward Highway, with a fair crop of commercial establishments along its length and slightly to the west of the middle, the main town.  Thanks to the tourism, the commercial strip is pretty first world!  And pricey.

The south side has the port and several "marinas", plus the majority of the full-time population in nice houses, some grand and some quite modest.  There is little soil around any these houses; where soil has not been imported, gardens seems to sprout out of limestone rubble.  One wonders where all the soil for the resorts and the golf course came from!

The Turks & Caicos island group, for all its fame as  a vacation destination, was new territory for all of  the crew of Quantum Leap.  After our  midday arrival on Sunday, we dinghied  in to South Side Marina to do Immigration & Customs.  South Side Marina is also at the end of a very shallow channel that Tom wasn't quite ready to address on his first day.  Navigating in such shallow water after years in deep, deep waters, is kind of like coming down off the 75mph expressway into a school zone....a big adjustment.

So we anchored out in 5.5 of water and went into the marina by dinghy, getting soaked by the choppy waves on the way, in order to meet with Customs and Immigrations.  It was a Sunday, so the process was leisurely, giving us time to sit in the marina gazebo and enjoy the breeze through the palms.  When the immigration officer came, he brought his 9-year old son.  He and I had fun playing games on the iPad.  He thought grandson Kai was very big for a nine year old!  

South Side Marina is a charming hole-in-the-wall compound owned and operated by Bob Pratt, a spry septuagenarian who moved to T&C from the Bahamas 30 years ago.  He has set up his marina to attract cruisers.  He has all the amenities: electricity, wifi. laundry, gas, diesel, water, clittering palm trees, and a lovely light.  There's even a brand new bar perched above the marina.  Although a little less lush than my fantasy marina, it's pretty damn close to something I could I imagine us doing.  If we could afford it.  Which we could never.  T&C is a pricy place.

At five, Bob opened his brand new bar on the hill above the marina so we could get a drink and enjoy the view.  Then he drove us to the Tiki Hut restaurant at the Turtle Cove Marina on the north shore for a dinner out to celebrate Tom & Bette Lee's 46th anniversary!  It was a very good meal and perfect atmosphere for the occasion.  

Unsure of how many days QL would be staying, Don had had Bob book us for a two-tank dive trip  Monday morning (a holiday - the Queen's birthday) with Ocean Vibe Divers, an outfit that works out of the Marina.  Bob is clearly the kind of man who decides who he his going to support with his referrals, and though there is another dive outfit just across the canal, he steered us to Ocean Vibe because "It's run by a young local man who is doing a good job with it."  

And this proved true.  I'll confess to a moment of pause when we walked up and saw one of the crew loading tanks attired in that new hip hop style of pants-below-the-butt, a look I do not like, but I'm pretty sure the pants came up by the time the rest of the customers arrived, and this same young man ended up being our dive guide, and a good job he did.  In fact I was very impressed with the whole operation, a well-balanced mix of humor and safety.

We dove West Caicos, a island about an hour away in the speedy Island Beauty.  It was an eye-catching run, particularly the stretch they ran the boat only a few meters of the beach in front of a huge resort development that went defunct and unfinished thanks to the Lehman Brothers financial collapse.  

The word is, though, that someone has bought the property and and will rebuild, only word also has it they plan to tear all that is there down and start again!  I've got to say that West Caicos is pretty far out, and with hurricane season coming, it's hard to grasp how this would be a good investments.  But then again that's probably what they said about Providenciales fifty years ago!

The dives themselves were deep banks, and while the coral landscapes were nothing special (albeit alive!) the animal life was rewarding.  We saw lots of reef sharks, a huge turtle (loggerhead?) and a really big green moray that came out and free swam for our entertainment, all up close and unafraid.  Plus we saw garden eels, conch, one lobster and a pleasing assortment of favorite reef denizens.

One other little fun thing was glancing down at the gear bags of the young couple next to us reveal the Pan Aqua Logo.  They were from my dive shop in NYC!

Tom was waiting for us on our return.  The tide was up. he was ready to move Quantum Leap in.

