Stop the Carnival

With our grandson - Landon Daniel Valenzuela - soon to arrive and the hurricane season on the way, we decided to Stop the Carnival for a few months.   Kinja will be spending the time on the hard in Providenciales (Provo) in the Turks and Caicos Islands.  Provo seems to have fewer hurricanes than most other places and we hope it will be spared this year!

We checked into an ocean front resort for the few days we need to prepare Kinja to be taken out of the water and securely anchored to the ground.     

The Ocean Club Resort

Provo has many wonderful restaurants.  

You can't beat the Tiki Hut for lunch...

One of our favorites for dinner is the Coco  Bistro

The Bar

Kinja being lifted onto the hard

So, with our fingers crossed we will leave Provo tomorrow to head back to the US.  We will stop in CT. to see Laura, Wilson and his family and then head to Tahoe.

It has been a fantastic cruise... better than we ever could of imagined.  Even though the weather was often bad we have magical memories of the places we visited and the people we met along the way.

We have learned a lot about sailing together and the challenges it can present.  A quote from Dennis Connor says it best -- "The three major factors to consider in a successful crewman are attitude, attitude and attitude"  We both excelled in that department!!

We leave you with one last quote before we stop the Carnival.......  

"The ocean has always been a salve to my soul... the best thing for a cut or abrasion was to go swimming in salt water.  Later down the road of life, I made the discovery that salt water is also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land"  Jimmy Buffett

I hope we do not get to many mental abrasions before we are able to join back up with the sea and start the Carnival again.

The Turks and Caicos Islands

We made it to the Caribbean!  The Turks and Caicos are considered part of the Caribbean, not the Bahamas, and things are very different here.  Provo (where we are) is the main island and is pretty sophisticated.  There are many nice resorts along Grace Bay and it is nice because they are not high rises. They are 2-4 stories with lot's of vegetation and gardens.  The island is very beautiful - white sand beaches-crystal clear seas-healthy reefs for snorkeling and diving.  But, wouldn't you know it, for the first time ever the waters have been plagued with portuguese man-o-war jellyfish.  Just in time for the Sperry's arrival!  We did get some snorkeling in and they have since disappeared from the island.

We rented a car and did some exploring.  They name the rental cars here, ours is "Frick".

 One day we took off down one of the many white sandy roads toward the NW side of the island.

Nothing for miles and miles and then out of know where appeared a Zen like resort (Amanyara) nestled along the oceanfront--soaring ceilings, open air bar and restaurant, reflecting pools....amazing!

Resort entrance

Reflecting pool

Pool bar and restaurant

 The pool where we had lunch on the terrace.

Entrance to the main restaurant

Main restaurant on the reflecting pool

Walkway

The least expensive room was $2,000 per night.  We opted for rum drinks and a light lunch :)

Besides, we have great accommodations on Kinja.

Leaving Georgetown

Our weather window finally arrived.  We were on the SSB radio Monday morning at 6:30am with our weather guy (Chris Parker) and he said we had a three day window to get as far as we wanted to go.  His advice...go...go....go!

So, we left immediately for Clarence Town on Long Island.  It is about 60 miles east of Georgetown and one of the only stops on the route to the Turks and Caicos Islands where you can stop to get provisions and fuel.  It was a ten hour sail.

Heading to Clarence Town

We got to Clarence Town late in the afternoon.  While we were having dinner, we decided we would leave the next morning and sail straight through to the Turks and Caicos Islands.  We had a window and we were going to make the most of it....go...go...go!  It was a 160 mile sail south around several other islands (Crooked, Acklins, Mayaguana and a few other small ones in between) so it was going be be a bit tricky at night.

Tuesday morning the seas were calm and there was a light wind that would make for a great downwind sail.  This was our first overnight sail - very cool- the stars (and shooting stars) were unbelievable.

Sunset on the way to the Turks and Caicos

There was phosphorus (a non metallic element which glows in the dark) EVERYWHERE.  Kinja's wake turned into bright glowing light as we glided through the water.

We arrived at the Turks and Caicos Islands about 10am Wednesday morning.  We were going into  Turtle Cove Marina.  But, the entrance is full of reefs and very shallow.  They advise that you call ahead and have a guide boat come out so you can follow it into the marina.

