It’s really hard to get a good feel for Turks and Caicos from Provo.  It’s also very hard to find a native.  The town has a very diverse mix of Dominicans, Haitians, Filipinos, Asians, Canadians and Americans.  I think this is all driven by the rampant construction here.  Provo does have some good shopping, such as an IGA grocery store, a big home improvement store and something we haven’t seen since Florida….. a bookstore!

We rented a car after we ended up walking 2 miles to the IGA and the bookstore.  As we left the bookstore we asked the clerk if we could call a taxi.  She told us to go up to the bus stop shelter on the main road.  A white van should be along soon.  The van would beep its horn and you would wave at it if you wanted a ride.  The cost was $2.00 person.  She also said that if we didn’t find a taxi, we could ride with anyone who pulled over.  It was perfectly safe.

We stood outside the bus stop and within about a minute a small white van stops and lets some people off.  It was the official taxi, but it was too crowded.  A horn honked and a small car pulled up to offer us a ride.  The windows were all smoked glass, and it already had 3 people in it.  The driver was Haitian and we really couldn’t communicate anyway so we waved him on.  Right behind him, a huge semi truck pulls up and honks.  Dan and I look at each other.  No way are we getting into that.  Next thing I know Dan has some other questionable car pulled over and we all pile in.   We were delivered safe and sound to the marina.  It’s funny, we would never have done that in Charlotte.

The next day we were at Scooter Bob’s renting a car. This worked out well as we had some provisioning to do.  The prices here aren’t bad so we stocked up.  Provo isn’t bad: I guess it is just hard for me to see so much commercialism after the Bahamas.

I have a fading full moon in front of me and a rising sun behind me as we make our way out of Abram’s Bay to head to Turks and Caicos.  It was a long day as we had 50 miles to go after we picked our way through the coral heads leaving Abram’s Bay.  We motored as we were heading into the wind, and we needed to get to Turks and Caicos before 6 pm, as that was when the Turtle Cove Marina would close.  The trip was fine until about 2 hours outside Provo.  Tristan spotted a spray of water.  It turned out to be a huge sperm whale.  The whale came close to the boat and stayed on the surface for awhile.  He was huge!  We have definitely seen more whales than we have dolphins this trip, which I don’t understand.

An hour out, the waves started hitting on the front quarter, and everything started getting tossed inside the boat.  It was a rough last hour, and we cut it close, arriving at 5:45 pm.  A guide brought us into Turtle Cove Marina, and thank goodness we had one, because it was terribly confusing trying to get in.   Dan and crew had stayed here last year when they brought Alegria to Charleston from the BVI’s.  He said the marina hadn’t changed at all, but the island had.   Provo was really built up with hotels and houses.  What a shock!  It was hard to come from sleepy Mayaguana to this.  The customs lady was there right after we pulled in, so we were able to clear customs right away.  That was great as we were anxious to get off the boat and get something to eat.  It had been a long day.

The next morning Tessa and Tristan jump in to swim with the big ray that is eating the conch scraps left by Smokey and Lenny the day before.  The ray is so concentrated on the conch that it is startled when Tessa swims down and touches it. Maybe she is getting too comfortable with the wildlife.

We were supposed to leave today, but we can’t hook up to Global star to get a weather report.  We decide to try to get internet at the Batelco office. When Dan asks for internet service, they tell us to come back about 2:00 and maybe the “lady” will let us use her computer.  It is 12:30 now, so we decide to try the grocery store.  We are still out of everything fresh, which is not good as this grocery store has nothing fresh.  The owner doesn’t seem very friendly.  I see cereal on the shelf, but when I ask for milk she says she has none.  No long life milk either.  How do they eat their cereal?  They do have a big selection of evaporated milk.  I read the back label and it says you can use it on cereal.  We will give it a try. (The kids love it!)  We do load up on Applejacks, evaporated milk, Gatorade, Snicker bars, paper towels, and fruit cocktail.  She notices how heavy our bags are and offers to deliver the groceries to the dock for us.  “Will you give us a ride too?”  I ask. No problem. 

She asks a construction guy, sitting in a chair by the door, to drive us back.  Kevin is his name, and he works for the I Group.  He is helping build the new terminal.  I joked with him that it would be a big improvement over the old closet and 4 chairs in the sun terminal that existed now.   He laughed.  He said that the runway was supposed to be done by December, and there would be problems with the government if it wasn’t.  I asked him about the development.  Since the I Group had to give back 5000 acres, they decided to now only build a hotel.  It should be interesting what happens here in the future.  We get the groceries back to the boat and at 2:00 we head back to Batelco to use the internet.

At Batelco we discover there is no place for us to plug in our computer.  If we can’t get our internet, we can’t get weather.  If we can’t get weather, we really don’t want to leave.  Dan tells her we really need to get the weather.  I hear her ask if we are on the sailboat in the harbor.  (It seems everyone in town has come out to see our boat.)  Dan says yes.  There is no place to plug up our computer to the internet, but she leaves her desk and allows Dan to use her own computer.  That was unexpected.  A few minutes later, Dan accesses our email through her machines and has a clear weather forecast for the next few days.  We can leave tomorrow.

The kids and I take one last swim.  We will miss it here.

 I sit outside in the cockpit that night, under an impossibly perfect, round moon.  Beautiful!!  Being all alone in this bay is just a slice of heaven.  The water below us is crystal clear, the sand littered with sand dollars, like beads on the streets after a Mardi Gras parade.

Until you’ve experienced it, you can never know the joy of having a full moon shine through an open hatch, bathing you in moonlight.  Tonight I am perfectly content.  This place is magic.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.