Tuesday morning we acquired Jo Jo, a rental Toyota Opa, kind of a cross between a Rav 4 and a van. Very spacious and good air con!  and right hand drive.  Lots of windshield cleaning happen because there were a lot of turns!  We wandered around a while, trying to match the rotaries we encountered with the map. 

Suddenly there was a barber pole in sight, and as both Tom and Don had been complaining about overlong locks, we swerved in.  Well, it's overlong no more.  We were there about an hour as the dreadlocked barber Alex labored exactingly over both his customers.  

Plus, Alex had a friend who apparently brings In a thermal bag of "pastilitos" (little pasties or pates, as the Jamaicans or Virgin Islanders would call them) fried meat empanadas, that he sells to customers for $2 apiece.  Such a deal!  

We learned from these guys that they are from the Dominican Republic.  Turns out a good proportion of the service class in T&C is from the D.R.

Much cleaner cut, but still hungry, we drove to Bugaloo's for lunch.  Bugaloo's had been recommended by about everyone we spoke with.  There's a good reason why.  

It is a beach joint extraordinaire.  White sand, shallow water where there actually are tables in knee deep water, 

shaded tables on the sand, etc...you get the gist.  

add happy, sunburned tourists and you've got it! Bette had conch salad, Don had a conch burger, Tom, had coconut shrimp and I won the day with grilled snapper! best fish I have had in memory!

Bette Lee and I also had lime coladas!  Yum!

We drove all over the island after that, from the industrial south port, along the north shore resorts to the east end conch farm (which was closing for the day :-(   ).  wandering around the residential areas, trying to cover all the paved roads, we stumbled on a kite boarding beach.  

 

We sat for probably and hour enjoying the steady onshore breeze and the swelling crowd of student and expert kite boarders.  It's pretty exciting to watch.  A lot of very fit young people.

On our way home we hit the IGA supermarket.  Just like the best American grocery you'd so find in an upscale neighborhood.  be've only been back sailing three weeks and already I find myself back in grocery covet mode.  I want it all!

Wednesday, Tom and Bette took the car for a day of errands, while Don and I stayed aboard and did boat chores.  These moments where we have the illusion of being "master and commander" again, even if just for everyday chores, making our own lunch, and having a little time to read quietly are suprisingly sweet.

Wednesday night, though, was Bob's weekly marina barbecue.  Customers, staff and friends congregate in the aerie like bar, bring something to grill and a potluck dish to share.  For cruisers there were just eight of us from three boats, us four senior sailors from QL and two young couples just setting out.  Then there were a bunch of locals.  for us this was a highlight, as we became aquatinted with a super couple who come to T&C regularly from Pittsburgh....an oil executive and his state Supreme Court justice wife!  what a fine example (as of course, are Bette Lee and Tom) of having successful careers, family and still making time to travel, explore the world and enjoy life!

However, we cut the BBQ just a wee bit short to dash to the 8:30 movie!  Imagine, going to the movies too full to want popcorn!  The film was Tom Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow.  We missed the first five minutes.  It turned out that didn't matter over much as it repeats about 20 times!  Bizarre concept, actually kind of interesting.

Now we are waiting for the tide to rise enough for to safely depart.  we cross now to the Bahamas.  Our destination is Clarencetown on Long Island, at least an overnight sail.  Thanks to the tide-delayed departure, we may need to put in somewhere tomorrow night.  We'd like to be in before the weekend.  thunderstorms are forecast.

From Long Island we are very close to our end point.  Tick, tick, tick.

On Passage to Turks & Caicos - June 12-15

The Gods were definitely smiling on Quantum Leap Thursday morning when they decided to hold their breath, making getting off the dock, the subject of much anxiety, a non-event.  Then they started to exhale again as we rounded to corner and started our 440 miles sail To Providenciales, Turks. & Caicos, and we took off sailing fast!

All I can say is conditions have been just about ideal.  Settled weather, full moon nights, and with the wind astern blowing 15-20+ knots, we set the whisker pole up for wing-and-wing sailing and  haven't hardly touched the sails for two days!  There hasn't even been hardly any ship traffic to stress over!

