From Sapodillo Bay, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos to the Dominican Republic

A friend of ours from Phoenix, Gayle Danner, flew into Providenciales to spend a couple of weeks aboard, arriving on Saturday, May 3rd. She is an avid Scuba Diver, so we booked a “wall dive” for Monday. The dive boat took us to the west side of West Caicos Island, where we made two dives that day. We were happy with the sea life and corals in the area, but were not happy with the dive master’s instruction or the way the dives were conducted. There were 20 divers on this trip, and only two crew members aboard to manage this large group. There should always be at least one dive master or crew in the water for every five or six divers. In this case only one professional was in the water with 20 people. Anchored in Sapodillo Bay, waiting for the weather to settle a bit, we explored Provo, did boat chores, and made preparations to depart for Grand Turk. On Wednesday, May7th, we crossed the Caicos Banks using the Gingerbread Channel to Long Cay, in the company of "Egide" and "Yankee Zephyr". The passage across the banks was tricky, requiring much “eyeball navigation” to avoid the many coral heads, and shallow sandbars. For much of this route we had only a few feet of water (or less) under the keel, which makes the Captain VERY NERVOUS! The anchorage at Long Cay was okay, but the boat was rolling a bit due to the swell coming around the island. The next day, Thursday, May 8th, we crossed the channel to Grand Turk, (21'30.42N 71'10.00W) in fair conditions (4-6' seas), and anchored in the lee of the island off Town Dock, Cockburn Town. We splashed the dinghy and went into the town to look for a Dive Shop and some dinner. This may be our favorite place so far. We enjoyed fabulous diving with Grand Turk Divers. Smitty, the owner, has all our votes for best dive master in the world! Early Friday morning we participated in a reef relocation project, harvesting healthy corals from a reef near the new pier where ship traffic is damaging the reef. Later the coral will be “planted” on a metallic grid where electrolysis furthers acclimation after transplantation and speeds the growth of the relocated corals, and new ones join the man made reef. There are about 200 projects like this being conducted around the world, and we felt honored to be invited to participate. In the afternoon, we enjoyed two more dives, and have now braved depths to 90 feet! We saw a sea horse!!! A rare site indeed and we are proud to have bragging rights to share with other divers who have not been so fortunate in their many years of diving. Of course we saw magnificent sights; sharks, rays, eels, and the poor pathetic ugliest fish in the sea; a Batfish. OMG, it looks like a plucked Cornish game hen with duck feet and a face like a pit bull, alone, with no other fish around, go figure… We strolled around the tiny town of Cockburn Harbour, gawking at all the quaint architecture, and stumbled on the “Sandbar”, the perfect open air watering hole, for fresh cracked conch, fries and rum punch.

Walt and Gayle, walking a quaint and peaceful street of Cockburn Town, Grand Turk Island.



















The following day, Saturday, May 10th, we made a short 25 mi. run to anchor overnight off Big Sand Cay. This was our last landfall in the Turks and Caicos Islands before making the passage to the Dominican Republic. Big Sand Cay(21'10.70N 72'30.00W) is a deserted island and wild life sanctuary, possessing a lovely little bay and a white powder sand beach. Gayle enjoyed a solitary walk on the beach at sunset while we did a few chores. She came back with a little bag of perfect shells, but decided to leave the huge conchs she found at the southern tip of the island. Not many people can say they’ve had a sunset walk on an island without another living soul (except for a gazillion birds). The easterlies held, and we had great holding and relatively calm seas on the lee side in about 25’ of crystal clear water. Tough way to enjoy a evening, but somebody’s got to do it! At 4:30am the next morning, Sunday May 11th, we hoisted the anchor, and made the 88-mile passage to Dominican Republic in ideal conditions, arriving about 4:30pm at Ocean World Marina (19'50.1.N 70'43.60W)near Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. The marina has FREE INTERNET, which we can access directly aboard our boat! Check out their site on the internet, what a place: casino, dancing, fine dining, Ocean Adventure Park, and all the cruiser amenities. So, we are treating ourselves to a first class marina stay while waiting for our next weather window to cross the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico. D.R. is a beautiful country, with actual mountains, streams, rivers, and tropical jungle vegetation. There is a lot to see and do here, so we've rented a car for a week to explore, maybe play golf, see museums, etc. It is such a welcome change from the flat sandbars of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.

The rugged North Coast of the Dominican Republic



















KINGDOM at the Ocean World Marina



















The poolside bar and grille at Ocean World Marina
























The harbour entrance at Sunset


















Our friend Gayle flies back to Phoenix on Saturday, May 17th, so we are planning to drive over the mountains to Santo Domingo on Friday, stay overnight, and get her to the airport Saturday morning. At least they drive on the "correct" side of the road here...We hope to see some of the sights, especially the "old colonial district" of Santo Domingo.

The wind has picked up, and is from the North. The forecast calls for higher winds and waves along the northern coast until Monday, when we plan to head on over toward Puerto Rico.

Our favorite stop prior to here was the anchorage off Cockburn Town, Grand Turk Island. We really enjoyed the friendly and helpful people of this small island. We also had three great scuba diving experiences with the premiere divemaster of all time! We learned soooo much from him! The reefs, wall dives and coral heads were amazing. If you ever get a chance to see a BATFISH, you will know what we mean....look it up online, maybe...

That's it for now.
Love to you all!
Walt and Susan King
M/V KINGDOM