We enjoyed our time in Provo but it was time to move on. We sailed across the shallow Caicos Banks towards “The Big South” otherwise known as South Caicos. We expected that it would be more like being in the Bahamas here, a little more laid back and hopefully more affordable after being in the expensive Providenciales.
Can we first say how much we love having a shallow draft boat…the part of the banks that we crossed over ranged from 3ft to 7ft. Not accessible by just any sailboat! We were able to cross the calm banks having to sail only about 40 miles. If we sailed on the outside of the islands we would have had to sail 60 miles in the rough seas. Loving our boat Moon right about now!
Long Cay, Atlantic on one side and the Caicos Banks on the other
When we arrived we anchored just off of town. It was what we expected, a small sleepy fishing village. Cute town but the locals were not very interested in visitors and we got a weird vibe from those that we met so we just explored for the one day. What a big difference from Provo, but that is what we were looking forward to. The island is just 8.5 square miles with a population of about 1500. It has the best natural harbor in the TCI making this the fishing capital of the Turks and Caicos.
Local fishing boats…good spellers too 🙂
Cool old house on top of a hill
South Caicos houses
Pretty town. Lots of old houses and there are literally wild donkeys and horses roaming in the streets. We learned quickly that this meant that your have to watch where you step because no one is cleaning up after these guys! We found some pink flamingos too. We tried to make our way across the salt flats to get a closer picture of them but there were some birds that started attacking us. We guessed that they had a nest close by so we gave up trying to get close to the flamingos. They were too far to get a great photo but we got to see them just them same…made me happy!
These were the little birds that starting attacking us when we were trying to get a closer look at the flamingos…they were scary!! LOL!
We spent the next day exploring a uninhabited island, Long Cay and finally got to snorkel. The water here is just beautiful…wish I could show you some of the fish on the reef but our underwater camera bit the dust and does not work anymore…whhaaaa! You’ll just have to take our word that it was absolutely gorgeous!!
The Turks Islands in the Caribbean take their name from the Turk’s head cactus, which is widespread throughout the islands.
We thought that this rock to the left looked like a sphinx or a griffin…pretty cool!
We’re sitting here once again the wind is howling but we’re getting lots of power from our wind generator and we’re making ice…so that’s a good thing. We’ll probably head out to Grand Turk in the morning where hopefully I will be able to get this posted.
(Made it to Grand Turk…this place is cool can’t wait to share our pictures of here)
Hope you all enjoyed the photos 🙂
Take care,
Jennifer and Brian