This morning, one day out of Providenciales, there was no way to work the math that would make it come out any way except our arriving tonight in the dark.  So, much as it pained us to do so, we took in all sails except for a handkerchief of staysail, the only way to slow the boat down enough (4.5 knots!) to allow us to arrive after dawn.  This has made for a very relaxing day.  I've been writing, Bette has been practicing her classical guitar, and Don and Tom have replaced a water pump.  

Thank you Mother Nature!

2am, Sunday a.m, June 16

Didn't I thank Mother Nature above?  Didn't I say nice things?  Well!  When Don got up for his midnight watch, I woke to such slamming as to truly shiver one's timbers.  The wind had increased to nearly 30kts and the seas rolling up behind the boat were at least eight feet.  Lying in my bed, I could hear   great wads of incompressible water squeezing its way in between the two hulls, building up to punch the bottom of the bridge deck with a sledge hammer like crash, making my berth thump and leap and rattling everything in the galley overhead!

I got up and sat up with Don through his watch until 2am and he staying up with me through my watch until four.  on the Chartplotter we could see the boat on inching its way northward along the blue blob that is the Turks and Caicos Bank , and we kept hoping that once it was abeam there might be a little Lee effect.

By the time we went below and Tom came up at four, the winds had dropped bit and the seas likewise, so that the slapping thumps were only occasional and not every sixty condos.  We we're both able to fall asleep.

When we came up after sunrise Quantum Leap was already over the bank.  The water surrounding us having gone from deep blue to emerald green.Tom said that the moment the boat crossed the wall from out-of-sounding range depths (thousands of feet) to the very shallow (10-12') was one of the more mind-boggling moments in cruising!  As the sun rose the water over the sand turned the aquamarineof travel posters.

There was evidence on deck of our rough night...flying fish caught in mid-leap and now petrified.

We still had some 12 miles to travel to raise the low island of Providenciales, the water getting shallower and shallower.  We finally dropped the hook in about six feet of water well outside the South Side Marina....even with a catamaran that only draws 4.5, if is hard to adjust to anchoring with only a foot or two under the keel.  We are not getting much protection here from the wind, and the boat is jostling a bit.

After last night, however, it feels deliciously smooth.  Nap time before officials this afternoon.

Puerto Rico

After the theft, given we had little hope of the stolen iitems being promptly recovered if at all, we were all ready to leave the BVI.  So, Monday morning we raised anchor and set sail for Fajardo, Puerto Rico.

An odd reality of all those years living in the Virgin Islands is that we had never had the occasion to sail over the north side of ST Thomas.  This was a first.  Who knew all those little islands were back there?  It was a beautiful morning and the sailing wind was fine, so Quantum raced the some 50 miles west past Culebra to Puerto Rico.

Originally there was a lot of talk about all the places we would stop on this trip.  It always seemed a bit optimistic for the time frame, and that was proving true.  Our few days in Martinique, Dominica and the Saintes ruled out any thought of Antigua, Barbuda or St. Bart's.   Now we realized that if we wanted any time to enjoys the Bahamas nor Turks and Caicos, we didn’t have time for stopping at Culebra, or, after Puerto Rico, at the Dominican Republic.

Puerto Rico, however, couldn’t be missed for practical provisioning reasons, particularly for a boat that hasn’t had the chance to shop US products for seven years! Fajardo,, on Puerto Rico’s east coast is the boating center of the island.  There are at least five marinas in the area, predominantly filled with sport fishing boats and power runabouts, but making room for the odd sailboat, and the marinas with haul out facilities have become an  option often taken for cruisers during hurricane season.  Not being part of the cruiser gossip network, we didn’t have the inside scoopn which marina was the preferred one for cruising boats.  Tom made a fair stab at it by making a reservation at SunBay Marina, described in the cruising guide as “new”, an SSCA Cruising Outpost, and offering free water and Internet.  

I’ll confess I was anticipating a little luxury from a Fajardo based Marina, since Puerto Ricans are known to  like their amenities.  This marina was not the right one for that.  We entered via a narrow approach channel with the depth sounder flashing alarm, the props stirring up mud, and people on the dock motioning us to hug the starboard side, while a 20-knot wind was blowing briskly abeam on the port side.  Very hairy! 

