4/6/2011 – 4/8/2011 – Georgetown to West Plana Cay – 166.9 Miles
Wayne concluded after several calls and emails with his public health epidemiologist daughter, Julie, and his wife, Cynthia, that the anti-Malaria prescription given by his doctor was totally unsuitable for someone doing remote cruising. The side effects were just too severe and lasting, and the likelihood of those side effects just too high, to use the drug. Trying to get a new prescription at the Georgetown clinic Monday morning proved futile, so they explored getting an alternate prescription filled in the Turks and Caicos for pick up when we hit Provo. A few sat phone calls later and the plan was in place. A Provo pickup it would be.
Wayne also listened in on the 6:30a.m. Chris Parker Weather Forecast for us. Listening to marine weather is nothing like listening to the fluff and hyperbole that passes for serious weather on radio and TV in the states. Having a good weather outlook is among the most critical aspects of cruising, especially offshore where you might be exposed to thousand-mile fetches of open ocean. In addition to public weather sources like NOAA, a weather forecasting and routing cottage industry has sprung up for cruisers around the world. For the Bahamas and Caribbean the primary weather guru is Chris Parker, who broadcasts weather information on marine single sideband channels (short wave for boaters) six days each week out of his home in southern Florida. In past years, and earlier this year, we had simply listened to Chris' weather reports and his responses to weather routing questions from other boaters. We've generally found that to be more than sufficient, and of course just listening to the radio is free.
This year with our longer treks and offshore passages we decided to purchase a sponsoring membership with Chris Parker's Marine Weather Center (http://mwxc.com/) that allows us to call in to Chris via SSB during his broadcasts to receive personalized weather routing information. Wayne, being back on the boat while Judy and I were off to the airport, handled our first call-in. For a sense of how important this advice can be, click Download 20110406wxChrisJubilee to hear Wayne's conversation with Chris the day we departed (note that we included a few seconds of the end of the prior contact to give you a sense of how the process comes together).
Our bottom line decision, based on the overall weather outlook and Chris' recommendations, was to depart Georgetown Harbor from the SE entrance, motor northeast against the very light daytime breezes to Cape Santa Maria on the north tip of Long Island (the point where Columbus is said to have run his ship, the Santa Maria, aground). We would then head SE overnight as the NE winds increased, with a likely stop at the Crooked/Aitken Island group's Atwood Harbor on Thursday night.
Everything went per plan for our first 24 hours or so. Once around the Cape (luckily we did not ground the Jubilee), we picked up favorable winds to take us all the way to the Crooked Island Group, sailing the entire distance with only a little motor assist for a couple of lighter hours. Life was good.
As we approached Atwood Harbor we decided to keep plugging along non-stop for the Turks and Caicos. However, as we approached West Plana Cay four hours later we reconsidered our decision, as Wayne was starting to feel a little queasy. It was a good decision. We anchored just off the reef behind West Plana, a beautiful deserted island (see photo below with another boat anchored off the far south end of the island). The conditions were a little rolly from a slight swell bending around the island, but not too bad.
Wayne quickly gained back his sea legs, but on Friday Bill started feeling sick. It had to be something other than the seas in our anchorage – possibly a side affect from the Malaria meds Bill started taking on Wednesday, although that hadn't bothered him last year. Later in talking with Judy, she thought that our Tuna Salad dinner at sea Wednesday night might have been the culprit, as she had made that on Monday and we may not have kept it properly refrigerated. Whatever the reason, we laid over in Plana one more day to settle things down.
West Plana Cay to Provo, Turks and Caicos (departing the Bahamas) – 98.4 Miles
We departed West Plana Cay at 1:20 pm to assure entrance at Provo's Sandbore channel at first light, per cruising guru Bruce Van Sant's stern recommendations. We sure didn't like entering a coral-strewn 9-mile channel with the sun in our eyes, but who were we to question the Van Sant Gods? Certainly the other two boats who arrived at virtually the same time as we did had taken the same Van Sant advice to heart. Bottom line, we made it just fine, but that piece of advice was pure bunk. We'll never intentionally cross coral-filled banks again unless the the sun is high or on our back.
