Bye bye Bahamas, hello Turks and Caicos

We were counting on the forecast wind change to leave the next day.  But the SE wind blew relentlessly…until about 1am.   So we were surprised to wake up to an open weather window.  Magic!  How did that weather man do that?  We took advantage of the now calm bay to scrub Akimbo’s bottom clean.  On a rising tide and sun overhead, we picked our way carefully out of the east end of the bay at 11.  

16 miles later, equally carefully, we picked our way into the East Reef Bay, laying down waypoints so we could find our way out at midnight for the sail to the Turks and Caicos.  The bottom was rock and dead coral with a thin layer of sand.  We could hear and feel the anchor scraping along the bottom at the end of the chain.  On the third try, our anchor held.  I dove on it to see its point barely stuck in a small but solid feature on the bottom.  It held until our departure. 

The night sail went well until about 6am when the wind died.  After a bit of motoring, it came back and we finished under genoa alone.  The juried back stay successfully sailed thru it’s first night.  The customs and immigration officers weren't interested in our papers from the Bahamas, so entry was easy and only $50.  But we seem to be stuck with our Bahamian dollars - no one will change them.  

So we leave the Bahamas behind, and found them remote indeed.  Beautiful scenery, good fishing, kind and articulate people.  Caicos, by contrast, is ridiculously developed.  Sailing by, the shore reminded us of…most waterfront communities in the U.S.  Laurelhurst?  At dinner, we felt surrounded by entitlement?  Which can be really ugly.  Too much we find ourselves amid exclusivity – white folks spending money and black folks serving them/us.  Still, we’re glad to be here, and do appreciate modern options.  Altho…they’re expensive here.  I imagine i wouldn’t be able to afford moorage if this marina weren’t still under construction and missing several conveniences.  We have internet!  But we still shower on the swimstep.  A neighboring boat took our laundry to a laundress.  Imagine paying $22 for a load of laundry, and we had four loads!  Ah, well.  And gas is $6.24/gallon.  

We rented a car for a day to take care of groceries and enjoy meals out and explore a bit.  Oh, and replace my camera (have you noticed no pics here lately?).  Kristin joined a diving excursion yesterday.  She said the reef looked healthy and she swam with a shark!  (a real shark, not just a sand shark like the one that scared Reed and her back at Allans Cay - when it swam out from under an old wrecked car that lay upside down on the bottom - did i forget to mention that?  There are too many details.).  

From here, we sail round to the Caicos Bank, to sail in turquoise shallows again.  From there we'll visit Grand Turk to check out of the country.  It sounds like weather may be benign for a window next week and our crossing to Puerto Rico.  I am impressed how much the wind blows down here.  And blows.  And blows.  How key the windows are.