After our unintended night time anchoring adventure at the south-west end of Grand Turk, we awoke to find ourselves in a somewhat industrialised area, mainly reserved for freighters.
To starboard - the government dock
To port - wrecked RoRo ferry
Astern, a rust bucket
Fortunately Follyfin was far enough in towards the beach that she wasn't in anyone’s way.
Stats from the voyage:
Distance (rhumb line) - 426.5nm
Distance sailed (actual) - 511.7nm,
Top boat speed - 10.7kn
Average boat speed - 6.6kn (until the wind died and we had to motor!)
Maximum wind speed - 35.5 (F8)
Engine hours - 9hr (of which about 8hr were on passage when wind died)
The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) are notable for a few things:
- the Atlantic Humpback Whale breeds on shallow banks near here and migrates up the 22-mile wide Turks Passage to New England for the summer. Unfortunately we are just too late to see them.
- Tourism and offshore finance...lots of duty-free shopping.
- Wonderful snorkelling and diving in gin-clear turquoise waters
- Once used by USAF to support the initial orbital flights of the US space programme. Their mission was to recover space capsules after splashdown in the adjacent ocean waters. From space monkeys to astronauts, including John Glenn, they all returned to these paradise islands.
After clearing in with Customs and Immigration, we refreshed ourselves with beer and burgers at Jack’s Shack beach bar… along with what seemed like several hundred very loud cruise ship passengers. Then weighed anchor to move up the coast a couple of miles to anchor off Cockburn Town. Found a good spot on sand in 3.5m but a long way out! See Follyfin in the distance, to the right of the only other neighbour.
A dinghy trip into town the following morning revealed a now-faded but once prosperous community with major British institutions represented...
... but now defunct since the salt industry died and tourism with daily cruise ships calling, sometimes two, took over. However the remnants of the salt pans support a small population of flamingoes.
The other important source of income for the TCI is Banking….it is a centre of international finance and a tax haven.
We paid for a 7-day permit to stay in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI); staying longer requires an extra $200 so we are anxious not to overstay. As the weather forecast was for strong winds, we moved on across the shallow Caicos Bank with its numerous coral heads to the south side of Providenciales, the largest of the TCI. The Caicos Bank is a 60nm wide circular reef-fringed atoll with depths varying between 0 and 6m so we had to keep a sharp look out for coral heads for the 8hr it took to get across. Found a safe anchorage on the other side but Follyfin was rocking and rolling more than was comfortable. And as the winds became stronger and stronger, the prospect of a couple of nights in the shelter of a marina became very attractive. So this is where we have been since Saturday 29 April, - the South Side Marina - and much enjoying the relative luxury of unlimited showers and above all, stability!
The winds are gradually dying down so we plan to leave on the high tide this afternoon so we can negotiate the shallows and coral heads in daylight, anchor near the exit from the main coral reef, and then sail overnight to Mayaguana, the nearest Bahamanian island, about 60 nm from here. This strategy will enable arrival in daylight as there is yet more coral to see our way through when we get there.
No comments:
Post a Comment