The Caicos Bank

Crusing the Caicos Bank
With some trepidation I awoke on Sunday morning for my first day alone on the boat.  The days job was to motor the 43 miles across the Caicos Bank, an area of shallow water (10 to 15 ft) which has only one passable course for my 6ft. draft vessel.  The trip was uneventful since I'm getting used to the beauty of the banks.  At around 4:30 i approached Ambergris Cay dodging the Elkhorn Coral heads and anchored right behind a nice patch of coral.  There were no houses on the island but some kind of radar installation or something with a large concrete building and some heavy equipment scattered about.  I was the only boat is sight which was wierd but I focused on my next duty, snorkelling the patch I next to me.  Grouper, Snapper, and lobster dotted the reef but I was just observing as I haven't eaten half of the big dolphin yet despite having it 2 meals a day.
     Weather on the SSB radio suggested another day at this spot so the next day I did a little housekeeping and a few sewing projects.  My goal of getting to the DR is close as I can get the DR fm stations at night.
      The trip to South Caicos, a settlement on the east end of the bank, was only 20 miles so I got the anchor up late morning for the second time alone, getting confident now.  I was able to sail most of way thankfully, the motoring is getting old and depending on the engine is worrisome.  I sailed along the line where the bank met the ocean in about 30 ft of water.  The fishfinder showed so many fish.  It indicated fish all along the bottom continuously for about an hour.  I was starting to relax on this first day of sailing the boat alone.  The wind on the nose at about 15kts and waves about 4ft., very pleasant.  I heard a pop behind me that I thought was a flapping sail and then I caught a white flash in my periferal vision.  When I turned I saw a large area of disturbed water about 100 yds away.  Just then a large Right Whale breached, most of his body clearing the water, and then the pop like a gun going off and a humongous splash.  I started yelling to no one that I saw a whale.  A whole family of them continued for a few minutes.  I grabbed camera ready for the next one but only got the children.  They were copying their parents like good kids.
The little town on South Caicos had very little evidence of the modern world.  The signs were faded paint on wood, the wooden huts with rusting corrogateted roofs house people and businesses and trash everywhere of course.  Everyone says good morning in spanish or french or the king's english.
After a day or so I was ready to move on and so I walked to the government office, a hundred year old wooden house that was freshly painted, the customs people fiddled with their forms and asked for the $15 exit fee of which I only had $3 of.  I asked if there was a bank and they said yes, the bank would be downstairs in the Treasury dept. at 10am and they only come one day.  I sat out front watching people amble in and form a very loose line.  A van and a truck show up and out comes a bright uniformed man with sunglasses and a shotgun, his hand floating just over the trigger.  Behind him a different uniform with a machine gun poised for business as well, then 3 ladies with the money and the computer.  They set up shop in a tiny room in "the treasury" and started helping people through a hole in a window.  It took about 10 minutes per person and I was about halfway in a 50 person line moving so slowly.  At home people would be bitching and moaning about the service, which was my initial reaction, but the people of the TCI are laid back and happy.  The very well dressed people seemed to all know each other and I gleaned that it was payday and these were the town elite, the lucky ones with government jobs, fireman, cops, and assistant librarians.   They spent several hours laughing, back slapping, and teasing each other.  The only gringo in sight,  I really enjoyed it and got to add my two cents into the mix now and then.  When my turn came there were no problems, so I got my money and headed back up the stairs to Customs.  Closed for lunch till 2.  Oh well, another day in paradise.
The next morning I successfully checked out and sailed the boat 20 miles south to big sand Cay to stage for the overnight sail to Hispaniola.  There were 5 other boats also staging for the sail and all hoping for the predicted 10 to 15 kt. NE winds that were predicted.  Everyone weighed anchor about 2 pm and headed out.  The wind was blowing 20 kts from the SE of course, the direction I needed to go.  I set the sails and the autopilot to point into the wind as best as I could and checked the chart.  I was heading for Haiti and there was nothing else to do.  The others decided to motor the 80 miles if neccesary, an option I was not willing to do.  2 hours into the trip though the wind veered a little bit and I was able to turn about 5 degrees, enough to aim for Luperon, DR.  As the sun set on the building seas and 20kt winds I discovered what my boat is really good for, bashing through the sea.  The only problem was that the autopilot does not do well in those conditions so I had to hand steer the whole night.  It wasn't a difficult job as the boat could almost steer itself in these conditions but there was no way I was going to sleep.
As the sun rose my eyes were hit with a large green gorgeous mountain and my nose was hit with the most unusual smell of rich earth.  Pehaps a bit of sewere also, but whatever it was I was so happy to have made it safely.  I followed another boat, "Zero to Cruising" into the anchorage and tied to a mooring.  I wasn't even tired as I was so pumped up with my accomplishment.  I tidied the boat up and the immigration people requested that all the newcomers head in to check into the country.  The only time I have ever seen a third world type of town was when sheril and I took a caribbean cruise 20 some years ago.  There was so much for my gringo eyes to take in and I was very excited for the coming exploration of Luperon and the DR.  Once the check in was complete I got a wave of fatigue so I went back to the boat to rest up.  The angels had once again intervened and my good friend Corey Crowly was coming from Florida later that day to help me get the boat to the Virgin Islands.