Reached Turks & Caicos, but not without incident

Mayaguana Island to Turks & Caicos (February 28th & March 1st)

Turks & Caicos flag and Hawkestone's burgie

At Mayaguana Island, we anchored just inside the reef at Abraham’s Bay. Here, it’s best to enter or exit in good light, so as to avoid hitting any coral heads. The same held true for our destination – Sapadillo Bay  on Providenciales Island in the Turks & Caicos. There are numerous coral heads there also. Abrahams Bay in Mayaguana Island to  Sapadillo Bay in the Turks and Caicos is a long passage – about 60nm. If you do the math… average speed of 5 knots/hr. over 60nm = 12hr. passage, and that presumes a straight run (ie. no tacking). The sun rises about 6:30am and sets about 6:00pm, which does not give you 12hr. of ”good light” with which to avoid the coral heads at each end. We had to choose which anchorage was going to have the “good light.” There were 4 boats anchored at Abraham’s Bay, and all of us were going to Sapadillo Bay. Collectively, we agreed to leave Abraham’s Bay at 5am (in the dark), and retrace our chartplotter paths out; so we’d have light entering at Sapadillo Bay.

The howling wind woke us before the 4:30am alarm! Not a good sign. Not for the first time, the forecast wasn’t going to hold true. The winds were not only stronger than predicted, but also more ‘on the nose.’  Gil & I had this lesson only a couple of days earlier. We weren’t going anywhere. We radioed Slow Waltz, and they were of the same mind. We also radioed Nightwatch, but Ralph was going anyway. The 4^th boat had already weighed anchor and gone! 

We radioed Nightwatch again, after he’d gotten underway, and he was motoring straight into the wind and waves, making 4-5 knots against a 15+knot wind. We were glad we decided to abort. His boat’s a lot bigger (he has a regular stand up frig in his galley!), so he can better handle the more challenging conditions.

With Slow Waltz, we still chose to travel on Friday, but we went from Abraham’s Bay to the Southeast Point of Mayaguana Island – about 15+ nm closer to Sapadillo Bay. We stayed only for dinner and a nap. Our revised plan was now to leave at midnight and arrive in the Turks & Caicos with first light on Saturday.

We were rewarded with a beautiful night sail in phosphorescent seas! We did run into some squalls, but they only packed rain – no extra wind. This is what rain looks like at night….

surrounded by squalls (each ring is 1 nm)

At first light we reached the opening of Sandbore Channel (into the Caicos Bank), where we made a hard turn to port to steer for Sapodilla Bay, another 9nm away. That’s when we lost our steering!!  It just jammed! We’d just gotten out of the deep water and onto the shallower bank waters (where all the coral heads are). Great. We dropped anchor right then and there. Everything came out of the lazarettes – the boat proper looked like a storage locker. Gil went into the ‘basement’ to troubleshoot. Of course, the wind picked up about this time also, and the boat was hobby horsing on the short steep waves of the shallower bank waters. Not comfortable. Gil, however, was so focused on the task at hand. The steering cable had fallen out of its’ track and gotten jammed. One of the wheels that guide the cable had a worn edge. It was a difficult and tedious job in awful conditions. Gil had to disassemble and reassemble the port side of the steering mechanism to free the cable and return it to its track. Almost 3 hours later, we were operational again. Gil really came through. I’ve finally forgiven him for all the birthdays he’s missed ;-).

We arrived in Sapodilla Bay a little later than expected on Saturday, March 1^st. 

Slow Waltz & Serenada in Sapodilla Bay, Turks & Caicos