It’s been quite awhile since my last post – darn limited wifi!! We only have a phone plan with 8 G of data so we have to be very careful to make sure it lasts the whole month.
We’ve had a very interesting start to our exploration of Providenciales. We’ve discovered a few things already and the biggest discovery is that Turks and Caicos is not a cruising destination. It’s definitely beautiful and has some awesome beaches with nice blue water, but it’s very shallow and only has a very limited number of protected anchorages.
We left South Side at high tide on Feb. 24 which made our exit significantly easier than our arrival. Our first stop was at Taylor Bay – a somewhat sheltered bay about 5 nm west of South Side Marina. This bay is right beside another popular anchorage called Sapodilla Bay. Both these anchorages are close to the government dock (the main commercial dock for Providenciales) and are very populated with villas, resorts and restaurants. It’s definitely very picturesque but also very touristy. It’s not the usual place we would anchor. We did dinghy to the beach and walked the length of it – quite nice. We also took a dinghy tour around the area and found some very interesting rock formations.
As the wind started to turn more east and south east, Taylor Bay became quite bouncy and rough so we decided to move to the west side of Providenciales for better protection. We left Taylor Bay at about 10 am on Feb. 28th. It was a very short distance (5nm) but because the Caicos Banks are so shallow, you can only get into some of these anchorages with high tide. We carefully made our way to an anchorage just south of Wiley Point and found a nice spot to anchor in about 9ft of water.
What a difference 5nm can make!!! We went from a rather touristy, congested area to a nature reserve where we were all by ourselves. We had several, long white beaches and some inland salt lakes to explore. The weather was perfect – sunny, hot and a good wind blowing to keep the boat cool. We spent a bit of time walking the beaches and one day we dinghied into the one salt lakes. We saw a couple of turtles and lots of mangroves. It was a fairly large lake but too shallow for our dinghy to go very far in.
We took advantage of our downtime to clean up the boat. We spent time cleaning and polishing all the stainless parts of the deck and the isinglass – the plastic window part of the cockpit enclosure. Mark worked on jobs that have been on the list for several years. We did an inventory of our pantry items and reorganized that area. We cleaned up the V-berth to make room for Donalda and Bill. It was a very productive time!
After the first few days in our Wiley Point anchorage, the wind began to increase from the east, making it difficult to explore much of the area. Although we were very comfortable on the big boat, riding in the dinghy was a wild, wet adventure. We did venture out to do some snorkeling but it proved to be just too wavy to get in the water. We did manage to check out all the beaches in the area and we saw a few beautiful red starfish on one dinghy ride.
By the time we decided to leave our lovely little spot, there were 8 other sailboats anchored with us. We have learned that most of the cruisers here are only in the area to wait for the next weather window to continue heading south. We met a young couple from Florida who said they were travelling with 5 other sailboats – all were heading further south.
Today (March 5) we moved a grand total of 5 nm from Sapodilla Bay to the marina. Again we had to wait until it was almost high tide and we still crossed over an area that was only 5.6ft deep. Good thing we only need 5ft😁😁. It’s nice to be back in the land of wifi!! We’re in the same spot on the dock and we had a great takeout dinner tonight. Tomorrow we’ll do laundry and finish getting the boat ready for our first guests. Donalda and Bill arrive on Thursday (March 7th) and will be with us until March 19. Time to explore more parts of Turks and Caicos.
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 