Grace Bay

We had the rest of the day and night in Caicos, and stayed at a hotel close to Grace Bay.
Caicos is an interesting island with lots to do, and many restaurants, which we enjoyed that evening.
the following morning before we left we popped onto Grace Bay Beach, which we had only seen from the water, and it is truly one of the most amazing beaches we have been on.


Then off to the airport.
Bye Bye to the island but most of all to Salsera. Please, please no direct hurricane hits for Turks and Caicos this season.

Paul is off to work, and I am off to visit family and friends in the UK. We will be back sometime in November.
Thanks for reading.

The Haul Out

After a few days of fun, we headed back to Caicos Marina, and started the task of breaking down Salsera to the absolute minimum on deck and then the haul out.



In her spot, she is strapped down to underground concrete blocks to hopefully prevent her from falling our in hurricane force winds.
Finger crossed.
It was very sad to leave her there.

Did I mention?

Not sure that I mentioned that T & C has an amazing kite boarding beach, nothing to do with our decision to leave Salsera there, not!


Paul

Me

Caicos Shipyard vs Blue Haven Marina

As the names suggest, two totally different locations.
Caicos Marina was where we were planning to haul Salsera, we wanted to check it out first, as, if we didn’t not like it we would still have enough time to get to Freeport in the Bahamas.

Its a little barren and not much there but the facilities seemed ok, so decision made we headed around to the north of Caicos, to check out the beaches and marina before hauling out.
We ended up at Blue Haven Marina, and instead of going to the beach as planned, we couldn’t make it past the swim up bar!



It was Sunday!

Turks and Caicos

Off to Turks and Caicos

The following morning, not very early! we started our trip to Turks and Caicos.
As is fairly normal with us, we were running a little short of time, so after checking every marina with haul out facilities, we decided, rather than rush all the way to northern Bahamas, we would haul out Salsera in T & C.

We had been having a fishing challenge across the Caribbean, but catches had been few and far between.

The trip was four days, and was without doubt the best overall trip we have had on Salsera yet, perfect conditions the whole way.
We entered the reef at southern entrance, the water was only 3ft deep, so we held our breath all the way in.

St Thomas

The following morning, we left beautiful St John, which if anyone is in the area, it is definitely worth going out of your way for.
We headed to St Thomas, which we have both been to before and spent a bit of time, so we went straight to the marina in Charlotte Amalie Bay, which itself has a lot of great history, and is worth a stop.
We cleared out here, enjoyed the pool with the crew of the boat in front of us from Puerto Rico, and then had one of the best meals in a long while at the marina restaurant.

Hawksnest Bay

One final stop on our whistlestop tour of St John’s, Hawksnest Bay.
There are three amazing beaches in the one bay.

We had a great paddleboard around the bay, and made it back in time for sundowners.

Annaberg Sugar Mill

A short walk around the bay and the remnants of the windmill, horse mill and factory buildings, of the Annaberg Sugar Mill, can be found, and tell the story of sugar production on the island.



Amazing views at the windmill.

Watermelon Bay

The following day we headed further to the west to Watermelon Bay, we had been told that Leinster Bay which it is situated in, is an amazing kite boarding location in the right conditions, but typical for us, those conditions were not there that day.


There were, however, plenty of other activities to keep us occupied for the day.

An amazing amount of fish that you could barely see the coral beneath them.


There were also plenty of birds around, who really didn’t care whether we were there on not and we had some near misses with diving pelicans!