Update to Turks and Caicos

Margarita VZ to St Croix to St Thomas to South Caicos to Fort Lauderdale. Whew…a lot of catching up to do!!Sleep and rest being of most necessity! Briefly…we didn’t make it to St Maarten…I was disappointed…but we did sail to St Croix, USVI and I do have to say that of the USVI’s, St Croix may be my favorite island with St John running a very close second.

We stayed there two days and then sailed to St Thomas for some last provisioning, and to refill my scuba tank (the only two reasons for going to St Thomas in my opinion – there is cheap Gin – the provisioning part, and Scotty – he has a great one man dive shop operation that we “stumbled” upon) for me to change the zincs and do a final cleaning on the bottom of the boat - as you can see they did need to be replaced.

Done….then as we were sailing up, but still a few days out of the Turks and Caicos I asked Paul about some detail of our planned destination of Grand Turk…he responded by going to his chart plotter…and it was then that he realized that he did not have a chart for Grand Turk….or Provo….or any of the other islands…EXCEPT….South Caicos. In the guide books that he did have it said that all of the navigational aids in the Turks and Caicos are “suspect” or unreliable…AND that there were so many reefs that unless one had local knowledge it was best to avoid the area. SO, based on this…we went to South Caicos! And what a stroke of luck…apparently the BEST diving in the Turks and Caicos is here! In fact dive boats from the other islands will make the “trek” to South Caicos for some of its unique dive sites! When we arrived around noon we went onto the island to check into the country and I called the only dive provider…he only had the following day that he could take Paul and I on a two tank morning dive. Dive pictures on the next blog...this is Lady H anchored in Cockburn Harbor, South Caicos. We used this area as the dingy dock. It is where the local fishing, conch and lobster boats tie up...the boats are not as pretty as Venezula and some of the other islands...but for all of the reefs that surround this British overseas territory...they certainly are the right boat for them!
These guys are cleaning Red Snapper (and conch). They sent 1000 pounds a week to Provo for all of the people (and tourists) living there.

These are huge grouper heads...the fishermen had already fileted them...they catch them using conch as bait and send them to Provo.
We so enjoyed South Caicos, riding our bikes about the town, and the friendliness of the people that we asked questions about land and condos.

We did get a tour of the island from a young man (25 years old) sent to South Caicos by a U.S. company (Chicago) as the “Project Manager” for this “grand undertaking” project…the company had bought up most of the island two years ago (heard one individual put it – fire sale prices – but – understand now the good prices are gone). So, while we enjoyed the island and the diving…we came to the conclusion that we were two years too late to invest here….so on to the diving pictures...next blog