Month: January 2025

This will be another shorter post because we have limited cell service. After moving from Wiley Point to Taylor Bay, we enjoyed a few days of calmer water anchored in a very touristy area. There was a lovely beach which we walked one day and we also had a nice swim from the beach.

Mark continued with the main cabin air conditioning unit installation and that is coming along nicely. I’ve been helping when needed and also doing lots of reading! That’s one positive thing about our limited wifi access – I’ve finished one book and getting ready to start another.

This morning while we were having our breakfast, we started looking at the weather and trying to make plans for leaving Turks & Caicos. As I said in my last post, we can’t arrive in the Dominican Republic until Feb. 1 because of our insurance but we can continue east to Grand Turk and get ready to cross to the DR. We had planned to go back into Southside Marina on Jan. 30 to do some laundry, grocery shopping and then clear out. But after looking at the wind this morning (Jan. 29th), we decided it’s time to go!! We quickly reorganized the boat (the cockpit was full of boat parts and other stuff), secured the dinghy in the davits and pulled up anchor!! We were underway by 9am with about a 40nm trip to just south of Cockburn Harbour (South Caicos). We had a great almost upwind sail with just the jib and mizzen. We arrived at our destination (a tiny cay called Middleton Cay) by 4 pm.

In the morning we’ll jump across to Big Sand Cay which is about 25nm south east of our current location. We’re doing something a bit unusual – we’re heading to the most south Turks island (Big Sand) for Thursday and Friday (it will be very windy from the east on Friday and this island offers good wind protection) and then on Saturday, we’ll go north about 17nm to Grand Turk Island. We still need to clear out (go to customs and immigrations) of Turks and Caicos so that’s why we have to go to Grand Turk. We’ll spend Saturday afternoon on the island and then if the weather holds, we’ll cross to the DR overnight on Sunday, Feb. 2!

We left Southside Marina on Jan. 20 to save some money. We will be in Turks & Caicos until Feb. 1 when our zone 3 insurance kicks in so we really don’t need to be in a marina that whole time. We’ve moved to the west side of Providenciales – a spot we anchored in last season while we waited for our guests to arrive. It’s a nice anchorage – very settled from most wind – but it is a bit dull. We’re all alone here and most likely will stay that way.

While we’re hanging out on the hook, we’re tackling a few jobs (of course)! Mark is working at the installation of our 2 air conditioning units. I’ve been cleaning the inside of the boat and on the day before we left the marina, I finished the semco treatment on our exterior teak! That’s one job completed!!​

Now that we are away from the dock, our wifi situation has changed dramatically. I have downloaded an eSIM with 25G of data that will last 30 days. We’re hoping to not need anymore so we are using our data sparingly. To that end, my next blog will probably not be posted until we are back at the marina (the end of January).

Hello Turks and Caicos! Our 28 hour, 184nm journey went well. We pulled up anchor on Jan 15 at 6 am and were tied up at Southside Marina by 10:30am on Jan. 16. It was a fast passage with wind from the north/northeast that grew in strength by mid afternoon on Jan. 15 and stayed strong all the way. We were mostly cruising along at low 7 knots but did see some 8 knots!! With all that wind came some pretty substantial waves (the only downside of lots of wind) and they were mostly hitting us on the side. It was a bit of a rough ride which made sleeping during the night difficult but we made it here in one piece.

We left Clarence Town with a catamaran and we sailed along with them for most of the daytime (until they were too far ahead for us to see them). Not far from Long Island, we got a call (on the radio) from the catamaran to alert us to activity in the water directly ahead of us. Whales were breaching and smacking their tails on the water!! It was so cool to see and even from a distance their bodies were clearly visible as they breached. We also had a tern flying around the boat for several hours (and unfortunately he or she made a mess on the top of our bimini), swooping in front and then soaring back towards our enclosure. It was fun watching the little bird dance it was doing! We did have another bit of excitement that afternoon (besides the bird). We were sailing along at a good speed and needed to adjust the main sail. I was at the helm and had just secured the main sail sheet after letting the sail out a bit when our auto pilot randomly switched from auto to manual. We immediately sailed off course and ended up gybing the sails (all three sails went from the starboard side to the port side) very roughly!! We had to do a full 360 degree turn to get the sails back on the correct side and get us back on course.

As the sun was rising on Jan. 16, our approach to the Caicos Banks was noticed by Provo Radio. Every entering vessel must chat with Provo Radio to give details about the vessel and crew. The officer who called us was very pleasant and the process was easy and fast. We received a super friendly welcome and after our lumpy passage, it was nice to get such a happy hello! We had the same easy and pleasant reception at Southside Marina. We stayed here last season so we were familiar with the shallow channel to get into the marina. We were very fortunate this time because we arrived at high tide – no problem getting into the marina this time!!

