Found: Beautiful Protected Calm Anchorage

We arrived in Luperon, Dominican Republic, on Wednesday morning after an overnight sail from Big Sand Cay in the T&C. The last two days in the T&C were very nice with the weather settling allowing us to do some great snorkeling and hiking in South Caicos and then moving on early in the morning to Big Sand Cay. The name does not lie. The beach is an easy 3 miles long with perfect sand, that runs out to the anchorage at a very steep angle. The water clarity is hard to the describe and the best I have ever seen. You could just see forever. From above each step lower in the water brought a slightly different color until the deep blue of the Turks passage. The kids raced up and down the steep beach into the water and enjoyed being crashed around by large breaking waves.

The crossing to Luperon brings closure to one of the more difficult legs of our journey so far, and it went out like a lamb. We had a nice sail which is unusual for the passage and a break from lots of motoring lately into the trades. There were several squalls on route requiring several adjustments reef adjustments to the sails. The seas were reasonable and the crew was comfortable. Rae Ann tried a new sea sickness medicine given to us from another boat, Bogus (Dennis and Renee, thank you), that worked very well. We have met so many great people lately, forming a real comraderie with people even if we only spoke to them on the radio. You realize that the cruising community is your only support network and everyone becomes quick to pitch in.

When we were arriving in Luperon there was a boat putting out a Mayday on the DR coast about 30 miles from us. There was no one to respond to this other than the cruising boats, unfortunately almost all of us seemed to be too far away for what the captain of the stricken vessel was describing as an imminent threat of losing his boat on the rocks (remember best speed is maybe 7 knots, so most of us were 4 hours away, which the captain of the struggling vessel would be too late). I do not know the fate and in fact a rescue may have been organized. It just highlights the point made in the previous paragraph.

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WANTED: Comfortable Anchorage

Will pay in seashells, sand or salt water. The Turks & Caicos have been interesting, though mostly because we cannot find a comfortable anchorage. Either one is open to the wind or open to the ocean swell, and in some places both.

We arrived Monday morning a week ago as I write this to Provo. We came in the south side onto the Caicos bank to Sapodilla bay after a very uneventful 18 hour crossing from Atwood harbor. The first thing that struck us was how much more substantial the investment in properties is in the T&C verses the Bahamas. The construction quality is much much higher. Provo itself has some good provisioning and some good restaurants. However, all things are very spread out and thus always require a rental car/taxi to get around, which is a bit expensive and inconvenient. The T&C are renown for their diving, and while we have not had an opportunity to go diving owing to an inability to rid ourselves of Jake and Isabelle, some of the snorkeling has been very good.

We were presented with a weather window to go onto the Dominican Republic on Thursday/Friday. Alas we thought that was too little time in the T&C and decided to use the nice weather to explore some of the small uninhabited cays. We stopped at French Cay, Ambergris Cays and then at South Caicos. South Caicos was once the economic hub for the T&C owing to its salt production, however, with that industry shut it is essentially a fishing village in some disrepair with very nice people. In retrospect the lack of any really suitable anchorage throughout the T&C has us pining for Luperon in the Dominican Republic where we can rest peacefully.

We are now in the mating grounds for the Humpback whale, which stretch from the Mona Passage up through the Turks Passage. We had arrived to early at the Sandbore channel to head into Provo so waited deep water. At about 6:00 am Rae Ann heard a very loud whoosh, about 100 yards from the boat a whale surfaced a couple of times then showed us his tail as he dove into deeper water. We look forward to seeing several more on our voyages farther south.

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Out of Clarence Town

The weather turned quite nice on Thursday with a good forecast through Monday. We let the seas calm down and left on Friday for Atwood harbor on Aklins Island. We plan to push on to the Turks & Caicos later today.

So three weeks in Clarence town was a little longer than necessary, however, there were many highlights: cliff jumping into the blue hole, a cave tour with lots of bats to scare the kids, great spear fishing in the harbor, a very accommodating bar, Rowdy Boys, which let the kids use their pool, great friends made among the many cruising boats stranded, the farmers market for fresh produce. Overall Long Island is quite diverse and the only island we had been in that was not solely dedicated to the tourist trade. The people were very friendly, open and helpful. So as time wears away the memory of feeling a little stuck, all will be remember quite fondly.

Atwood harbor is a complete uninhabited crescent indentation on the north coast of Aklins. The bay is absolutely pristine, with a barrier coral reef that yielded a monster lobster for dinner. Other than its lack of protection from anything northerly this could be a harbor one spent much time in. Alas by Monday night we will have strong northerlies so we have to be pushing on. Our choice was to stop in Mayangua, the last island in the Bahamas chain or go straight to the T&C. Given the extremely comfortable sailing conditions we have elected to go to the T&C, so within the next 12 hours will be departing after nearly 3 months in the Bahamas, seems like a long time, but we left dozens of places unexplored.

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Back to Clarence Town

We did our best to leave but ultimately were pulled back, this time by the forces of nature. The nature of seasickness that is. We left on Tuesday with a 24 hour window, trying to run ahead of a strong cold front. The winds were as forecast if not a bit lighter clocking through the south and west, ideal for going SE. The problem was the seas, which were residual from the east at about 6 feet with a 7 sec period. As we were headed right into them, Nikita had a fair amount of action. Isabelle succumbed very early and vomited for about 1 hour, eventually bringing Rae Ann and Jake down with her. Mutiny was at hand so the captain turned the vessel around. Our plan was a 30 hour trip to the Turks & Caicos... for another day now. We left with 2 other boats, one sail and one power. The sail was also a family, with the same sea sickness issues. They elected to push on and made it safely, though told us via the radio that the seas actually got worse rather than better. All in all a good decision to turn around and wait for much calmer weather.

We have made the best of Clarence Town though, meeting up with another set of cruisers as well as our friends whom were on vacation. We snorkeled the Blue Hole and cliff jumped from about 30 feet into it. We also visited a very large cave formation with numerous bats, to the immense enjoyment of the kids.

It looks like by the end of the coming week we will get a period of lighter winds and more settled conditions, if so we will revert to our original plan of harbor hoping down to the Turks & Caicos rather than one long passage.

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A New - Very Old Dinghy

We are back in business. The cruiser network is quite awesome. Last week on the run down from Rum Cay, Free@Last blew and mainsail and we lost our dinghy. Well within 24 hours we had found a sewing machine and sufficient supplies to repair the mainsail to almost new condition. As well we found a cruiser in Georgetown selling their second dinghy, which we were able to meet them and pick up on Saturday. Really quite amazing.

Now the new/old dinghy is very old, but has been well cared for but does show its age. I have done some minor repair jobs today and have a couple more to do that will help in the short term. The dinghy came with an engine, a 1978 25 hp Evinrude. Well that is nearly as old as me and I know I am not that reliable anymore. The engine though does run well, but is just too large for us, so we will find it another home, probably a local fisherman.

We are still in Clarence Town and likely to be here through the next week as well waiting for better weather to go south. Long Island and Clarence Town are interesting though, so a fine place to be stuck.

For the Superbowl will cheer for the Cardinals. Part of this is that I am a Seattle Fan, and so still sting from the loss to the Steelers. The Cardinals are just to good a story.

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