Turks and Caicos

...clearing in to the Turks and Caicos...

We sailed into the Turks and Caicos after a great overnight passage from Clarence Town, Long Island, Bahamas......

The approach to South Side Marina near Provo felt a bit scary in the morning light, knowing there were coral heads everywhere, but not being able to see them clearly due to cloudy conditions. Our four days here flew by, with boat jobs to complete and one great day of sightseeing and provisioning. This country is world famous for its underwater opportunities, so we were disappointed that we could not go snorkeling or diving due to the high winds, cloudy skies and storms which arrived the day after we did.

Lucky for us, the dinghy was in the perfect location for repairing a small leak in the stern of her port tube.

Sunset from Bob's Bar, with a powered hang glider zooming over the marina.

We replaced the impeller after Radeen-the-Diesel-Whisperer thought the engine sounded "hollow." She has been right on two occasions in the past, with broken blades discovered upon inspection. Not this time, however.
To quote the famous lyrics, "Two outta three ain't bad."

Ready for sightseeing in a rental van with 3 other boats.

Our first stop of the day was at the Caicos Bakery for good coffee and delicious pastries made by French bakers.
So civilized!

Igloos?  In the Turks and Caicos?! The primary export of the Colony was salt. When a drawing was sent to England for making the first flag, an artist interpreted the piles of salt as igloos!! (Note the doors on those igloos.)

Remarkable topography 6,000 ft. from the ocean floor...The Caicos Bank is over 40 miles from east to west.
Grand Turk is the larger of the islands across the Turks Passage to the east. 

We thorough enjoyed the small National Museum, and were lucky to stumble up on it,
as it is onl yopen M- F from 9 a.m.to 1 p.m.

Our docent, Theresa Williams, with the crews of Jeannteau 45 Rascal (Michele and Charlie),
Grand Banks 42 Sea Star (Lauren and Bill) and Lagoon 38 Fezywig (Meloney and Don.

Theresa entertained us with stories of history and culture. 90% of the citizens are descended from the 192 people from the illegal slave ship Tourvedore which was shipwrecked trying to avoid British authorities. The captain and crew were arrested and the freed slaves were given apprenticeships for one year to learn how to harvest salt.

We toured the inside of this traditional thatched hut and interesting gardens of medicinal herbs and barks.

An adventure in dining al fresco in wind and rain on the north shore at the Conch Shack.

We were speechless at this bounty, after 6 weeks of limited shopping in the Exumas.

South Side Marina office and laundry room, with folding table.

A beautiful outdoor shower!

Floating docks and a beautifully maintained property.

Bob's Bar on the left and Bob's house on the right.

Our gracious host and marina owner, Bob Pratt, on the right,
who made us feel so welcome in this beautiful place he started 40 years ago.

Leaving Provo, heading ESE across the Banks.

Good-bye to the Turks and Caicos!

We have a good weather window again, so we planned our next leg of 240 miles with a 7 a.m. departure across the treacherous Caicos Banks. That means leaving the Banks by 4 p.m., passing Big Sand Cay by sunset and arriving in Samana, Dominican Republic, approximately 40 hours later. Thank you for following our adventure!

Video: Ocean Sailing to Turks and Caicos

We had a fantastic sail out of Clarence Town, Long Island in the Bahamas, 180 nm southeast to Providenciales (Provo) in the Turks and Cacios. We sailed the first part of this trip in 15-18 knots of close hailed conditions out to Acklins Island. With the sun rising we sailed into the rising sun and the water reflections were simply amazing. The sea state was 3-4 foot waves with many a bow wave crashing into the close hauled jib. Island Spirit sailed very well and we really enjoyed our New B and G NAC-3 autopilot which sails to wind vane steering very well. We simply stood watches and held on as we sailed. Here is a video I shot showing the scene. I hope you enjoy the ride. This is typical ocean sailing. Enjoy...



Remember, we are running a new Garmin InReach satellite tracking device which is recording map pins of every where we travel. This is building an archive map of our sailing. This is really fun to look at as well:
http://share.garmin.com/islandspirit 

Bahamas to Puerto Rico to Virgin Islands Southbound

...The Book on sailing south...

