Month: February 2024

We’ve had our few days of dock rest and are now ready to go explore the south side of Providenciales. In our short time here we did laundry, filled our water tanks, had a nice takeout dinner and today we rented a car to do some minor provisioning. We got a limited phone plan with 8 g of data and did some grocery shopping. We spent probably 3 hours getting all our shopping done and then having a nice lunch out.

The island is quite small so it didn’t take much time to drive to the different stops. It is a bit of a challenge because they drive on the left side of the road and they have these quasi round abouts. It took Mark a few turns through the round abouts to figure out who actually has the right away. All was good though – made it back to the marina with no issues and we only used $3.00 of gas!!

The marina has been quick busy since we arrived on Wednesday morning. We’ve watched many boat tours come and go from here – seadoo rentals, pontoon boat tours, and of course many diving excursions all load and return here. There has also been daily arrivals of other sailboats. Today a 33ft sailboat came in – we saw this boat in Clarence Town. The boat is sailed by a solo sailor from Canada. Mark helped him back his boat into the dock and get secured in what’s called a med mooring style of docking (stern against the pier with no dock access except from the stern).

In the morning we are heading out to explore the south side of Providenciales. There are a few anchorages we will visit and if the wind holds true, we’ll be able to stay on the south side until our return to the marina on March 6th. Donalda and Bill arrive on March 7th so we’ll be back at the dock. Unfortunately we won’t have wifi while at anchor for the next week and a half, so no posts until we return here on the 6th.

We made it!! 170 nm from Clarence Town to the Caicos Banks in 28 hours. The wind was northwest the whole journey with the waves pretty much in the same direction. We had all sails up and we were cruising along in the low 7knots for most of the time. It was a very quiet trip – only a few other AIS signals (boats in other words) were out on the water (mostly cargo ships) and we were fortunate to have a clear night with an almost full moon so even the night portion of our passage was easy.

The whole trip was 180nm (from Clarence Town to South Side Marina) and the last 10nm or so getting into our marina was a bit more interesting. The Caicos Banks are very shallow and have lots of coral heads and rocky areas to navigate. As soon as we crossed into the Sandbore Channel (this channel separates Providenciales and West Caicos and gives access to the Caicos Banks), the water depth dropped down to 20ft or so. Very quickly the depth decreased to less than 15ft, but not to worry – we had great visibility (through somewhat sleepy eyes!). Turks & Caicos still uses an old school radio arrival system. Each entering boat must hail “Provo Radio” when you are 12nm away from the islands. We did that and got no answer – it was early. So Mark tried again once we were actually on the Caicos Banks but still no answer even though we heard Provo Radio hailing other vessels. We decided to just do to our destination, South Side Marina and not worry about Provo Radio. We took our sails down about 20 minutes from our turn into the shallow route to South Side. Just when we were back on course, Provo Radio hailed us and went through a crazy number of questions (mostly ones we’d already answered online through Turks & Caicos’ online clear in). This delay definitely caused us a bit of precious mid tide time!!

Finally the questions were all answered and we were ready to turn onto the course to enter South Side Marina. We had been warned to come in no later than mid tide but preferably at high tide. Unfortunately high tide on Feb. 21 was 6 am and 6 pm – we were entering around 11am. All was good for the first part of the 2nm route with depths in the 10ft range. Mark slowed us down as the depth dropped to about 8ft and when we were in this part of the route, we ran aground!! Even though we were going fairly slow, we got stuck hard (and we were going to low tide – not great). Mark quickly hoisted the main sail to try to heel us over so we could motor off (either forward or reverse) – no luck! Up went the jib and we began to bounce and rock in place. Slowly we moved forward and were off the high spot. The rest of the trip into the marina was a nail biter – our draft is 5 ft (we need at least 5.1ft to not touch bottom) and at one point our depth metre said we were in 4.9ft of water!! I guess we were plowing sand at that point!! We finally reached the entrance green and red buoys and turned into the marina basin. We were secured to the dock and settled in by about 11:30am.

After lunch Mark had to check us in through customs and immigration. The 2 officers were at South Side earlier in the day so they had to return to check in us and 2 other vessels. Only the Captain of each ship goes ashore to check in – everyone else is supposed to stay onboard. So I cleaned up the interior of the boat (did dishes, put the main cabin back together because we set it up as a bed when doing long passages, removed all the pillows that were securing items during our passages) and then got connected to the wifi. Mark was back aboard by about 2 pm with our stamped passports but no cruising license. The officers didn’t have time to do that so they’ll come back later to give us our cruising permit for the 5 weeks we’ll be here.

