Rushing back to Turks & Caicos via Big Sand Cay

After a pretty disturbed sleep in the marina surge, we were up in time for the Navy’s prompt arrival, a very jolly chap issuing our departure papers, he was very helpful in releasing all of our various ropes! We got out into the sea only to find no wind sadly, so engines on. Lots of cloud and rain about this tropical island. We were escorted away by the most gorgeous rainbow.

Amazingly as soon as we got out of the lee of the land, 20 miles out, the wind picked up nicely and we could turn the engines off and sail. Our time to destination changed from 12 hours to 9 hours, what a relief!

Lovely comfy gentle sailing. Thank god I downloaded my Sunday Times on my iPad last night with the marina wifi…. I have loads to read and catch up on. Not a lot else to do! Phoebe’s boyfriend Sam, gave me a book of Extreme Sudoko’s to do, I’ve now done 5 successfully. They are a little harder than my daily Times, Super Fiendish! We were pleased to have some good news in the paper, that Nakedwines has had to stop taking orders as they can’t keep up with the demand, and that their share price has gone up! Isobel our friend had given us the news a couple of days ago…..and now it’s hitting the press.

We had a great days sailing averaging about 8.5 knots and very comfortable. We passed only one other yacht, we called them on the VHF to see where they were going as they were cutting in front of us. They sounded like worried Americans heading home at speed.

The sun set about 20 minutes before we arrived at our anchoring at Big Sand Cay. The island is uninhabited and for all we could see at night, looked like a gorgeous long white beach, so sad we won’t see it in daylight. There was one other boat moored, otherwise pitch dark except for a lighthouse in the distance. The stars were amazing. Our jib was a bit troublesome getting it down so not the easiest anchoring but we finally got there.

Had warmed up left overs and straight to bed as we have to get up at 5am to meet tomorrow’s deadline.