This tiny deserted island, a bird sanctuary, is our last stop before Dominican Republic!!  The water surrounding the island is crystal clear and extremely flat as we set anchor in about 16 feet of water.  Leaving  Ambergis Cay that morning was a little touch and go as we decided to take a short cut and wound up in the midst of some very menacing coral heads.  About 20 minutes into it, we had enough.  Luckily we could turn around and pick our way back out.  We took a longer but much safer route.  Underwater we saw 4 huge Manta rays, flying under the water in V formation.  They were so beautiful!  We also saw a mast of a sunken sailboat who decided to take the shortcut and wound up on the coral.  Other than that, the day was quiet, and we enjoyed another night of stargazing.  We will be leaving late tomorrow, about 2:00pm to head to Dominican Republic.  We will be motoring again, overnight, and we need to time it to get to Luperon before 10am.  We have heard from several sources that if you don’t arrive early,  you won’t be able to get into the harbor because of the strong winds coming off the tall mountains on the north coast.  We will give ourselves plenty of leeway, figuring if we get there too early, say before sunrise, we will just motor off shore.

I am still hoping to go to Ocean World Marina first instead of Luperon.  We have a brochure on Ocean World and it looks amazing.  It is somewhat like Atlantis in the Bahamas, with the casino, and aquariums.  They have sharks, dolphins, birds, tigers and you can interact with all of them.  Luperon has swimming rats. Dan is determined to go to Luperon though.  Hopefully we will get to Ocean World by car.

Another early morning as we make way for Ambergris Cay.  The trip is uneventful except for the constant coral head watch as we cross the banks.  With the water a very light shade of green, it is very easy to see any coral, if you have the right sun.  A few times we have been fooled by clouds reflecting on the water, but that’s alright.  Better to be safe than sorry. 

The guidebook we have from 2002 lists Ambergris Cay as an uninhabited island. A local Turks and Caicos magazine I picked up in Provo, shows the island is being developed into private homes.  That just shows you how much development has been going on in the last few years.  I am not exactly sure why.  Maybe the Bahamas is tightening up on its development, but Turks and Caicos is in full swing.  Ambergris is not a pretty island, and it doesn’t have great beaches that we can tell.  I think the draw is that you are away from everything.  There is a new runway, and it looks like they are building an airport terminal and possibly a marina.  Only a few (maybe 3) houses have been built so far.  The island is surrounded with reefs, so we have to pick our way in carefully.  Tessa, Dan and I take a swim before dinner and Tristan heads out in the kayak.  We are anchored in 9 feet of water, pretty far from shore, and as usual, we are the only ones here.  A few local fishing boats pass by us on their way home to who knows where, and except for the few construction workers on the island, we are all alone.  As at Mayaguana, the construction workers must stay on the island as we didn’t see a ferry come to take them off. 

 Deciding there’s nothing interesting on the island, after our steak dinner, we watch a movie.  When the movie is over, we step outside into the cockpit.  There’s no moon and it’s pitch black outside.  I look up, and catch my breath.  I believe I can see every star ever created.  In the Abacos, we could see a good bit of the Milky Way.  Here you can see it in its entirety stretching from nearly from one end of the sky to the other.  The stars are set in easy to see shapes, triangles, circles, lines; patterns I have only seen in star gazing books. They are all here.

And they twinkle.  They really do twinkle.

There isn’t a clear cut distinction between the water and the sky, just varying shades of dark blue from overhead, down to a hazy lighter blue where I presume the water is.  The light around us is so flat, you can really only clearly see out about 5 feet from the boat.  It’s hard to look at as your eyes are trying to focus on something that isn’t there, only nothingness.  It makes you dizzy and forces you to keep looking up at the awesome show overhead.   I am amazed to think that when we were back in Charlotte, these same stars were there, we just couldn’t see them.  It’s incredible how much beauty we miss in this world. 

We spent the night here in preparation to head across the banks.  There are 2 other sailboats here that look as if they have been here awhile.  One of the boats actually has some kids on it.  We never see the parents, only these 2 young girls who keep screaming at each other.  Dan calls them “Children of the Corn.”  The anchorage is ok.  The water is not clear and not too long after we anchor, ferry after ferry comes to dock here.  A few are dive boat operators but most of them are ferries for construction workers.  All this construction is definitely helping the economy here.