April 15 - 19, 2006 – Turks and Caicos to Georgetown, Bahamas

We hit a bad patch of weather in the Turks and Caicos. We had hoped to leave early in the week, but a cold front closed in and we had to stay put. One day I (Orma) drove the rental car into town to do some grocery shopping, and was inside a store when the Skies opened. After waiting forty-five minutes (these islanders have attitude, and they’re not about to help you carry your groceries!) I ran to the car, threw in the groceries, and made my way back through the flooded roads to Sapodilla Bay. Cliff picked me up in the dinghy, and we were both good and wet by the time we got back to the boat.

While I was away, Cliff watched a dramatic scene unfold, as the police boat came by towing a Haitiian sloop packed with refugees trying to escape to a better life. Hundreds of Haitians arrive every week and most are apprehended and sent back, but many escape into the bushes where they eke out an existence until they are caught or somehow get legal status to stay. The TCI citizens (Belongers), who guard their island ownership fiercely, are feeling quite threatened as they begin to be outnumbered by these desperate souls, who have nothing to lose.




We left Sapodilla Bay the next day in a rainstorm (bad timing!) to motor back to Caicos Shipyard and Marina to fuel up in preparation for the next transit. With the stormy weather, Sapodilla was becoming uncomfortable anyway, so we decided to stay at the dock for a couple of days. There is nothing attractive about the shipyard, and we were glad to leave there on Saturday morning in the company of Eva and Keith on Seaview.

We traveled just a short distance (3 hours) that day, to West Caicos Island, where a Ritz Carlton resort is under construction. We had happened to pass by the development office earlier in the week, where one of the marketing guys told us that their marina basin is finished, but the docks are not built yet, and suggested that we drop in to take a look. We were happy to leave the rough water on the west side of the island and enter the narrow channel into the empty and flat calm marina. On Saturday afternoon of Easter weekend there were no workers around and we had the place to ourselves. Eventually a watchman came by in a boat and tried to get rid of us (“They don’t like no-one coming in here!”), but fortunately we remembered the name of the developer, and there was no more hassle. Keith and Eva also came in, and after a visit with coffee and cookies in the cockpit, we all had a wonderful, quiet, dark night.

We watched the Easter sunrise from the marina, then started out on a long passage from West Caicos to Rum Cay in the Bahamas. We said goodbye to Keith and Eva, who were headed a different way, and motor-sailed all day and into the evening, seeing nothing but deep blue water and clear skies. The seas were beautifully calm, so we were able to read, Cliff wired some speakers in the cockpit, and I gave myself a guitar lesson. With the new cockpit speakers, we could listen to music and story tapes to help pass the time. In the late evening, the lights of another sailboat appeared, and there was “Doubletake” again, our traveling companions for yet another night passage, as when we were en route from D.R. to T.C.I.

It took twenty-seven hours to get to Rum Cay, where we tip-toed through the coral heads and into a lovely anchorage, tidied up the boat, had a quick swim and a shower, then crashed for a couple of hours of sleep. Later, David and Pam (Doubletake) picked us up in their dinghy and we all went to shore for a Bahamian lunch of chicken, peas and rice, and salad, provided by the ladies of the Baptist church as a fundraising event. Rum Cay has a population of about 100, so there was not much to see in town. We walked around for a while, but it was very hot and we were all too tired to stay long, so it was back to the boat for an early supper and a good night’s sleep.

Once again it was an early start the next morning for the 50-mile trip to Georgetown, Bahamas, in order to arrive with good light at our reefy, shallow destination. With our new GPS we were able to exactly retrace our route to leave the Rum Cay anchorage safely, even though the early morning light wasn’t too good for spotting coral heads. We had another day of motoring, with a little lift from the sails, but this time we were in sight of land all the way, and other sailboats passed now and then, heading east in much better conditions than we had six years ago on this particular passage. On days like this, having the end in sight seems a mixed blessing.