The assigned slip was not where we’d interpreted the directions to put it, nor, when we found it at the end of the dock furthest in and attempted to spin the boat to put her in it, was the space wide enough to fit the boat with room for fenders..if we could thread that needle!  There was only one guy on the dock to take lines and, with the wind on the beam,  no padding of any sort on the dock’s sharp corners.  Basically, a boat owner’s nightmare come true.  Tom aborted, and we put Quantum on an end T…whether management liked it or not.  The question then was whether we could ever get her off again with the wind holding her hard against the dock.

Once in and secured, the marina wasn’t so bad.  There was indeed free internet and water, fuel could be delivered in the slip, and the staff was friendly.  Our first night in, we arranged a cab and celebrated with a fine dinner at Lupita’s, a not-so-nearby but yummy Mexican restaurant…with very tasty margaritas, by the way.

Tuesday, Tom rented a car and the four of us set out for adventures in Puerto Rican driving.  The best news we had was discovering that using Don’s phone on Puerto Rico, navigation and all, is just like being in the US.  However, that does not automatically mean Ms GPS could always make the right choices or give the best directions.

Our primary objective was to take advantage of US stores, especially the big box stores, since Bette wanted to provision for a Bahamas visit by family.  Driving through the Puerto Rican landscape is oddly American, with familiar marquees everywhere, from  Walgreens and CVS, to Home Depot, to Walmart and Kmart, to KFC and Church’s Chicken, to Micky D and Burger King.  Yes, even Subway and West Marine.  But the highway is pitted and irregular, access roads run alongside, and start two way, then fade to one way, and it doesn’t help that for stores, at least, entrances are often not well identified, if at all.  It took us several failed loops and circles to find our way into Costco.

After hot dog lunch, reconnoitering and buying such items that could survive the afternoon in the trunk of our Ford Focus, we got brave and pushed all the way in to Old San Juan, never quite on the road the GPS recommended…but close enough!  

In a miracle from the heavens, we found a parking place right in the center from which we could walk to Fort San Cristobal, which along with El Morro, is one of the two prime landmarks of Old San Juan.  Built by the Spanish to defend against the British, it was subsequently used by the United States.  

The stone fortifications are amazing, towering up from the sea cliffs and affording awesome vistas seaward and back over the city.  

There were subterranean tunnels and dungeons, with graffiti painters on the wall by a prisoner held for desertion, a gun ports and parapets, 

plus an impressive rain catchment, cistern, well arrangement! 

 As Don observed, he’d much rather have been stationed at this fort with its blasting breeze than Fort Napolean in the Saintes!  I don't know.  Bunks look a little short, babe!  And hard!

We finished in time to join rush hour traffic out of the city.  This time we managed to get on the expressway for a least part of the trip.  We stopped for supper at that great Puerto Rican eatery – Sizzler!  It was actually a rather nice meal!  Can we say salad bar!

The next day, Wednesday,  Tom and Bette took the car to revisit all the big stores to acquire the rest of the stuff they wanted, including Best Buy to replace Tom’s stolen iPad.  Meanwhile Don and I stayed behind to do boat chores.  Don installed two new engine room blowers and strove to tighten all the alternator belts.  I did laundry and put away the leftovers of the previous day’s shopping while Don washed the decks.

When they came home, we swapped, and took the car about 15 mins south to meet up with and have cocktails and dinner with my friend Kathy Parsons’ brother and sister-in-law, Ken and Margaret, also cruisers, with whom I have often corresponded but never met.  Another Facebook connection!  Ken and  Margaret have been in Puerto Rico a week already and their accounts of touring the rainforest and Arecibo that day, reminded me how much we are missing moving so fast.  Puerto Rico is a lot more than American stores!

Their marina, Puerto Del Rey, turned out to be the marina Bette and I were imagining!  It is the largest marina in the Caribbean, Margaret told me, so big that they have golf cart service to ferry you in from distant slips!  Ken and Margaret plan to haul their Voyage 44 cat Rocking B here for hurricane season.  Having seen Peter Jones’ Voyage fleet at West End, BVI, we had plenty to talk about.

We came home to find Bette Lee still up, engrossed in restoring Tom’s new iPad from iCloud while she had that free Internet.  Another nice feature about Apple!

The best news as we settled into bed that night (doors locked, of course!) was that the strong winds seemed to be abating.