The marina has a really nice bar and grill at the top of the hill that overlooks the marina. We went up there last night and ordered food for my birthday! As we were waiting for our food (and enjoying a lovely beverage) the woman behind the bar told us all to look into the sky. Wow!! We got a little show! A Space X rocket was launched from Texas and exploded over the Caribbean!! We saw and heard quite the display! Thanks Elon for such a wonderful show for my birthday!!

So here we are in Turks and Caicos! Like the Bahamas, T&C has a 3 month cruising permit that costs $300 but it also has a 7 day permit that only costs $50. We had planned to just stay here for 7 days (hoping for a good weather window during that time) and then moving south to the Dominican Republic. Unfortunately our insurance has messed this up for us. Anything south of T&C is a different zone (for insurance purposes) and you have to get a navigational extension (which costs $$) to be insured. So we have this extension but it doesn’t start until February 1. We had thought we could just pay for the 8 extra days but that turned out to be very expensive. We’ve now decided to stay in T&C until February 1 and then head south!

It’s been a whirlwind start to this sailing season – lots of good north wind moved us south at a good pace! We arrived in the Bahamas on November 29th and the plan is to leave Clarence Town at 6 am Jan. 15!! The on and off again crossing window has reappeared with good north/northeast wind that should move us along nicely for a roughly 28 hour sail to Turks & Caicos. We should arrive at Southside Marina, T&C by 10am January 16th (nice way to celebrate my birthday 🎉).

Our stay here in the Clarence Town harbour has had its ups and downs (and rolls, rolls, rolls). During our 7 day visit we explored areas we hadn’t seen before and we met some nice sailors on boats near us. We had one beach get together with a French Canadian couple who have lived in Connecticut for the past 30 years but are now wanting to return to Canada! We did a bit of fresh produce shopping with limited success. Most of all we spent the time watching the wind (via our wind apps on our devices) and being rolled back and forth by the incoming swell! I certainly won’t miss that motion.

As far as boat jobs go, we did very few – we really needed a break from jobs. Mark focused on fixing minor leaks!! Mark fixed one of these minor leaks in the aft head hoses by tightening the hose claps. We discovered a small leak in our watermaker system after our second time making water so Mark did a repair on that! And lastly, Mark worked on a slow diesel leak we have on the engine. Hopefully today’s fix will stop that pesky leak.

This is our last day (and night) in the Bahamas. It’s been a great 7 seasons of exploration – visiting most of the island chains over that time. Now we head for the Caribbean!! More blue water and white sandy beaches to come. First stop Turks and Caicos.

What an anchorage!! We’re starting day 4 in this harbour and the rolling is non-stop. We moved from our first spot due to the swell coming in and around Strachan Cay, causing the boat to roll side to side. We’re now much closer to the Clarence Town side of the harbour but the rolling hasn’t stopped. It was so bad this morning that our coffee pot tipped over, spilling coffee everywhere.

We went into town on Jan. 9 to buy some fruit. A supply ship was at the government dock when we arrived on Jan. 8 and another was in the morning of Jan. 9. Unfortunately both ships brought other supplies – not produce. We did manage to get these cute little bananas and a few plantains from the agricultural co-op. The fruit sold at the co-op are grown on the island!! We’ll go back on Monday or Tuesday to see what else they might have for sale. We were told that they should have some papaya at that time.

Yesterday we got off the boat for a few hours and that was lovely! We explored the south east side of the harbour and found a very cool deep water area that leads to the ocean. The water was about 45ft deep in the centre of the pond and it was surrounded by shallows. We went at low tide so couldn’t take the dinghy all the way to the ocean. We did get a good walk in along the beach. We’ll explore that area again at high tide!!

Our good crossing weather is starting to disappear. Jan. 14 – 15 is now a no go because the wind strength and direction has changed. There is still a possibility to cross Jan 16 – 17 but we’ll wait to see what happens as we get closer to those dates.

You got it!! This past week has had great northerly wind that has allowed us to get all the way to Clarence Town so quickly!! We’re in a great spot to say Bye to the Bahamas and Hello to Turks and Caicos.

We made a quick overnight stop at Black Point on Jan. 4th where we did some laundry and picked up a few items from the little grocery store. We were up and moving just after 6 am on Jan. 5 to sail south to Lee Stocking Island. It was a lovely sail on the banks but it became a lumpy mess when we exited Galliot Cut onto the Exuma Sound. The wind direction wasn’t great for us – it was almost too far forward for us to sail (we don’t sail upwind well) and the strength decreased a bit. We decided to bail early and take the Bock Cut which was about 2 nm north of the more popular cut at the north end of Lee Stocking Island. Once in the calm water of the Exuma Banks, we quickly made our way to our anchorage on the west side of Lee Stocking. Anchor was down just in time for lunch!

