To The Turks!

We've broken the spell of the Bahamas and have arrived in the Turks and Caicos Islands. It was a journey getting here for sure. Looking at the chart at first you think, no problem it's under 200 miles. Then you realize that the whole trip lies in the same direction from which the winds normally blow. Since you need the wind to help you travel, this is a problem. Luckily, we got the dream weather window. The winds became very light for a period of almost 4 days from the rare and unusual southern direction. We could go! We left Calabash Bay near the top of Long Island for the five hour trip over to Rum Cay. The next day we headed as far east as we could and the turned south for the 28 hour motor sail to Mayaguana island. It was a wonderful journey - the Gods of calm seas smiled on us the whole way. OK, not really calm. You get a kind of selective memory when in comes to real sailing conditions. If you weren't slightly terrified or wildly uncomfortable you remember the water as being "calm". After a five hour pit stop in the anchorage south of Mayaguana we kept heading south. You don't stop too long when the weather is this cooperative! On this leg of the journey we were able to pull out the Jib sail (the one up front) and coast along in what really were calm seas. So calm that we managed to watch a movie on the laptop out in the cockpit. We felt like we were getting away with something. This has not been our usual night watch routine on the trip through the Bahamas. Lots more hanging on and paying attention is generally called for. Arriving in Sapodilla Bay on the island of Providenciales feels like an accomplishment. Maybe we've finally learned how to read the weather charts, or maybe we were just damn lucky. Either way, onward we go..South.