Radeen and I have studied Bruce Van Sant's book "Passages South" and we have made the routes on our laptops and on our B and G plotter and Samsung tablet. We are excited to begin this new chapter in our cruising adventures, which means heading south from George Town, Exuma, to the Eastern Caribbean. We have been to Long Island before and that will be our staging point. The route is well planned by Van Sant and the concept is like this. (He calls his route The Thornless Path to Windward, instead of The Thorny Path. Let's hope so!) Leaving Long Island and heading east and south, we will make our first major stop at Provo in the Turks and Caicos where we plan to check into the country at South Side Marina. We will spend time in Provo and then wait for the next weather window to run the 50+ nm Caicos Banks. We will anchor for one night at the end of the Banks. The next day we will run south to Big Sand Cay and then onto the Dominican Republic, known as the DR.

The Luperon Harbor

Many cruisers sail into Luperon, Dominica Republic. This is actually where Bruce Van Sant is building a home and we would like to meet him. We also have heard that it is not a very clean harbor but it is very inexpensive with mooring balls costing $40/month! We prefer our own anchor to any mooring ball as we know the strength our gear whereas we would not know the condition of a mooring ball gear.

The next option east is called OCEAN WORLD where we would need to take a dock. If you look at this map, you can figure out why they call this place "Motion World" as the east trades and swells come into this harbor as they bounce off the rock wall and reflect back into the marina. We also hear that is the swell is running then this can be a dangerous entrance. This is in contrast to Luperon where you can easily sail in and drop an anchor. We will need to study the swells before leaving Turks and Caicos and then make the call as to where to check in.

Ocean World Marina in the DR

Now that we will be in the DR, the next challenge is motoring east into the trade winds and the current. This is accomplished by motoring at night when the trade winds are blocked by the mountain down drafts, called Katabatic winds, off the DR coast. This makes a calm lee that reaches offshore 5-10 miles off the coast. So, we will motor east during the night and then when the trades kick back in around 9am, we will head back into shore and drop the anchor and wait for the nighttime lee. This leads us to Puerto Rico's south shore heading east to the Spanish Virgins and then into the US Virgin Islands and onward to the British Virgin Islands. At this point, either this season or next, we will make a turn southward for St. Maarten and the Leeward Islands and then down the Windward Islands. We will haul out the boat and store it somewhere between Puerto Rico and Grenada for May 15 - November 1.

Here are some maps of these plans...

George Town to Long Island to Calabash Bay to Provo. Day hop to Conception (3) Rum (4) to Provo (5A) .... or make one 200nm run to Provo (5B).

Long Island to Provo (5B) or stop at Samana (6) and/or Mayagauna (7) then to Provo (8)

Provo, Turks and Caicos, to DR with a stop at Big Sand Cay (10) or nonstop to DR (10B)

The DR to Puerto Rico the USVIs and the BVIs (Option Play: store the boat in Puerto Rico in May)

The Virgin Islands and south, island hopping or making a full 2 day run.

 Options on this plan:

• Store the boat in Puerto Rico, USVIs, BVIs or Antigua, Jolly Harbor
• This will save time and allow us to explore more northern areas without rushing south
• This will also allow us to start there next year
• Or, simply take a WX window and sail over night for Grenada and store the boat there.

These are all in the plans, either way, the goal is to get the boat to the Caribbean Sea and base there for the next 4 seasons. From our view now at George Town, Exumas, here in March, we are thinking that we should store in PR and just do the USVIs, BVIs and Spanish Virgins this season, then start there next Nov/Dec. That is looking like the plan now. The risk with that is placing the boat on the hard in the Hurricane Zone and taking the risk of storm damages. That is what we are thinking of right now and we are not sure we want to take that risk again. We will see how far we get...

The overview map of this plan....

Radeen is one Happy Sailor Girl as we prepare our flags to sail to many new countries.

Video: Sailing Cat Island to George Town Exumas

Yellow Fin Tuna Landed under full sail

...Hanging the Tuna...

