Crimson Kathryn and her crew

Oh what a ride!! A 104nm journey filled with strong winds in a slightly forward of the beam direction (90 degrees to the boat is called on the beam) which made for some big waves smacking the side and bow of our boat. It was a passage to remember (and to write about 😁).

We had a very productive day on Sunday, Feb. 2nd and by 4 pm we were ready to go so we pulled up anchor. The first part of our trip was great. We were behind Grand Turk Island, a large reef and then Salt Cay with a wind direction that was on our aft quarter. It was a pleasant, fast sail that only lasted about 11nm. As we turned the corner to head on our straight line course to Ocean World Marina, things changed dramatically!! The wind direction was now on the beam and slightly ahead and we were no longer protected from the waves. That’s okay – we were expecting a pretty wild ride!! We were sailing jib and jigger (mizzen sail) so were able to handle the higher wind speed with less heeling over (makes for a more comfortable ride). The predictions for this passage said we’d see wind directions from the north east and east north east with strengths around 18 – 20 kts. The direction was spot on but they under estimated the speed. We were seeing sustained 20 – 24 kts so we really moved along in the beginning.

As the sun went down, we got ready for our long night of bouncing around. It certainly wasn’t a dull night!! We managed to sail on a good line to reach Ocean World Marina but with the strong wind, we spent a lot of time adjusting our sails! That poor jib was reefed (furling it a bit to make it smaller when the winds got too strong and then letting it back out when the winds decreased), tightened and loosened many times during this trip!! We were both getting lots of arm exercise that night. It was a long night and getting sleep was difficult with the rough motion. During our entire trip, we only saw 3 AIS signals from other vessels. One signal was from a catamaran who was sailing north. He passed about 1nm from us – it was nice to see another sailboat!!

As the sun came up (always the best sight after a long night), we realized that our anchor had come loose and was hanging over the bow. We knew there was an issue with it all night long (I kept an eye on it, checking with a flashlight every few hours) but Mark didn’t want to risk going out on deck in the dark with such rough conditions (and I seconded that decision). With better visibility, Mark was able to scoot out to the bow and secure the anchor with several new ropes. Shortly after that adventure to the bow, Mark had to go to the stern and tighten all the lines holding the dinghy in place. All the rocking had loosened the lines so the dinghy was doing quite the dance back there!! All this on deck work didn’t help with Mark’s sea sickness which had been plaguing him all night long. His new motion sickness watch thing was working overtime to help him out and for the most part, the devise managed to keep him well (or at least well enough).

So the sun is up and we’re about 20nm away – hurray!! We’re mostly cruising along at 6 kts so it should be another 3 or 4 hours! Nope!!! Mother Nature had another plan!! The weather changed and kicked us in the butt! We encountered squall after squall – some with heavy rain and 29kts of wind. All of these storms changed the wind direction drastically and the speed went right along with the direction. We couldn’t sail half the time and it was too rolly to use the engine (in case we overheated). So our lovely 3 – 4 hour last leg turned into a gruelling 6 hour fight, making our arrival time 2pm instead of mid morning. The last 10nm we just motored – easier than chasing the wind!

Now we’re securely tied to the dock at Ocean World Marina. So far it’s a great place and very inexpensive! We had pizza dinner last night from a restaurant onsite and today we went for a walk to the town near us called Cofresi. This area of the DR is very mountainous and the scenery is amazing. It’s such a change from the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos!! We’ve decided to stay here for a bit and explore the area. The Ocean World Marina is part of a complex with a boat storage facility and a marine park called Ocean World Adventure Park. We get free admission to the park because we’re staying at the marina so we’ll check that out one day. Lots of things to do around here I’m sure!!

What do these 2 things have in common – you’re being woken up by them while anchored at Cockburn Town, Grand Turk Island. Grand Turk has the small island flavour that makes you feel welcome. The island is the national capital for the Turks & Caicos and it has a thriving cruise ship industry! It’s great we were able to visit this special island. How we got here is a bit of a story (typical sailing!!).

Our plans changed when we started our crossing to Big Sand Cay. The wind direction went from east northeast to east southeast which made it very difficult for us to continue to head to Big Sand (which was south east of us). So we quickly changed course to head directly to Grand Turk which would allow us to use this new wind direction a bit (a motorsail). Unfortunately that wind direction didn’t last but we’d already taken down our sails and were committed to our new destination. It was a slog!! We were going mostly into the wind and waves and both were strong! We had a fast moving rain storm where the winds piped up to 25knots on the nose but after it passed, we had a reprise from the wind, dropping to about 12knots. All in all it was a long 23nm but we made it in before 2 pm.

