Turtle Cove Marina, Providenciales, Turks & Caicos

  We are quickly booked in at the diveshop in the morning for our day’s diving and after a short delay for boat refuelling we are heading out to dive number one Pine Cay reef. Dave gives a comprehensive dive brief and we follow Nikki or dive guide in to the water. Pine Cay is located out past the north east of Provo and about a 30 minute boat ride. We have such high expectations of Turks & Caicos diving that we are expecting to be surrounded by large life (sharks etc) on every dive with gin clear waters which unfortunately in not quite the case. It is relatively gently sloping site with fairly abundant fish life and lots of intact large corals though no sharks, turtles or rays, I think perhaps we are getting spoilt to be disappointed!

Dive 1: Pine Cay

 Blue-striped grunt fish

Angelfish (?) over coral

The Indo-Pacific Lionfish intruder Blue-striped grunt fish in front of fan coral

After the first dive, we motor back towards base enjoying delicious snacks provided of fresh local pineapple, celery, carrots, crisps etc. The second dive is back in the large bay outside the entrance to the marina, a site called Grouper Hole. Unfortunately we are in group 2 again and group 1 sees the much awaited turtle and sharks, but we don’t. However, we do see the biggest barracuda I have ever seen within about 10ft right under the boat as soon as we descend, which is frankly as close as you would want to get to something with as big a mouth as that!

Dive 2: Grouper Hole

 

Two Great Barracuda – each 4ft long (honestly!)

Kevin just hanging around

Nassau Grouper

 Black Triggerfish – very prevalent locally

Tiger Grouper 

 

We also find out that the beautiful lionfish pictured above is actually an intruder from Pacific waters believed to have been accidentally released into Caribbean waters through the Florida aquarium trade. The lionfish feed on juvenile and small fish species and are such voracious hunters with no natural predators that they are threatening the the ecosystems in the area. Some areas such as Belize have apparently even put a bounty on them on $50 a fish. Dave is a well informed and conscientious dive guide and has started hunting them on his dives and other local schools have done the same, a shame for him that there is no bounty here. He has apparently killed 162! However, there is still a way to go as we still saw 5 on our dive this afternoon with Nikki.

Turtle Cove Marina, Providenciales, Turks & Caicos

Today we had to return the car by 11am, so I decided to get up early and do a run to the coin laundry that we saw the day before in downtown Provo (as it is known locally). It was definitely a locals place and seemed to be as much about catching up with the neighbours as doing your laundry. Although I felt a bit of an outsider I wasn’t made to feel unwelcome and took the opportunity to knock off a few more pages of Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd, the 1344 page epic I am currently wading through.

We went to Provo Turtle Divers based at the marina in the afternoon to enquire and hopefully book in for a couple of days of diving. At 124$ per person per day for two morning dives it is not exactly cheap, but we decided to make the most of diving here having heard many recommendations.

A quiet evening in ready to get up early to sort out our diving kit to be ready at the shop for 8am for our days diving tomorrow.

Turtle Cove Marina, Providenciales, Turks & Caicos

We have a great night’s sleep in the marina despite the wind, Invincible is actually more stable than ever before trussed up between the posts. We decide we will hire a car for the day, do some grocery shopping and see the island. We have learned that the apparently great value 95c / foot at the marina is slightly misleading, as you are charged $5 per day for water and 15$ per day for power regardless of whether you are connected to it or use it! We go to remonstrate with Carol at the office and she is extremely hard faced about it (talking to the other cruisers they have all done the same to no effect). We point out we cannot even connect to their power with our European sockets. She helpfully says she will send the electrician to help, the very nice guy from Guayana does the work and then tells us there will be a $40 charge added to our bill, in three other marinas we have had such assistance, never before have we been charged. We do get as far as ringing the IGY marina just opened at the north east of the island intending to leave, but that is only part built yet and we decide we have invested so much here we may as well carry on. We can have unlimited showers and power usage as the daily rate is about what we would use in a week which is just as well as the marina showers are not in use. So Kevin washes the boat again.

I go to the car hire place on site, it is $59 a day for a car plus 10% tax, plus $15 insurance. I look on the internet and ring Avis they will hire me a car including everything for $59 and pick me up in 15 minutes to collect it, deal done. Avis are not usually the cheapest but even they are better than those business within walking distance of a marina with marina tax added. A nice guy from Haiti collects me and we drive through the plush Grace Bay area of Turks and Caicos where all the posh new apartments, hotels and shopping arcades are. I am soon equipped with a little lavender Daewoo and just about work out my way back to the marina. I spot a sign at the nearby cinema for the new Star Trek film and realise what my evening will be when Kevin spots that one….

Kevin and I then set off to the nearby supermarket that we spot on the way. The fruit and veg look the freshest we have seen in months and the range is great, though it is not the cheapest we buy lots. We even manage to buy some truffle oil and Angel hair pasta, which Jean introduced to and we have been trying to find since. We go back to the boat, quickly unpack and make a lunch with our buys before heading out. We drive through downtown Providenciales (the main town is named the same as the island), it lacks any character at all, lots of widely spaced malls with big carparks in front, no feeling of a town centre at all. The architecture is modern, concrete and characterless. There are bizarrely barbers everywhere, they must be a well dressed crowd in Turks and Caicos.

