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....