The anchorage on Grand Turk is right at Cockburn Town – a lovely island town that hasn’t really been negatively impacted by the huge cruise ship industry. We’re anchored fairly close to shore where there are lovely beaches and a few little resort places. We spent Friday (Jan. 31) doing some grocery shopping and then walking around the town. We easily found the donkeys (not sure if they are like the swimming pigs of the Exumas – a tourist attraction – or if they are just allowed to roam freely) hanging out on the beach. We walked the main waterside street and chatted with some of the locals. One man told us all about the church he belongs to (we had left the dinghy on the beach infront of the church) and the places he had travelled to! At one point in our conversation, Mark said we were headed to the DR and the man asked if he could come with us 😳!

We spent the afternoon of January 31 finding the customs and immigration office so we could get some info on doing our clear out 24 hours before our departure. We walked up to the Ministry of Border Control and they told us to head to the commercial dock (near the cruise ship pier) and find the customs warehouse. Okay back in the dinghy! We headed to the south end of the island (only about 2nm away) and landed on a very nice beach close to the cruise ships. It was a short walk to the customs warehouse but boy was it weird! We weren’t sure if it was the right place – small white building with 2 closed garage doors. And at the back, a small door with a large window – no sign! We were at the right place and were told we could clear out on Saturday morning. Excellent – with that settled, we dinghied back to our area (north of the cruise ships) and had a relaxing late afternoon drink at a little restaurant near the touristy shopping area. I guess the cruise ships were all done for the day because we had the place to ourselves!

On Saturday morning, Mark went back to the custom warehouse and cleared us out!! It took over an hour (computer problems and some confusion from the officers) but we’re now good to leave. We spent the rest of the day getting things done for our sail to the Dominican Republic. I made chili and did some laundry. And we both read our guide books for the DR and Puerto Rico.

It’s now Sunday, Feb. 2. We’re making water right now so we don’t need to when we reach the DR. Mark is doing engine checks and I’ve got a few things to take care of before we leave (like doing this blog!). We’re planning to leave here tonight around 5pm and if the winds are favourable, we’ll continue directly to Ocean World Marina at Puerto Plata or Luperon (about 100nm). Where we land will depend on the wind and how far to the east we can sail. If all goes well, we’ll be in the DR by mid morning on Monday. We also have a back-up plan. If the wind isn’t great, we’ll stop at Big Sand Cay tonight (it’s only 17nm south of here) and wait until Monday night to continue across to the DR. Got to have back-up plans in this sailing business!

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.

It’s our last night in the Bahamas before we fly home for Christmas. This week has gone by quickly with a few interesting moments. Our dock neighbours on the 51ft catamaran spent the week going back and forth to the airport – family arriving and departing 4 out of 5 days!! We met their sons and had a nice dinner out with them and Carolyn and Nick. They left this morning, heading for Georgetown.

The big event of the week was the arrival of a 50ft Jeanneau sailboat. The solo sailor aboard this boat is a 79 year old German man, named Michael, who sailed up from Puerto Rico. The big scary part of his story happened as he was heading into the Staniel Cay area of the Exumas. As he was coming in through a cut near Bitter Guana Cay a rogue wave hit him from the stern. The cockpit filled with water and the wave took out his dodger. Worse still he lost his sail drive (basically it’s his propeller shaft and propeller). He managed to limp into an anchorage using only his jib because his main sail had been damaged earlier in his trip north. He also lost his phone in all the turbulence!!

It took a bit of time and effort but Michael managed to get hold of a towing company. His boat was towed from Black Point to our dock overnight!! He arrived here around 9am Dec. 20 and after we had his boat secured along side our boat, he was able to relax. Now the job is to get his boat into a shipyard to be repaired. One good thing happened this morning. Michael was looking at his generator and found his phone! It didn’t end up in the water and it still works!!

We’ll have one more happy hour tonight with Carolyn, Nick and Michael. It will be a small gathering but that’s a nice way to end our week. In the morning we’ll head to the airport for 1pm and be back in Toronto by 7:30pm.

Next post will probably be in 2025!! Merry Christmas and happy New Year!!