We stayed for 2 days and on day 2 (Jan. 7) we did a few jobs. In the morning I made chili – a great meal for passages. Mark decided to tackle a water leak we discovered a few days earlier. It turned out that the aft head seacock (the hole in our hull that allows us to empty our holding tanks) was the leaky culprit. Mark went to work on repairing the leak but unfortunately the whole cone shaped valve came off! Imagine water rushing in and filling the bilge! Fortunately we had 2 bilge pumps that easily kept up with the inbound deluge. I quickly grabbed all the wooden plugs we had and Mark managed to plug the 2 holes covered by the valve. It took a few more hours to get everything secured and working properly. It was an exciting morning!!!

Our anchor came up before 4pm on Jan. 7th and we made our way (in a nice rain shower – cleaned our decks!) onto the Exuma Sound to make the 84nm overnight journey to Clarence Town. We had great conditions – northwest wind strong enough to move us along at 7+ knots. We were going so fast in the beginning that our eta to Clarence Town was 4 am (way too early because we didn’t want to arrive in the dark). As the night wore on, the wind speed and direction changed and we slowed down. We sailed all the way into the Clarence Town harbour and anchor was down by 8 am.

Looking ahead we are seeing a good crossing window for Turks & Caicos on Jan. 14 – 15. If predictions hold, I’ll celebrate my birthday in T&C!!

Christmas and New Years are over. We had an awesome visit home – stayed with Evelyn until Christmas Day and then moved to Mark’s dad for the rest of our stay. We spent Christmas Day with Evelyn, Liam and Caroline and had a wonderful breakfast. We then went to Mark’s Dad’s (the 5 of us) and had a tourtiere dinner! We had great family visits and many dinners out! It was loads of fun and the time flew by.

Our return to Nassau on Dec. 30 was easy and on time. On Dec. 31 we did some shopping to get ready for our journey south. The winds were predicted to be north/northeast starting Jan. 2 and lasting 3 or 4 days – great conditions for us to move along the Exuma island chain. Mark spent New Year’s Day working on the new pulley system for the engine. He’s been working on this for awhile now – it’s been a difficult job needing special tools. Mark has “fabricobbled” these tools to get the old pulleys off the engine (44 years these parts have been on and they didn’t want to be removed). After all that work removing the old parts and installing the new one, it didn’t work properly. There was a wobble in the pulley system! So the old one went back on! We spent our last happy hour at the dock with some of Carolyn and Nick’s friends. It was a little New Year’s Day afternoon party and it was really nice to meet these people.

We got off the dock at 8:30am Jan. 2 – waved goodbye to Carolyn and Nick and made our way the 44nm to Shroud Cay. It was a beautiful day for a sail – sunny, warm and good wind!! We had all sails up and were cruising along at 7+ knots. There was lots of boat traffic out with us so we had lots to watch!

Things sure have changed in the Exumas. It’s been 8 years since we first cruised in the island chain and the visitors are not the same! During that first season back in 2017, we had many anchorages to ourselves. The anchorages we shared were full of sailboats and a few trawlers. As we approached Shroud Cay, the difference was clear to see – the mega yachts have moved in!! We’re talking boats that range from 30 m to 100m in length. Most are anchored much further away from shore so if you look hard, you can see the sailboats tucked in closer. There were over 10 of these big boats at Shroud Cay with another 5 at the next cay south. Most of the time these boats are not an issue but sometimes they have guests aboard who are not very respectful in an anchorage. They will buzz around on their water toys (seadoos, hoverboards) and set-up tents on the beaches (expecting everyone to stay away from their area!). At night these vessels are lit up like Christmas trees – that’s kind of pretty when it’s seen from a distance. We only spent one night at Shroud so we weren’t bothered by the mega yachts.

On Jan. 3 we had another great sailing day. We moved south to Staniel Cay where we met up with Allyson and Jack on Double Vision. We met Allyson and Jack at the Nassau dock and have kept in touch. We had happy hour onboard their 50ft catamaran and saw one of the best sunsets we’ve seen in awhile. It was fun chatting with them and hearing about their Christmas adventures.

Today (Jan. 4th) we’re heading only 10nm south to Black Point. We’ll do some laundry there and relax a bit. The next day we will move to Lee Stocking Island to tuck in near Norman’s Pond Cay to wait out some west wind.