Log #43H Turks and Caicos Islands to the Dominican Republic

Written at: Santa Barbara de Samana, Bahai de Samana, Dominican Republic

March 2, 2007

Sapodilla Bay on Providenciales, the westernmost island of the main Caicos group, where on March 13 we anchored in 8 feet of water (21 44.65N, 072 17.22W), is a wide reasonably sheltered bay on the southwest end of Providenciales. We dinghied over to South Port to check in, but could see no place to go alongside the large commercial docks, and so went back into Sapodilla Bay; here we anchored Wave Dancer in two feet of water 50 feet from the nice sandy beach and walked over to South Dock to check in. We filled out the few forms and paid $20.00 U.S. for a short term (one week) landing permit. I think it would have been a bit extra if we had wanted to stay more than a week, but nothing excessive. While there I identified a ferry ramp that I could bring Wave Dancer into when we came over to do our departure formalities.

The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) are a set of dry sandy coral islands south east of the Bahamas chain, perhaps the top of a sea mount, in a semi-circular configuration with the 50 mile wide, shallow (12 to 15 feet) Caicos Bank extending from West Caicos (now being heavily developed for resorts and a marina) over to Big Ambergris Cay, also being developed and now with a small airport. Another 22 miles to the east, across the 7000 foot deep Columbus Passage, is another north/south archipelago consisting of Grand Turk, Salt Cay, and Big Sand Cay. The TCI are a British Dependency consisting of eight islands and 40 cays, named after the Turks Head cactus (similar in appearance to a Turkish fez), and the Spanish word "cayos" for small islands (cays). Columbus is said (as in many Caribbean islands) to have made a landfall in 1492 on what is now Grand Turk Island and gone over to Providenciales before departing for Cuba. He was welcomed by the friendly and peaceful Lucayan Indians who were later forced into slavery by the Spanish. This depopulated the islands until the age of the buccaneers who used the islands as a hideout and haven from which to attack the Spanish galleons and other ships of opportunity in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The islands at various times have been dependencies of Bermuda, Bahamas, and most recently of Jamaica, becoming a "crown colony as a British dependency in 1973. I understand that at various times over the past 30 years some Canadian Members of Parliament and some of the TCI legislators have considered some form of annexation to Canada. I love the idea of Canada having its own islands in the sun! However, I doubt it will come about. They recently had an election and the ruling party got back in by a landslide. The islands have a population of about 60,000; however only the 34% called "Belongers", who are native-born and mainly black, can vote whereas the other 66% of the population of "Expatriate" inhabitants cannot.

There were several cruising boats at anchor in the bay, and our second night there we were invited to a beach party with a few other cruisers. GR and Nathan on San-San were the organizers of the party and we got to know them quite well, going out with them for pizza next night and meeting them again in the Dominican Republic a few days later.

An interesting incident happened when a local fishing boat under reconstruction broke its moorings a night later, and drifted down onto Lioness, the catamaran forward of us. At about 0430 Lioness's skipper flashed his searchlight on us to warn of the drifting boat and we saw it as it passed down our starboard side about 25 feet away. It was in no danger of hitting us, but we were faced with the decision, "Do we let it drift onto the rocks the far side of the bay, or do we try to rescue it?" It would be a shame to let any boat be wrecked on the rocks, and so we got into Wave Dancer and went over to put a line on it, and tow it back to Veleda. The skipper from Lioness came over to help, and together we managed to get it back to Veleda where we secured it astern for the rest of the morning. Just before noon the owner came to thank us and take it back to secure more strongly to its moorings forward of us. We don't know the name of the owner or the boat, but we couldn't let it drift onto the rocks. We were just happy they came to get it before the afternoon winds came up, as the two boats might have put too much strain on Veleda's anchor.

We went into "town" a couple of times to a chandlery for a new bilge pump, a Napa distributor for an automotive regulator to replace our defective smart regulator, and a couple of large grocery stores for supplies. I use the word "town" loosely as there is no central main shopping or cultural area. The island reminds me of the Florida Keys, a series of small malls, stores, restaurants, strung out along a long highway going the length of the island, with offshoot roads going to expensive hotels, resorts and marinas. There is considerable resort development still going on in the islands.

We stayed for a week waiting for a decent weather window, finally able to leave at 0610 on Feb. 20 in a light force 3 (8 to 10 knot breezes). Our guide, Bruce Van Sant's book "Passages South, The Thornless Path to Windward" recommends early morning starts or night passages when the trade winds are down and give way to land breezes. It sounds good, but by 1000 we found ourselves pounding into force 6 (20 to 25 knots) winds on our way across the shallow Caicos Bank for 45 miles, to anchor off Big Ambergris Cay (21 19.36N, 071 38.68W) for two more nights awaiting the winds to drop below 15 knots. This cay is also undergoing major resort developments.

At 0715, Feb. 22, we left to motorsail the 35 miles over to Big Sand Cay. En route I had great success in fishing as I caught two large barracuda, a 28 inch at 0805 and a larger 36 inch at 0815. I didn't do any more fishing that day. We anchored at 1450 on the west side of the cay (21 11.64N, 071 15.07W) to be joined an hour later by Abracadabra, a motor yacht with whom we traded a few books. We were to meet up with Trudy and Guy later in the Dominican Republic and again in Puerto Rico.

After exploring this uninhabited cay, its long pristine sandy beach and derelict light tower, we left at noon next day for the 82 mile SSE passage to Luperon in the Dominican Republic. We motorsailed the first six hours, but by 1900, the winds shifted to NE force 4, allowing us to actually sail for the next six hours. However, those hours were beset by heavy rains, but the winds did not increase or change direction. During the rain, we were contacted by "Lady Natalie", heading the same direction, but going on to Ocean Marina near Puerto Plata. As we approached Luperon we found ourselves in company with several other boats also coming from the TCI, all headed to Luperon. As we approached the entrance at 0600, we saw a rain cloud across it and so slowed down our motorsailing to wait until the rain cloud passed, avoided a couple of other yachts also circling around, and then made our approach.

The entrance is a wide opening with shoals on the west side, dramatic blow holes on the east side, and two large mangrove fringed bays inside. The charts indicated a red "buoy" that was to be left to our starboard side (red right returning), but we had a difficult time locating it. When we eventually sighted it, it was a white round buoy that we figured must be the one indicated, and so we left it to our starboard as we went around the shallows. As we passed it we saw some red streaks that were badly weathered, leaving only the white undercoating. That was our red buoy! A few other buoys on the charts were nowhere to be seen. Going up the starboard (west) bay we were advised by a couple of anchored boats to watch out for unmarked shallow areas. We passed San San whom we had met in Sapodilla Bay, and who advised us that we should set our anchor to the east, as that is the major wind direction in the bay later in the day. We proceeded deeper into the bay to anchor a half mile off the town dock at 0730 Feb. 24 (19 53.88N, 070 57.29W) after an 82 mile passage from Big Sand Cay in the TCI. We had arrived in Luperon of the Dominican Republic, a haven for many cruisers, and incidentally, home port for Bruce Van Sant, the author of our guide book, "Passages South".



Next log - Log43I