It was a great trip over and to celebrate we ordered dinner from the on-site restaurant (Bob’s Bar and Eats), brought it back to the boat and had a bottle of bubbly!! Now we have 2 weeks to explore Providenciales before Donalda and Bill join us on March 7th to March 19th. Evelyn, Caroline and their friend Samantha will be aboard from March 20 – 27 so we’ll have lots of company here!!

We’ve enjoyed our stay here in the harbour at Clarence Town. The weather has been great – sunny and hot. We’re finally starting to see more normal temperatures for this time of year (28 degrees today) and we went for our first swim of the season.

We decided to go to shore on Saturday, Feb. 17 and it was the first time we were off the boat since leaving Big Major on Feb. 13. It felt good to walk around! The last time we were in Clarence Town, we were with Caroline and our friends Donalda and Bill Stevens. We were anchored on the west side of Long Island and rented a car for a day. We drove down to Clarence Town and had lunch at the Flying Fish Marina (it has a nice restaurant). The town hasn’t changed much in 4 years but it does seem a bit more deserted.

On this visit to town we were looking for Erica’s bakery. After much searching, we finally found the little shop relatively close to the dinghy dock (figures). It was a great little store with fresh bread and amazing pound cake! On our way back to the dinghy dock, Mark stopped at the little gas station to get an ice cream. While we were waiting there, we met 2 other couples from the anchorage. One couple was from Michigan and the other couple was from Germany and Switzerland. The Michigan folks were on their first Bahamas’ visit and the European couple were on their way back to the Dominican Republic where they store their sailboat. We had a great chat standing in the shade and ended up inviting both couples back to our boat for happy hour (which lasted until after 8pm). It was very interesting hearing both couples’ stories.

Today we went back to shore for some last minute items. We bought gas for the generator and the dinghy and filled a few water jugs. We went back to Erica’s for a few items and we checked out the Packing House! This warehouse sells local produce so we bought bananas and 2 papayas!! We arrived back at the boat just before lunch and spent the rest of the day getting ready to depart in the morning. I made chilli and banana bread for our passage and we have lots of leftovers for quick meals while underway.

It’s now 8pm Monday, Feb. 19 and we’re pretty much ready to pull up anchor in the morning. We’re hoping to leave around 6am and sail the 180nm to Turks & Caicos with a good northwest wind. We might pick up some cell signals as we travel past some of the outer islands but I’m not counting on it. It will take a few days to get wifi sorted in Providenciales but hopefully the wifi at South Side Marina will be good. Next post will be from Turks & Caicos in a few days! Don’t forget you can always reach us on the inreach device and follow our trail as we move along.

Well like all good plans, this one was flexible. My last post said we were heading to Lee Stocking Island and then George Town. The wind favoured us going a different route so off we went heading east across the Emuxa Sound to Cat Island. We left the Big Major anchorage around 6:30am on Tuesday, Feb. 13 and headed to the cut just north of Staniel Cay (Big Rock Cut). It was a perfect wind/weather day for sailing the 54nm to Cat Island with the wind on the starboard aft quarter (wind and waves behind is called fair winds and following seas!). We had all sails up and with really good speed, we arrived at our new anchorage near New Bight, Cat Island by 4pm.

It was a quick overnight stop and we were up early again on Feb. 14 to make the 40nm jump to Conception Island. It was another downwind sail with the wind out of the northeast so it was on our port aft quarter. The first part of the sail was behind Cat Island so the waves were very small. We were really moving with all sails up and were sailing very flat (not heeled over) because of the wind direction and the small waves. Mark decided it was time to do some fishing. We’ve had good luck in this area in the past and Mark jokes that we seem to catch a mahi mahi in this general area once every two years. Well it was 2 years ago that we caught a mahi crossing back to George Town from Cat Island and wouldn’t you know, we caught another one crossing in front of the south end of Cat Island. It was a big one – 40 inches and 11 lbs. We had a very lovely Valentine’s dinner – fresh fish!!!

The last island hop of this new route was going south from Conception to Clarence Town (which is on the south east side of Long Island). We were expecting the wind to shift more to the east and to decrease in strength over the day. We decided to only deploy the jib and mizzen which worked great for the first few hours but it didn’t take long for the waves to build (probably 1.5m waves) and our speed to drop. We turned into the wind (that was exciting with those large waves) and Mark hoisted the main sail and we continued to Clarence Town. The wind didn’t decrease and we made really good time, arriving around 4pm. We followed the supply ship into the harbour so we might be able to get some fresh produce.

So what’s the plan now – we’re in a great position to make the 30 hour (180nm) passage to Providenciales (Turks & Caicos). The wind is looking good for a downwind sail leaving here around 6am on Feb. 20 which should get us into South Side Marina around 12pm on Feb. 21. We’re watching the wind and weather closely!

