I raised the anchor at 6am (still dark) to make use
of the last of the outgoing tide, in good hopes of a favourable weather window,
soon dispelled when no wind appeared, I raised the main and had the jib unfurled
to catch what little there was, but was soon being forced North by the Gulf
Stream heralded by a large sea turtle;
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| Large turtle, I thought it was a whales back |
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| Ploughing to windward |
and coupled with that the cargo ships
and tugs were getting ever closer the closest passing us at ½ mile! We managed
to find enough wind to sail by midnight but had to restart the engine on Friday
afternoon, only managing intermittent sailing until midnight on Tuesday 8th
after which we sailed until reaching Grand Turk this morning at 11am. So of the
10 days and 5hours of the journey we were under motor about 74 hours.
The worst
was that the winds were South East (our route) most of the time, forcing us to
tack, which we did twice, adding about 240Nmto the trip; most of which was
spent alone in our bit of water, with the odd freighter or cruise liner on the
horizon, two flying fish landed on deck, too small to eat, and nothing was kind
enough to attach itself to my fishing lines. Since we were head on to the swell
most of the time, the constant drowning of the bow light connector finally flooded
and tripped out, leaving no navigation lights, if I saw a ship I put on my
anchor light, to have some lights showing, but no one contacted me.
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| Anchored off Cockburn Grand Turk |
Nearing Grand Turk I tried to contact the
harbourmaster at the South Base, with no luck, a local answered my call and
went personally to the docks to arrange for someone to meet me for clearance,
and directed me to the anchorage off the town dock at Cockburn, so having got
the hook down in lovely clear water at 26°C (79°F) I inflated the dingy, had a
quick wash and went ashore when no one had come by 4pm I returned to the boat
and wrote this, I will get a taxi to South Base in the morning and see what
happens.
Monday 14th got a taxi to the docks to
customs, who sent me to another building about 200 yards away, which turned out
to be a large empty shed with a small office at its far end housing both
customs and immigration for sailboats. Having cleared in a stamp could not be
put in my passport as the officer was off on compassionate leave, so was
advised to go to the airport (about a mile away on the road back to Cockburn)
walking there I found the necessary person was not available and was given
vague directions to ‘a pink building called 3 Degrees down the road’ about a
mile and a half later I found it and without too much hassle got the necessary
stamp; having by now walked nearly the whole way back to Cockburn I completed
the distance on foot,
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| Pony havind a bath |
 |
| Old Salt Pans |
finding the town
now crawling with tourists as two cruise liners had arrived. I located a cafe
that offered wifi and returned to the boat, and as I was preparing to go for a
swim, a police boat pulled alongside as I was flying my yellow practique flag,
having explained I had just cleared, he had to come aboard to check and fill in
the inevitable form and have a look around. After a pleasant swim I did some
chores including an oil change, repairing a jib sheet pulley and sealing the
bow light plug, and so to bed.
