We spent 14 lazy days in the Turks and Caicos. After spending time in the Exumas and other out islands of the Bahamas we were ready for some access to grocery stores, restaurants, laundry, barber shops and other niceties of civilization. Accordingly, we chose to spend the time in a marina. The anchorages were all quite remote from any towns or facilities.
We made South Side Marina on Providenciales Island our home for those two weeks, and had a very enjoyable time. While on the dock we took several excursions to the touristy side of town. Our first night on Provo, Jen and I had a delightful dinner in a wine bar while Kathy and John Reager from Oceana watched Quinn for us. Another memorable excursion found Jen, Quinn and I on a day-long walk along the Grace Bay Beach, checking out all the beachside resorts. Jen and I were very impressed with the beach, as it was miles long, clean, and protected from the big ocean swells by a barrier reef about a mile out. Snorkeling, diving, windsurfing, tube rides, parasail rides, and catamaran booze cruises were among the many activities available. Anyone looking for a fun beach getaway should consider Provo's Grace Bay in the Turks and Caicos!
The diving here is quite good, and I did two dives off of West Caicos island. They were both wall dives and were a lot of fun. The most interesting thing was seeing barrel sponge coral spawning. They were all doing it at once, which is something to see. Imagine large smoke pots as the spores swirled up and out of the huge barrel sponges in reddish-brown clouds. I've never seen anything like it before. We also saw three large sharks cruising the wall, a few barraccuda, plenty of coral and reef fish plus the usual critters. The dropoff was spectacular as it dropped from about 50'to 3000' straight down. Now that is a wall dive!
It was a bit of a walk to town from the marina, but the marina staff were happy to provide a ride when they had time available. The ride was a pickup truck and was in high demand by the other boats in the marina, so we were usually in the back hanging on. Riding in the back of a pickup truck is old hat for Jen and I (thanks for all those rides in high school, Matt) and Quinn loved it.
Every evening at 5:00 the marina organized a happy hour where everyone would gather with sundowners, substancial appetizers and plenty of stories to share with the other cruisers. The Turks and Caicos is a hub for cruisers heading either north or south at this time of year, so we met several cruisers who were also heading for the Windward Islands for the rest of the season and a few working their way back north.
There actually was some work accomplished during our stay. I took care of a lot of mainenance items while we had the convienience of a marina. Propane refills, engine oil changes, fuel filter changes, water maker maintenance, and general upkeep items. Jen did some serious spring cleaning, tons of laundry and knocked off several pages of scrapbooking.
Other cruisers had more serious maintenance issues. Our friends on Oceana have a substancial stainless steel davit assembly on the stern which supports two large solar panels as well as their dinghy. Two key support welds had failed requiring attention from a local welder to put right. A Lagoon 380, Lucy, arrived missing one propeller. Appearantly one of theirs fell off in transit from down island. Go figure. The replacement prop arrived via Fed Ex, but the custom cone nut did not. After several days of trying to track down the missing shipment, Lucy's captain lost patience, stated that Lucy was a sailboat after all, and resumed their voyage to Ft. Lauderdale with one engine missing a prop.
One day I was determined to walk to town. I had an errand to run and needed the exercise after all those happy hour appetizers. I took Quinn with me and we settled into the walk. We had made it only about half way before a local stopped to give us a ride. When dropping us at the store they asked us if we wanted their number to call if we ever needed another ride. Same thing on the way back: we weren't half way home when a car stopped to give us a ride and we were again offered a phone number. Nice folks here.
After about a week in the TCI we were ready to move on, but we needed a good weather window to beat 400 miles southeast against the trades. On the 14th day it arrived (sort of), and we were off to Puerto Rico.
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