The 500+ NM sail from St. Simpson’s Bay to Cockburn Town (pronounced “Coburn”), on Grand Turk Island took about 54 hours. We arrived right around 5:00 pm on 2/7 (Monday) and anchored next to the cruise ship dock. We “hailed” the Customs office on the VHF about 6 times with no response. Finally, a local came on the VHF and told us where to go so Anthony set off to “Clear In”. As usual, the actual procedure was very vague (which comes 1st – Customs? Or Immigration?) and much time was wasted waiting for people to arrive and “stamp stuff”. It didn’t help that just as Anthony figured out which office to go to, he had to come back to the boat to get a mask!!! Sigh… COVID always makes things more difficult – i.e., the Minister of Health had to be located….
Anyway, 2 hours later, we were cleared in. We had hoped to go to a restaurant for dinner (always a treat after a passage), but there was nothing, and I mean nothing, open. Even though Cockburn Town is the “town seat’, it was deserted – except for 3 days a week when a cruise ship docked.
We moved to a different anchorage the next day to get off the boat and walk around a bit. The sand and water are BEAUTIFUL.
We found a few B&Bs with small restaurants and stopped in for a beer. I tried one of the local beers while Anthony went with his “standby” (Corona) and kept an eye on the boat…. A little slice of heaven. Notice the table feet -So clever… but the island’s toddlers must be missing some shoes…
After a good night’s sleep, and excellent meal, it was time to move on – in search of food and a better wifi connection. We had a lovely sail with Drummer (see video) from Cockburn Town, Grand Turk to Pine Cay on Providenciales (Provo for short, ~70NM).
In the image above, you can see how shallow the water is which gives it the unique turquoise color.
Once anchored we took the dinghy over to Blue Haven marina to check out the scene. It looked like a fabulous resort with lots of amenities. The concierge called a taxi for us (the island is too small for Uber) and we headed to the grocery store for some food and maybe, just maybe, a new sim card for wifi access. We had been using our “international data plan” (for $15.00/day), which supposedly has “unlimited data”, but that’s not really true. At some point, the carrier “throttles” the speed and it becomes pretty useless. So as we’ve done at every island or country we’ve visited, we set out to get a local Sim card and hope for better/faster internets.
The mobile shop was located just inside the store and we mistakenly assumed they’d open about 8:00 or 8:30 (in keeping with the grocery store hours), but of course that wasn’t the case. The posted time on the door was 10:00 am (a 45 minute wait), so we sent our taxi driver away with instructions to come back in 45 minutes. However, the posted time isn’t necessarily when things open (as is often the case in the Caribbean…). Anthony happened to overhear someone else ask the store greeter when the phone store was supposed to open. Even though the sign said it opened at 10:00 am, the security guard said it was actually noon!!! OMG. We weren’t going to wait 2 hours, so we called our taxi driver back to come get us. When we told him the story, he said the main mobile store was close by and he could take us directly there for a Sim card. So off we went. Anthony went in to start the process and I sat outside and had a video conference while I waited!!! The internet connection was fabulous right there at the corporate office!
An hour later, we had a SIM card and working internet. But of course, that’s not the end of the story…. We had internet, but only about 4 GB per day ($25) which we blow through very quickly with all the downloads and video meetings we both have… We could “top up” every day, but the cost was adding up quickly. Unfortunately, there were few alternatives because we had guests coming in a few days and needed to get some work done before they arrived.
Shari and Randy (from Nashville) met us at Blue Haven marina, and we filled up with fuel and headed off to Grace Bay – on of the most beautiful beaches in all of the Turks and Caicos Island… probably one of the pretties beaches in the Caribbean.
Being that it was prime college basketball season, we had to find a bar that was showing the TN vs AK basketball game.
Shari and I both went to TN and Randy is from AK, so it was fun to watch it together in an open air restaurant in the Caribbean!
All too soon it was time for them to leave so we topped off their visit with a dinner at the fabulous Las Brisas Restaurant at Sopadilla Bay. We highly recommend this lovely resort for couples and families alike. Absolutely beautiful!
We had been on the boat for more than 5 weeks and it was time for a trip back home to Colorado. We needed to keep the boat somewhere safe while we were gone so moved over to SouthBank Marina. It’s fairly new and the area is growing rapidly, but it’s quiet and suited our purposes just fine. We’ll be back during the 1st of April to start heading north!
