Fizz in the Turks & Caicos

26/03/2010 by admin.

Today is Friday 26^th March, the end of another busy week in paradise. We got in to Providenciales, or Provo, as it is locally known, in  Turks & Caicos yesterday.

We left Tortola in the British Virgin Islands on Saturday 20^th March for the long 360’ run over to the Dominican Republic. The wind let us down with only light airs from astern so we had to motor most of the time. It took 2 days to get to Cofresi on the northern coastline of the Dominican Republic (DR), passing north of Puerto Rica. Samana bay on the eastern tip of the DR is where hump back whales gather in their hundreds from January to March each year during the mating season. Apparently they come down from as far north as Greenland. We kept a good lookout for them as we went past Samana Bay and were able to see 3 whales pass about 200 feet down the starboard side of the boat in the middle of the afternoon. It was a fantastic sight, they were bigger than the Minke whale we saw crossing the Atlantic. Very exciting.

We arrived in Ocean World Marina in Cofresi, DR,  at midday on the 22^nd March. The wind had picked up earlier that morning so we managed to sail the last 40’ which gave us some relief from the constant noise of the engine. Ocean World Marina is a remarkable place, a bit like Las Vegas mixed up with Disneyland by the sea. The marina was built only 2 years ago, and was almost empty, just a couple of big sports fishing boats and 6 yachts. In the centre of the marina is a big 4 storey building that looks a bit like a wedding cake with a huge neon sign on the top advertising the casino. There is also a night club and a theatre in the building, with a burlesque show called Bravissimo running from Tuesday to Saturday every week. Alongside this building is a waterworld park where you can swim with dolphins and watch performing seals.  Just what you would expect to see in a marina. Apparently holidaymakers from all over the DR come to Oceanworld marina so it is obviously very popular. Our first night there(Monday), everything was shut so we got a taxi round to Puerto Plata, the neighbouring town, and had dinner in a very local place with live lobster in tanks in the front window. The food was OK and reasonable but the local area looked a bit dodgy with lots of security guards everywhere carrying pump action shotguns, so we didn’t stay long. The following day we met up with a nice Canadian couple on a catamaran, from Edmonton, Alberta. We had a traditional Canadian pancake breakfast with them on their boat on Wednesday 24^th, before we headed off for the 185’ run to Provo in the Turks and Caicos. This trip involved a 40’ run just south of the Caicos Bank where the water depth was between 7 and 10 feet throughout, with frequent coral heads reducing the depth to 4’ or less. This was a nerve-jangling trip as our draft is 6 feet, so Pam and stu took it in turns to act as lookout for the coral heads. You could se them in the water as dark patches up to 15’ in front of us. Eventually we got to the southern tip of Provo and anchored off Bay Cay while we waited for the high tide to get in to South Side Marina. We swam to the small deserted  island at Bay Cay which turned out to be an Iguana sanctuary. Stu managed to spot a couple of Iguanas hiding in small caves. We then headed in to the entrance to South side marina, but ran aground on a sand bar at the entrance. After a few tense minutes trying to get off the sand, we managed to back off the sand, and deciding not to risk running aground again, we ended up anchoring in the bay overnight. Today we plan to do some provisioning ashore in Provo, before heading round to Sapodillo bay to anchor tonight.  

More to follow.

Chris & Pam

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