Since leaving New Providence, we’ve had some great sailing days. The wind has been strong and the sailing has been salty (lots of water on the deck) but we’ve made it all the way to Staniel Cay and are now waiting for the south wind to turn west so we can jump down to Lee Stocking Island and then George Town.

Our first stop after leaving the dock was Hawksbill Cay (Feb. 8). This island is inside the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We arrived in the afternoon and had no trouble finding a good spot to anchor amongst the mooring balls. There were 4 other boats already in the anchorage and we were joined by a few more later in the afternoon. It was a calm, quiet stop. It was nice to be back at anchor!

We took our time leaving Hawksbill in the morning because we only had about 28nm to travel south to Staniel Cay. It was another salty sailing day with the wind blowing 15 – 20 knots from the east. Unfortunately, we were heading south east and the wind direction made it very difficult for us to sail. After trying for over an hour, we ended up motor sailing with just the main sail still up. This was the first time we’ve been able to sail on that tack (boat heeled over so the port side is out of the water)!! Mark’s new engine thru hull worked like a charm and the engine stayed nice and cool because it had loads of water! We got into the anchorage at Big Major around 2pm and found a good spot to anchor.

Saturday morning (Feb. 10) we launched the dinghy and headed to Staniel Cay. It was laundry day!! It took most of the morning to do our laundry but while the clothes were in the dryer, we managed to get to the little grocery stores and to pick up our bread order!! My friend Jane told me about this bakery on Staniel that you can email in your order. I did just that on Friday afternoon. We ordered so much bread: 2 plain loaves, 2 coconut loaves, 1 cinnamon raisin loaf plus 2 chocolate chip banana breads and 2 coconut banana breads! All these loaves are now in our freezer to be shared with our guests when we are in Turks & Caicos!!

It’s Super Bowl Sunday (those of you who follow football are probably very aware of this) – we had no idea until we saw all the booze moving around Staniel Cay on Saturday. Everywhere we looked, someone was carrying a case of beer and other bottles. I forgot to mention that the laundry mat is also a liquor store (strange I know) so there was lots of action there. There will be several parties on the island tonight! Time to light the boat up like a Christmas tree so all those drunken fools in powerboats don’t hit us on their way home tonight!!😁 We’ll celebrate by not going to a party and relaxing on our boat instead.

Our plans for getting to Turks & Caicos are starting to take shape. On Tuesday, Feb. 13, we’ll jump down to Lee Stocking Island. The next day we’ll get to George Town and then wait for favourable wind to either jump to Conception Cay or maybe go the south route to Long Island and then Crooked Island. It all depends on the wind!!

It was a very quick trip home this past weekend but an incredibly satisfying visit!! Evelyn is now a PhD and Caroline is enjoying her new job! We had a fabulous dinner with Mark’s Dad, Caroline, Evelyn and Liam (Evelyn’s partner). All in all it was an awesome trip home but now it’s time to make some serious distance!! Turks & Caicos is calling!

We arrived back at the private dock on Sunday, Feb. 4 around 2pm and saw that another sailboat had come in and was rafted beside us. It turned out that a third sailboat was coming in so we were being moved from the dock position to the outside position (because we were leaving before the other 2 boats). It wasn’t difficult to reverse from the dock and get out of the way so the second boat could be pulled to the dock. The new arrival moved into the middle spot and then we slowly came along side them. We are tied to the middle sailboat with spring lines and also to the dock and shore with a bow line and stern line – nice and secure! This 3 abreast set-up means Mark and I have to walk over 2 other boats to get to shore – not my favourite thing to do!! The last boat (the one tied to the dock) is in rough shape and their decks are very cluttered which makes it challenging to cross.

Early in the week, we had decided to stay until Thursday (Feb. 8) because of weather (it was a very good decision). Starting Tuesday and continuing today, the Bahamas has had some crazy high winds! On Tuesday night some places saw hail and wind gusts of 65 knots. Our friends Jane and Steve are in the Exumas and they lost a solar panel in the storm that night. We’ve been super lucky here because we are so sheltered that we haven’t experienced any really high winds.

It’s been awhile since we’ve done a large grocery shopping (basically since we left the USA) so our fridge was pretty empty when we got back. We teamed up with our rafting partners (the boat beside us), Caroline and Mario (from Montreal) and rented a car from a friend of the dock owner, Carolyn. On Tuesday we drove into Nassau and bought lots of produce and other yummy items. We also stopped at a liquor store on our way back!! It’s really nice having access to a car – last night we had pizza from Dominos. Mark and Mario picked it up!!

Our plan now is to leave here around 8am tomorrow morning (Feb. 8th) and head to Hawksbill Cay. We’ll continue to move south the next day and stop at Staniel Cay. We probably won’t have any wifi at Hawksbill because it is inside the Exuma Land and Sea park (no cell towers), but we’ll be back in business once we reach Staniel.