The Catamaran Adventures of Noel and Ceu

Day 4 of our 4 Day Passage

Current Location: Providenciales, Turks & Caico
Current Position: 21 44.5 N 072 17.41 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 463 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

Another beautiful day! The sun is shining, the wind is light, and we are ambling along at about 5.5 kts average.

Overnight we had a good breeze which then dropped in the early hours of the morning. At 10am we switched the main and jib for the spinnaker again, as the wind had gone aft.

We made good time yesterday, covering 148 miles.

At 4pm exactly we reached our waypoint just north of North Caicos, at which point we turned to port to head for North West Point of Providenciales. The plan (hope) is to round that point and then sail 3 miles south to Malcolm Roadstead and the Tiki Huts Anchorage. For that reason we just (5pm) put on the engines, just to give us a bit extra speed to beat the sunset. We should arrive at our planned anchorage just about sunset, which is 7pm exactly here.

The Turks and Caicos islands are surrounded by reefs with very few breaks through which one can enter into the Caicos Bank. Our final destination here is Sapodilla Bay which, not surprisingly, is on the south side of Provo, and so access is through the Caicos Bank, which is a huge area of very shallow and rock strewn water.

Malcom Roadstead is about the only place around the whole area where there is a sizeable break in the reef that lets one in to an anchorage area that is sheltered and has easy access. So the goal is to anchor there overnight, and then first thing in the morning to go farther south to the Sandbore Channel which will take us through the reef and onto Caicos Bank. From there it is about 10 miles of careful navigation between the coral heads to get to our destination.

Many people say to not do this first thing in the morning with the sun in your eyes. But we will follow Bruce Van Sant’s advice (The Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South) in which he describes the rational for going while the winds are light, before the afternoon sea breeze kicks in and makes going to windward difficult. By tacking up, rather than motoring dead upwind we avoid having the sun right ahead of us. Well, we shall see. If it gets too tricky, we shall just stop and wait a few hours.

Today I pulled out our new SNUBA compressor and fired that up for the first time. Can’t wait to use that for some of the awesome diving that is around this area!

Right now Ceu is cooking up some seafood pasta. Another fantastic meal in paradise!

Tonight we actually get to sleep the whole night through! Woo Hoo!

It's a hard life, this passage making

2 Responses to “Day 4 of our 4 Day Passage”

  • Allisen:

    Hi Guys,

    Looks like a real holiday that’s for sure 🙂 I was just thinking it’s almost been a year since you guys left. You look like you are having a great time. Too bad the skype connection isn’t better.. I find it quite frusterating really. The new cushions and all the decor looks great. The tupperware is my mom’s signature…always organized. I have been hearing from others how awesome your blog is so every now and again I come and check it out and catch up on everything myself. We love you and miss you both. Allisen Moe and Tiago xo

    • Noel:

      Hi Allisen, glad to hear you are reading our blog again. Yes, almost a year! Isn’t that amazing. We are now in Nassau, preparing for our big Atlantic crossing 🙂 Good to know that Moe is back home again. Love you lots, Noel & Ceu

Leave a Reply for Allisen