18 March 2004

News No 8:

Crooked Island/Landrail - Ackling Island/Attwood Harbour - Turks and Caicos/Sapodilla Bay Provo Luperon/Dominican Republic

Hi guys,

Cruising is not all the leasurely lying on the beach sipping cocktails in the sun you would imagine, in fact we've been racing against time and weather trying to get to the BVI to enable Kevvie to catch his return flight.

At some stage along the way it became abundantly clear that the weather wasn't going to play ball and that Kev would have to fly from wherever we managed to get to, and thereby pick up his return flight. So once we got our heads around this fact, we all calmed down and began to enjoy wherever we were and not worry tooo much about where we should be by now!

We left Rum Cay headed for Mayaguana, but as we left the shallow shoals of coral behind us, the wind switched ever so slightly from NE to E and in the catermeran we couldnt sail on the heading to Mayaguana which we had planned, which would have been an overnighter; but instead would have to head for for Landrail Point on the lee side of Crooked Island, the only problem is we'd be arriving at 2am, and as you all already know, you never plan to arrive at a new destination in the dark! Anyway by this stage it was too dark to return to Rum Cay, through the very hazardous approches with coral all around, so we had to push on to Landrail, which fortunately for us was a beach protected in an Easterly and without any coral reef protecting the approach, Lucky for us, because the sea had now climbed to a very lumpy 8' to 12' Swell and the wind was gusting up to 35 knots at times, fortunately Barry and Kevin decided I was not up to standing watch, and so I was allowed to go below and try to get some sleep! Not very likely in this type of sea! Anyway we arrived in the dark protected a little by the Island, and cautiously inched our way toward the beach where the depth guage jumped from 40+ to 18m to 4m and we gingerly made our way to the line of what in the dark looked like a white line of a beautiful beach, and at about 3m we dropped the anchor, set her and looking around when the almost full moon decided to peep her head out from behind the ominous black clouds which were producing this wild wind, I was relieved to see another yacht anchored a little way to our right. We were thankfull that we had arrived safely and managed to weigh anchor, that she was holding and that we could now all try to get some much needed sleep.

The next day we awoke refreshed and ready to explore, so we put the duck in and aquainted ourselves with our new neighbours, Blue Marine who were also sheltering from the easterly and making their way to Provo as were we. We strolled along the beautiful fringe of beach and met a few of the land owners, all of whom we later met up with again in the restaurant when the whole contingent of the land owners get together on a teusday evening for dinner and a sing song at the Sea Side Cafe, run by a local family. Everyone was extremely welcoming and we had a lovely evening and even got a lift back to our dingy on the way home. We snorkelled, cycled and even picked up a whole batch of pansy shells from the sea bed right under our boat. Which we were informed by Marge an extremely friendly and industrious red-head whom had kindly allowed us to cross her property from the beach to the road, when she'd seen us unloading our bycicles from the rubberduck; were called "sand dollars".

The next two hops from the Crooked Islands to Ackling Island and Turks an Caicos were very very lumpy with the wind on the nose so we had to motor under difficult circumstances, but the folling 2 days made up for it! The Turks and Caicos Islands, its really beautiful with exquisite beaches, lots of new developments going up, we hired a car and toured the island in style, having lots to eat and drink, and a delicious meal at the Sharkbite, quite a viby place with good food and excellent cocktails! The frenchman from whom we hired our car had his own private art collection from France including some from Monet's era, very valuable and incredible to see, he and I struck up a great repor and he kept getting side tracked and showing me the art instead of doing the hire transaction, which we of course loved, he then got in his car and showed us the way to the nearest laundromat. We were tickled pink with the attention. The supermarkets here are great, reasonable and well stocked, they even had some good sa red wine but wouldnt sell it to us as it was sunday.

WE HAVE NOW PROGRESSED TO THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AND ARE ABOUT TO TAKE THE BIG STEP TO PUERTO RICO ACROSS THE MONA PASSAGE!

Luperon is a fine anchorage, with a dingy dock type marina however we miss the lovely beaches of the Bahamas! Had an eventfull trip to Santo Domingo, what with my gold chain being snatched off my neck through the car window, by a bastard on a bike (motorcycle, Suzuki Jeep that spluttered and farted eveytime you put the accelorator down, hotel room above a restaurant/pub, political rallies at every robot, and still getting in all the tourist stuff. Eventful is tame, however we survived to tell you this tale.

Kevin left the morning after we arrived in Luperon, he had to fly to St Maarten, and then on to Antigua to pick up his return flight there, quite a relief cause we were very worried he wouldnt be able to pick up his original flight and might end up costing him a bomb, so were relieved to have it all sorted!

Barry and I are for the first time really just kicking back, the pressures of being in the right place at the right time to meet mates now off for a while, only need to meet the Walkers on the 21st so will take a tour inland to see the waterfalls and stay over and see a few of the other towns inland, should be fun. And if we can't get there due to weather, they can catch a ferry across to Dominican Republic, from Peurto Rico so no real pressure there! Back in Luperon - Hooligan blowing will continue till Wednesday evening, when we then may be able to escape this Assylum! Look forward to seeing some good mates next week-end. Alan Walker and Christina, and then OUR BIG SON!

So today we will move to the mouth of the harbour in inticipation of our imminent departure, will attend the local St Patrick's day Bash, on the Luperon beach! Only the americans could think of such a celebration in the Dom Rep. They're expecting the whole damb town, as there is free food sponsored by us yachties! Should be a blast and then after a little bit of marengae dancing we can quietly slip out of this assylum into the night and on to our next adventure!

Cheers to all, keep your email coming we love hearing from all you guys! Let's have the Argus news! ALL OF IT!

Much Love
Anna and Barry B