A little anxious…..

Up in the dark, thankfully we easily got the anchor up, sails out and set off across the deepest bit of ocean. This is my kind of sailing, a steady wind at the back, pushing us so comfortably across the sea that I could make us a delicious cooked breakfast.

The biggest excitement was when Rowan was looking out to the islands where the Great Caicos Sand Bank starts, he thought he saw a strange black boat and then this enormous splash. After yelling Whale I was able to join him to see the whale breach a few more times. Incredible as it must have been nearly a mile away and it looked enormous against the skyline. I was a little relieved not to be too close to the splash. That cheered us up enormously, which we needed as Bob from the marina had left a voice message to say it looks like customs won’t accept us, what passport are we on? Thankfully my British passport was the right answer and he said he would ask a lawyer for help. We are not sure what options we have left as the Bahamas has closed and is under curfew.

Sailing over the sand bank is amazing, it is like being in an aquamarine swimming pool averaging 1 m deep. However there are some coral heads and for whatever reason, as we are doing the exact same route as the other day just in the other direction, (maybe it’s the lowish tide) but we hit a bit of coral twice. Rather nerve wracking picking our way through the rest. We hope it’s not bad damage and just a grazing! I guess R is going to have to go and inspect it with his snuba at some stage.

We then got a message from Bob to not enter the marina and tie up on the buoy outside which didn’t lift our spirits for the last few hours.

We anchored outside the marina at 3pm and let them know we were out there waiting. We were told to wait for customs at 4, which dragged things out a little. Half an hour later we got a call from the marina to proceed into the fuel dock, we had been allowed entry. What a mega relief. The lady helping on the marina said Bob was still in town but that he had done some “special talking”, we were free to enter. Customs arrived at 4 and were extremely helpful and understanding. They were happy that we never left the boat in Dom Rep!

Evening arrived and we just sat down to have a drink to celebrate, when we discovered the social distancing at the Southside Marina …..the BBQ was in full swing! Many more people than last Monday night. Even though pretty tired from our early start we decided we should go to show our appreciation to Bob. A few familiar faces including H the Norwegian artist. We were a bit late to it as we decided to celebrate with a steak from WholeFoods in Fort Lauderdale, it took a while to defrost. Washed down with a Naked bottle of wine and a potato salad, life suddenly didn’t seem sooo serious!