Following the guide boat

We made it in with no problem, but it was shallow and we were glad to have a guide boat.

We had our yellow quarantine flag flying when we arrived at the marina.  The flag signifies that we are coming from another country and have not cleared customs and immigration.  We had to stay on board until the Customs and Immigration official arrived to check us in.  The guy came on board and we had a fun discussion with him about the islands while he processed the paperwork.  This is the way to go through customs!  The Islands are a British Crown Colony.  The islanders are mostly of African descent.  

Turtle Cove is a great marina...more on that later....

Tour of Georgetown

So, we are still here in Georgetown.  Hanging out while the weather settles down.  Looks like we will head out on Saturday to Long Island.  No, not the one we came from.  This is the first island on our way to the Turks and Cacos where we can anchor out.

Here are some pictures from our stay in Georgetown.

We had a family of dolphins stop by our boat one afternoon and they played around the boat for an hour or so.  They seemed to enjoy the music we were playing.

View from the Peace and Plenty Hotel, Restaurant and Bar where we hang out a bit

Road sign in town

We had to have an insurance paper notorized so we went to the city hall.  They called a guy out of court to come over to help us. He sat us down in his office and proceeded to take a very long time to review the document that required him to verify that we were who it said we were.  He finally signed and stamped the document without even asking for our ID's!  I guess anything goes here

Somehow, it is a logical combination... computer store and groceries

Georgetown

We are still anchored off Stocking Island at Monument Beach in Georgetown. Our weather guy "Chris Parker" (we listen to him on our SSB radio) says a bad blow is coming later this weekend of 25-30 knots of sustained winds for 5-7 days. So we had to decide if we wanted to make some headway south with limited places to get shelter, or stay put till it blows over. We decided to stay put in Georgetown.  It is very protected here and there are nice bars and restaurants for us to hang out in.

View from our anchorage...

The trail to the ocean from Elizabeth Harbor

View of the ocean

We are hangin out at places like the Chat n Chill

Where they have a very friendly stingray that you can actually touch!

The St Francis Yacht Club....

View of the ocean from the St. Francis

Like most towns in the Bahamas, downtown Georgetown isn't much to look at.  It has all the services you want but, but "it ain't charming".

The "super market...

The laundromat

Georgetown is either the turn around point for southern Bahama cruisers --- or the launching point for those heading south to the Caribbean.  This is the last place to stock up on supplies before heading south and crossing the Tropic of Cancer.  To go south from here one must commit to real blue water sailing with an Atlantic swell, very few safe harbors and little resources available until you get to the Turks and Cacos Islands.  This is why Georgetown is know as "Chicken Harbor".

So here we are waiting --again-- for a good weather window.  We hope after this next front passes we will have a window for the 5 day sail down to the Turks and Cacos.  From there we will head to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.  We hope to leave the boat for a few months in either Dominican or Puerto Rico while we head back to the U.S. to meet Laura and Wilson's new son...Landon Daniel!  He is due around June 18th.  Yes, Tom & Sue are now G-Daddy and G-Mama.

Headed to Georgetown

Leaving Black Point we headed out the Dathom Cut to the ocean.  It was blowing hard and study at 15-20 knots.  The cut had a very strong current of 3 knots or so.  It was slow going until we cleared the coast line.  Then we turned south and had a great 8 hour sail all the way to Georgetown doing 6-7 knots.

We arrived in Georgetown Thursday at 4pm and found a sheltered anchorage behind Stocking Island. 

 

The next morning we got up and decided to go into town to get supplies.  So we jumped into the dingy and motored across the bay to find everything in town was closed...it was Good Friday.

We figured we could a least hit an ATM at the bank and get some cash (since a lot of places do not accept credit cards), only to find that the bank was out of money.  Then we heard someone say that the gas station might have an ATM.  We walked over and there was not an ATM.  But the guy running the station graciously offered to give us some cash by charging our credit card.  He was going to be closing the station soon because he was out of gas and had lots of cash  Seems everyplace in Georgetown runs out of whatever they are selling on a regular basis.

So then it was a wet dingy ride back to the boat to settle in for the night.