Turks and Caicos
Shelly Hoists the Staysail Just Before Dusk on Day Two
Made it! This was our longest trip yet, taking about 50 hours to get from Cat Island to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Our weather window held out very much as predicted, allowing us to get here before the big storm that started today.
The final evening at Cat Island we went in to a local beach shack bar to spend our remaining Bahamian currency. We both had gotten a bit injured here: Shelly tweaked her back while we were hauling Namaste off the beach, and I exacerbated my knee “issue” by running a wee bit too far. Not a big problem, we would not be moving around much over the next few days.
Shelly wanted me to point out the resolution to a bit of a mystery we came across in the Bahamas. As we walked down roads, or as I was running down a road, cars would pass and tap their horns just as they passed you. It wasn’t a warning, they were already next to you when they honked. It sounded to us more like a “hello” honk, so sometimes we’d wave. Not a big deal but we wondered, why do this to obvious strangers? Was it a cultural thing? Yes it was, those cars were Jitneys, private vehicles offering you a ride for a few dollars. This is Uber before Uber. If you hold up your hand they’ll stop. Well, I held up my hand a few times thinking I was waving hello, and they did stop. I couldn’t figure out what was going on as I walked past them as they never said anything. They probably thought I was another stupid tourist. Which I was.
We hobbled away on Good Karma Tuesday morning right as a squall line was moving through. It was pretty rough at first with lots of headwind, rain, and six-foot waves breaking over the bow. The stormy seas went on for about four hours and then gradually settled down to near-calm conditions for the next day or so. We motored most of the way during this time.
We finally began to get favorable wind in the early afternoon of day two. We got about 6 hours of non-motor sailing that was fantastic. During part of that leg you could go below deck and it was so smooth and quiet you couldn’t tell you were sailing on the open ocean. Just before our second sunset we hauled up the staysail due to the high winds predicted to form that night.
The winds increased gradually but it never got too bad. As we got closer to the Turks and Caicos islands, the waves grew much larger and were coming from the open Atlantic, more abeam, causing Good Karma to rock and roll intensely. But we were also getting fantastic wind and did not need to use the motor during the last few hours.
Coming into to Turtle Cove Marina was tricky, so much so that the marina provided a pilot boat to guide us in around the complex reef system. Finally got tied up in a slip and since then the wind and rain has increased, over 25 knots today.
Our plan worked flawlessly. We were able to travel about 250 miles in good weather, avoiding the worst of the storms at either end of the journey.
Up next: The quirky Turks and Caicos Islands!