BVI Day #4 -- Theft Aboard!

Sunday. Things went sour.  It started after breakfast when Tom couldn’t find his iPad.  

We all started looking, and all too quickly realized that Don’s brand new Mac Air computer was missing from it's charging spot in the empty aft cabin, my brand new iPhone was missing from the ledge in our cabin, and, in addition to his missing iPad, Tom’s wallet had been emptied of about $350.  Don’s knapsack was also gone, presumably to cart off the haul!

I cannot tell you how upsetting this was.  Bette Lee felt her home had been violated, I felt MY islands had let me down, and all of us were worried about the vulnerability of our personal data the devices contained.  This on top of the loss itself.  Did I mention that Don’s computer and my phone were less than a month old?

We immediately started reconstructing events. Since Don and I had looked at his Go Pro videos of Foxy on his computer shortly before we left Great Harbor Saturday morning, we knew we had it aboard then.  So the theft had to have taken place during the 24 hours we’d been in our anchorage at Little Jost Van Dyke.   The only time the boat was vulnerable was when were aboard and sleeping with the aft doors open for ventilation or during the single hour that Tom came to visit aboard Copper Penny and left the boat unlocked and we had gone below from Copper Penny’s aerie lookout!  The only other evidence was a big dirty boot print on the starboard sugar scoop which is not where we crew typically come and go.  And barefoot sailors certainly don’t leave dirty shoe prints.

In all the years Don and I lived in the BVI, nothing was ever stolen from our boat. Gord and Ginny were equally shocked, their big boat had also been open all night, though nothing appeared missing.  Yes, there are incidences of dinghy theft in the islands, and occasional theft from boats in marinas, but a theft at anchor was unheard of.

The irony and unfairness of it in particular is that Tom and Bette are scrupulous about closing up and locking the boat.  How is it that such a thing could happen in the one hour in the whole voyage that it was left open?

Or did they come aboard while we were sleeping?  Now there’s a creepy thought! You might think this impossible, but we had been partying a wee bit and the fans over our bunks do make a steady white noise that might camouflage a boarding.

Gord and Ginny had a local phone we were able to use to call the police, and for them to call us back.  Copper Penny also had wifi they could direct toward Quantum Leap so all of us were able to get online to change passwords on bank accounts and credit cards and remotely lock the stolen lock devices.

Thank goodness for Apple.  And thank goodness for the fact that the thief did not get my iPad (so I could remotely lock my phone), Don’s phone (so he could remotely lock his computer,) or Bette’s iPhone (so she could remotely lock Tom’s iPad.). The one “if only” I keep kicking myself in the butt about was that my iPhone had been on until that morning, even though I couldn’t use it, and I let Don talk me into shutting it down.  If it had been on, perhaps we might have been able to use the Find-my-Device feature and locate the whole lot.  But we might not have been able to anyway.  The phone is Verizon CDMA which doesn’t work in the BVI, and the devices need to connect to the Internet to receive the Lock-my-Device command.  

The other ray of sunshine in this gloomy morning was the things the thief didn’t take, the above named devices (oh, God! If they’d gotten my iPad!!!!!   Arrrgghhhh!), but also our wedding rings were sitting right there, plus he overlooked Don’s Go Pro camera, and Tom and Bette Lee’s laptops, binoculars, etc.

The police responded as fast as possible, considering that the Jost Van Dyke police have no boat to come out to yachts.  A marine police go-fast inflatable had to come from Roadtown on the opposite side of Tortola to JVD to collect Constable Ike, who was quite professional despite not being comfortable on the water.  The crime team dusted Tom’s wallet for fingerprints and took photos of the boot print.  None of us, of course, could provide serial numbers of the stolen devices, and won’t be able to until we get Stateside.

The loss is a big one for us $-wise, yet doesn’t make our home-owner’s insurance deductible.  The device insurance policies we got from Best Buy don’t cover theft. Perhaps even worse are the “ifs” and  “if only’s” that plague my idle thoughts.

We didn't do much else that day, but we did have Gord and Ginny over to Quantum Leap.  Bette Lee brought out all her pretty mola pillows to give he charter yacht a run for its money, and put on a yummy  dinner.