Turtle Cove Marina, Providenciales, Turks & Caicos

We wake up early and see a liveaboard dive boat has joined us on a neighbouring buoy for the night. We decide to make a move before anymore arrive and ask us to move on. We take the long route around the reef which extends to the east of North West point. We have booked a week at Turtle Cove marina to allow us to go diving with a dive school together here as the diving is supposed to be world class in Turks and Caicos. I radio as requested when 10 minutes away to get the free pilot service the 1.5 miles across the reef into the entrance. Although we have a booking we still have to provide all of our details over the radio. I ask ahead which side-to we are going to be moored in order to get lines and fenders ready. I am told bow in, starboard side to, we follow the marina’s powerboat all the way in, it is pretty shallow in spots and we wonder about the larger monohulls and even superyachts coming in, though apparently they do.

Turtle Cove Marina

It is gusting 25 knots when we arrive in the marina and the boat points us to a berth between two posts which are only a few inches each side wider than Invincible. Kevin does a great job again and we moor against the short finger against the starboard bow. When we are into the berth we then see that there are warps coiled and hooked on the inside of the posts. Without a line to these stern posts there is too much wind pushing us onto the fender on the finger pier. The bow lines tied by the attendants are doing nothing at all to help, he says we can’t run one across to the empty berth alongside so we start threading round the bowsprit to go across ships and get some more leverage within the berth. There are two attendants on the dock looking at us blankly and saying I should have picked up the lines as we came through the posts! In a 25knot cross wind with one crew on board, he then says we should get our dingy down to fetch them. One of them then asks if he can wash our boat for us, we are not even securely moored up yet and it’s still gusting, there is a hose directly in front of us, I politely decline. We ask why the boat that was there 2 minutes ago to guide us in can’t come and get the lines for us. They reluctantly radio to ask them to come back and we get these lines tied on to opposite hulls and it does a good job of holding us off. However, little do we realise that one of the attendants on the dock is helpfully and completely unnecessarily easing our bowline as we are sorting out the stern lines, easing us off the strategically placed fender keeping us off the protruding post of the finger pier. Arrghh! Luckily the defender strip is in the right place to stop any damage. The skipper is not happy with the performance here and really cannot see when they have 150m of empty alongside berths do they put us in a berth designed for a 60ft monohull, Kevin does ask them this at the marina office but they say they are reserving the space for superyachts.

Invincible snug in her berth at Turtle Cove Marina

There are a couple of yachts in beside us and they shout across about how difficult it is to get in and how little use the attendant were to them too. Almost to demonstrate this a large monohull arrives as we are talking and also have a difficult time of it and they have 4 crew.

Invincible at Turtle Cove marina

We are given the papers to check in to customs and I sit down to fill them in though it seems that the customs official is not around yet. So we decide to go for lunch at the Tiki Bar at the marina whilst we recover our nerves. Lunch is delicious, we both have a burger and feel much better. We head back to the boat to await check in. After a couple of false starts, the immigration guy turns up, I experience the first drive through check-in as the whole process is done through his car window! He does take out his MP3 earphones to speak to me, but then switches up his car radio to make up for it. Consequently I have to ask him to repeat everything he mumbles at me, which doesn’t seem to improve his mood much but I smile sweetly throughout trying to keep things moving and fairly swiftly we are checked in. A German in a 57ft catamaran near us is checking out to go to Mayaguana in the Bahamas and on to Fort Lauderdale, we chat briefly and say we may see him on route. He marvels that we managed the Mona Passage in our “little” catamaran, but is less amused when he hears that our “little” catamaran made it across the Atlantic in only one day more then his big one (on the same route and within a week of each other) and says goodbye quickly.