Boqueron is a common arrival and departure port for cruisers traveling to/from the Dominican Republic through the Mona Passage. The strong equatorial currents traveling in deep water hit shallow reefs causing the seas to churn. We are skipping the DR and heading the 325 miles direct to the Turks and Caicos Islands. We left Boqueron Tuesday March 30th at sunset and headed northwest up and over the Mona Passage. It was like being in a washing machine! The seas were coming from all directions at once. After we cleared the passage and were north of the DR the seas calmed down a bit. Wednesday was a comfortable sea day. Thursday at 2 am the seas got nasty again. North swells and a wind chop were accompanied by 20 kts of wind out of the north. That lasted till our 5 pm arrival here at Cockburn Harbor, South Caicos Island. It was wonderful to finally drop the hook in calm water and sleep a while. The trip from Boqueron was exactly 48 hrs traveling at approximately 6.6 kts. In the last five days we have traveled 400 miles, from Salinas PR to South Caicos.
The Turks and Caicos are a British Crown Colony and are part of an Atlantic shelf formed millions of years ago and are low lying very dry islands. The Caicos Bank is more than 60 miles across and 50 miles wide. Surrounding these islands are steep walls dropping thousands of feet to the ocean bottom. There is a sharp transition of color, from the deep purple blue to the bright aqua marine, as the depth changes from 20,000 ft to 30 ft on the Caicos Bank. The water here is much clearer and a “Bright” aqua blue. Photos just don’t do it justice.
We spent an afternoon ashore to stretch our legs and get on the internet. At one point in it’s history, salt was a major export, but storms have all but destroyed the salt flats. Now the only industry is fishing. We managed to take a photo of a flock of Pink Flamingos standing on the flats. There really isn’t much to see here, the tradewinds are too strong for snorkeling and the reef is too far away to take the dinghy. The highest point of land is only 250 ft above sea level.
Saturday we motored 60 miles northwest, to the most western of the Caicos Islands to Providenciales (Provo), around numerous reefs and coral heads and on into Sapodilla Bay for a couple of nights. Our buddy boat and us agreed to leave and head for the Bahamas before another weather front hit that would have kept us from leaving for another week. Going northwest to Long Island, Bahamas would bring us north of the bad weather. Or so we thought…..
The trip to Long Isl would take 28 hrs. We cleared out of customs and sailed out of Sapodilla Bay at 10 a.m. As soon as we rounded north of the Caicos the high seas and 20 kts of wind hit us to starboard. By night fall the seas built up even higher with spray washing over the pilot house. We pitched and rolled all night. There would be no sleeping on the settee. So we set up a mattress on the salon floor where we “tried” to sleep. The mattress slid across the floor with each pitch and roll so we had to hang on to the mattress to keep from rolling off.
We arrived in Clarencetown, Long Island at 1:30 in the afternoon. This passage was far worse than the notorious Mona Passage. We should not need to make any more over night passages from now on until we cross the Gulf Stream off Florida. Since we are at the bottom of the Bahama chain we still have many more islands to explore that are simple day trips. With the hard work behind us now we can take our time and enjoy the rest of our cruise.
This is a picture of our anchorage on Long Island.
Don & Dayle
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