We drive down to South pier trying to look across the inner reef between the Turks and Caicos island group. There is a large limestone quarry on the way and the route is very industrial, the run off from the quarry makes the water look almost fluorescent and is not the idyllic looking tropical scene we imagined. Further down the road when we can see south there is a far more natural looking bay with lots of little islets and well landscaped villas.

 Fluorescent looking waters near the quarry

 

Looking south over the inner Turks and Caicos reef 

We decide to drive through to the North East point and see the new IGY marina, we drive the length of the Leeward Highway through the centre of the island (only 12 miles long), just peeking over the brow of the hill on the left through the centre of the island you can see the locals houses which are rather less plush than the large villas we have seen so far down the unmade tracks. The marina is mostly constructed, though the surrounding resort is unfinished. They still have a number of big motor yachts in though, it did look a more appealing entrance than Turtle Cove, though less sheltered because of it.

New IGY marina 

I drive Kevin through the plush Grace Bay area next, there are quite a few jewellery shops, restaurants, etc amongst the big developments, the lands are landscaped and it looks much more finished than the many incomplete developments elsewhere. Finally we pull in at Princess Alexandria beach for a closer look at the long sandy beaches we could see on the way in. The sand is amazingly fine and water crystal clear. The protective reef all along the shore makes for great snorkelling and a gently lapping waves on the shore and we see a few holiday makers enjoying the sun despite the squalls offshore.

Jo on Princess Alexandria beach 

Looking out at the squalls over the lovely clear waters

We are still early for Star Trek, so we have a coffee at the coffee shop by the supermarket, where it seems the local ex-pats all meet up in an afternoon. Finally I succumb to the inevitable and take Kevin to the cinema to see his Star Trek film and surprise myself by enjoying it too.

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.

Tiki Hut Anchorage, North West Point, Providenciales, Turks & Caicos

We make good time in the steady force 6 winds especially once we get behind the large reef which stretches from South Caicos to Providenciales. We can see a blue shadow on the underside of the clouds hanging over the reef, otherwise the only indication of it’s presence is the reduced swell. We are within 8 miles before we see West Caicos which is south of Providenciales but not shown on yesterday’s map.

The squalls then start but we decide to press on to some dive moorings which we will be able to pick up at North West point, Providenciales (left hand red peg) taking advantage of the slightly longer days this bit further north. We finally tie up about 6.45pm by which time it would be pitch black in Grenada, but here it is not quite sunset. A very nice looking resort of thatched huts overlooks us as we settle down to a well deserved hot meal and early night before we move round to Turtle Cove marina (right hand peg) tomorrow morning.

Passage to Turks and Caicos

We have 177nm to travel to the Turtle Cove Marina in Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands. We opt to leave early evening in order to make an early arrival on Sunday morning. We know we must have planned the weather right as every other boat leaves during the day.

We have to check out and again Roberto, the concierge arranges all this for us. We leave him our passports and he arranges for the immigration officer to stamp them and for the navy and drug agency officials to come by just before we leave.

We have been dreading the moment of departure for sometime as the wind is still very gusty and for some reason we have been put in a triangular shaped end berth opposite a powerboat too long for it’s berth. It is going to be very tight and it is, I give a push with the boat hook to get the bowsprit round the edge of the dock as we are tight against the far side of the channel to turn.

The swell crashes all the way along the channel out from the marina as the water shelves from 200m to 20m within half a mile and we just have to pound our way through it. We get the sails up and breath a sigh of relief when we finally put the wind and swell on the aft quarter, turn off the motor and start to sail. It is still a lumpy crossed sea, we are receiving the full fetch of the Atlantic until we get behind the reef of the Turks and Caicos so we settle in for a long night. There is quite a bit of big ship traffic, one which is on an almost reciprocal course to us, he is going SE and I am going NW, he doesn’t deviate his course at all but we are converging all the time. His lights are confusing because all though he is a 50m plus vessel his lights are close together and forward and with the lack of sleep I can’t work out where he is going. I call him on the radio eventually he replies without giving his ship name, yes he has seen us, doesn’t answer to if we are clear (their radars and tracking are far more advanced than ours) and just gives his course, not wanting to fight him I turn us round his stern.

Ocean World Marina, Cofresi, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

Another day at the marina, we discover that disaster has struck that morning, one of my beloved Crocks flip flops has blown off the dock (we take our shoes off before coming on board). We instigate a search downwind across the marina and to the opposite beach. We do not manage to find the escapee, but do find literally dozens of odd shoes which makes me feel a bit better that it is not just me that has made that error!

I go to do the laundry at the gleaming brand new on site facility. There is an attendant there for service washes, but this would I think be rather extravagant when we are sat there on the boat 4oo yards away not very busy. My Spanish is very rusty and his English nonexistent, so we settle for nods and smiles and he sings loudly to the radio instead whilst I read my book.

Kevin has been looking at the weather and it looks like we can leave tomorrow. We make up the bunks etc in the afternoon and continue with some more planning. We decide to head outside the complex for a last drink in Dominican Republic in the evening. We are a little disappointed to have seen so little of the island as it is one of our favourites so far, but vow to return another time to tour more extensively.