Our trip was great, sailing-wise. We had comfortable winds around 12 knots true and initially from a direction that allowed us to lay Provo on a close reach! Unfortunately that didn't last through the whole night, but even as we were headed a bit later that evening we were able to easily motorsail with just the main and a little engine assist the rest of the way. It doesn't get much better than that.
Except, unfortunately, that Bill had a relapse that pretty well knocked him out of action for much of the night. Wayne stayed up all night running the boat and handling the watches until Bill started to come around near sunrise. Never having experienced this kind of problem in these kinds of conditions, Bill (with Judy's telephone advice) is strongly suspecting food poisoning from the tuna salad, although Wayne still suspects the meds. We hope it's not the meds – don't want to repeat this next Wednesday when Bill takes his next weekly dosage.
Being Sunday morning when we arrived in Providencialies, the customs office was closed most of the day, however an agent planned to come to the office around 6:00pm to clear cruisers who arrived during the day. No problem. We could handle that. After a quick trip to customs and back, down came the yellow Q (quarantine) flag and up went the TCI courtesy flag. We were now officially in the Turks and Caicos Islands celebrating our official arrival with a proper dinner – pork chops, hash browns, and fresh salad. Chops never tasted so good.
4/11/2011 - Lay day in Provo
Provo's Sapodilla Bay turned out to be a great anchorage. Although it would be uncomfortable should winds shift to a south or west component, the winds here are predominately easterly and the bay is perfect for easterlies. In recent years a number of modern, upscale, homes have been built around the shoreline, but haven't disturbed the beauty of the bay. Click the image below for a quick video tour of the harbor.
We made great use of our day in Provo, short and quick as it was. After taking the dingy to a dingy dock ashore, we started walking down a dirt road toward a main thoroughfare with our diesel jerry cans in hand when a man in a pickup truck stopped and offered us a ride. Turns out that Niel was originally from Toronto, and had cruised between the Provo and Trinidad (for hurricane season) for years before ultimately deciding to settle in Provo. He's now a full time TCI resident.
It appears that lots of other folks have done the same. While the TCI only has a permanent population of about 36,000, there are always lots of tourists and seasonal visitors here which increase the total “population” significantly. The stores are all neat and clean. The people very courteous and efficient. And, of course, the island and the climate beautiful. Overall a great place.
Wayne got his Malaria meds in a very squared around drug store at a clinic in town (nothing like Georgetown's “clinic”). We then had lunch at a great deli, and then shopped for a few groceries before Bill had to return to clear out with customs while Wayne took our full diesel jugs back by cab to the dingy to ferry us back to the boat.
As seems the constant rule here, the Commercial South Dock Wharf and Customs area was a hub of activity. Where else but in places like this would cruisers be allowed to walk through working ship yards with container movers like this one working “around” you as you strolled to the customs building?
In the customs building Bill struck up a conversation with the head of security for the container port operation, asking about that derelict boat in the yard. Turns out it was a Haitian boat they had intercepted about a month previously, returning its passengers back to Haiti. The authorities intercept about 5 of these boats each year, and claim with helicopter and other tracking means that none are actually getting through. But imagine … They had packed 137 people on this boat!!! 137!!! Our boat would have been much more suitable for holding 137 people, but we couldn't imagine ever trying it, how we could even pack in and onto Jubilee that many people, and whether our boat would still float with that load. Think of the desperation of those people, willing to cross an ocean with 136 other souls in a derelect craft like that to find a better life. It boggles the mind. Truly sad.
Rest assured we are NOT going to Haiti!
Switching from the derelict to the beautiful, while returning to Jubilee we stopped by Starbound, a larger version of Joshua Slocum's Whisper built of wood to a scaled up design of the original vessel. In June of 1898, Slocum, aboard his Whisper, became the first person ever to circumnavigate the world single handed (no crew, just the skipper aboard). Slocum's book, Sailing Alone Around the World, remains a sailing classic today. One could easily see the likeness of Slocum's Whisper in Starbound, as we very sincerely told her owners they had the prettiest ship in the harbor. They most certainly did.
With that we topped the diesel tanks from our newly filled jerry jugs, pre-plotted our course options for the next few days, caught up on some last minute chores, and enjoyed some appetizers (still full from dinner we couldn't think of anything more than appetizers Monday night), before heading off to bed to ready for our next jump. Watch for our next post from, hopefully, somewhere in the Dominican Republic. As we always say … stay tuned!
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