After 5 years of dragging lines behind the boat, we finally have caught a fish we can keep, a yellow fin tuna. Up till now, we only caught barracuda. Now that streak has been broken and we have landed not one, but two yellow fin tuna on Island Spirit. Our second one was while under full sail in 15-20 knots beam reaching at 6-7 knots. When this tuna hit, it ran out a lot of line until we could slow the boat by furling the jib and sheeting out the main, all while Radeen was holding onto the rod and reel and trying not to let it slip out of her grip. It was everything we could do to just hold onto the rod. Forget reeling it in until slowing the boat down. We were under full main and full jib doing 6-7 knots while dragging this 34" tuna on the Penn rod and reel, line running out, and me adjusting the drag to slow it down. With the boat slowed to 2 knots and still under autopilot wind vane steering, I began to reel this fish to the boat.

This is a 34" Yellow Tail Tuna

We were yelling ITS A YELLOW FIN TUNA, again, Yahooooo! Radeen handed me the gaffe, and with the leader in one hand I whacked it with the gaffe and some how I hooked it through the tail area! That was cool, so as I lifted the fish, I had a slip knot ready to lasso the tail like buddy John-Michael (J-M) on IP 420, PURA VIDA told me about. This worked out great because I could hold the fish up with the gaffe and the line to cut the gills and bleed out the fish rinsing it with saltwater rushing by. I could lower the head and gills into the water and then lift it out again. We also poured some old rum into the gills but that really seemed to not be needed. I will not be doing that again, as this JM trick was a great way to deal with all the blood.

Under full sail doing 6-7 knots

This fishing adventure was while under full main sail and full jib in 15-20 knots of beam winds. We were sailing from Cat Island back to George Town along with good friends Jim and Cynthia of NEVERLAND.  We estimate the seas were running at 3-4 feet on the beam. The boat was rolling side to side and our bow wave ran from bow to the midship cleat like it does when pushing at hull speed of 7.2 knots. Sometimes we would be surfing down a wave and the boat would hit 8 knots. It was under these conditions that the reel sang out and the rod nearly went overboard. This landing went better than our last landing as we got lucky with the gaffe and we used the slip knot trick over the tail. Landing the fish is only half the challenge, the next challenge is butchering the fish while in these conditions.

My filet work, now time to cut in half and skin

With the fish now dead and onboard, we returned to full sail and back to 6-7 knots of boat speed all the while rocking and rolling as we continued the remaining 10 nautical miles to George Town. This gave us an hour plus to filet out this 34" tuna. I am a rookie at all of this fish work and especially at the filet work. I try not to waste any fish although I see I am wasting a lot in the head of the fish. I need to work on that area. Once I have the filet off the fish, then I work on cleaning up the meat and removing the skin. I follow the Scott Bannerot book given to me by Chuck and Lynn of sv CYAN who sailed around the world. This book (The Cruisers Handbook of Fishing by Scott Bannerot ) covers every aspect of fishing for cruisers. Thank you, Chuck and Lynn, and thank you for the gear and your gaffe! With the filets dried off, we then packed them into ziplocks and moved them into the icebox ASAP for chilling down. For dinner, it was seared tuna steaks. OMG, what a treat that is. We also share this bounty with others as it is really a lot of meals for two people. The last tuna served 14 meals, this one will serve about 20 meals. Tuna is my favorite fish, I am really glad we caught a yellow fin tuna again. Next, we need to catch a Mahi Mahi.....

Here are some more photos....Tuna Hunters....Island Spirit :-)

My happy Tuna #2 photo

Look no blood in the boat, nice idea J-M

Close up, these are beautiful fish

Yellow Tail Tuna

Radeen wants to get a tattoo of this :-)

Tuna steaks, seared 1.5 minutes in olive oil

Perfection, cool in the center

We tossed out a message in a bottle with cash inside :-) $1

Teak work at sea, look, the blue tape is the color of the water! Yes, it really IS!

The view from the helm, notice the fishing rod tied to the jib winch
I need a new rod holder, our last big hit broke the rod holder

Selfie at the helm

Making lunch, protein shakes, looking out the galley window

Hayden with his Yellow Tail Tuna #2

Is this not a crazy way to gaffe a tuna? I was going for the body and hit the tail, hey, it all worked out. We are learning.....

Crazy gaffe of the tail....oh well, it worked.
Notice jib furling line slip knot around the tail.

Now we are back in George Town for a few Cruising Regatta events
and to start our preparations for sailing to Long Island and beyond!

This is where we caught our Tuna #1 northbound and Tuna #2 southbound