GETTING SET TO LEAVE THE BVI's ... for CAICOS ISLANDS

Well here we are dangling off the hook in Road Town Harbour in rolling swells which are fine except for the occasional sudden and 'urgent' tug which has accounted for some restless nights.

Ana and I have been stocking the boat with 'all and sundry' as we prepare to leave on the next weather window for Turks and Caicos islands en-route to the Bahamas.

Stocking the boat has been an experience requiring a number of taxi trips to and from the shopping centre ... of course food is packed into the taxi which then takes us to the Moorings base where we 'park' our dingy. Everything is then unpacked into trolleys and pushed to the dingy ... packed onto the dock and from the dock down into the dingy where we then untie and motor out of the harbour into the bay. The bay of course has been experiencing rolling swells over the past few days which results in a very wet ride to Impi.

As we approach Impi one notices the stern heaving up out of the water before slamming down into the sea again ... my timing for a smooth tie down is critical as one wrong move could see all our groceries and boxes overboard ... let alone poor Ana who nearly did a nifty dive over the side as a huge swell broke her grip from holding the dingy alongside Impi.

I must compliment Ana for having mastered the art of tying the dingy down quickly and efficiently and I sometimes am bewildered at how easily she jumps from one to the other ... I mean ... totally different to the days when we first set about doing this where at the slightest bump I would get 'the glare' ;)

In between all this mayhem I find myself down below sorting out the air-conditioning ducting which I must say has worked out really well. I have yet to install the vents but on account of the customs officials here becoming twitchy (as we get greatly reduced tariffs on the importation of goods being a 'vessel in transit') starting to believe we are local residents here by now.

Just Catamarans will ship the vents to us when we arrive in the Bahama's ... Kent and Johan have been working hard to get everything together for us and advise that vessels in the Bahamas which have a cruising permit and 'import spares' are not subjected to import duty on goods for the vessel ... GREAT!

In the meantime we have also been saying farewell to our MANY friends here in the British Virgin Islands ... we truly felt blessed as so many people hugged and kissed us 'goodbye' and it was only when we had spent a day of farewell greetings that we realized just how many friends we had really made here ... even some strange ones that went to 'Sheppy high school' in Natal back in South Africa ;)

We spent some time with Grant and Tara on 'Foxy Lady' ... a stunning couple doing charter work on a stunning Lagoon 620 catamaran which honestly looks like a regular house on the water at 62ft in length.

Seth and Jamie ... thank you for the bottle of bubbly ... we will be sure not to open it until we reach the distant shores ...

Mika and Nico ... the coffee ... a life saver ... many thanks and of course to all our other friends who have made this place one that (as my late father would always say) will be 'indelibly etched in the mind for ever'.

Tomorrow morning we will head over to Deadmans Bay to sadly say farewell to our dear friend, Chris and Jules and family before heading down to Soper's Hole for a fuel top up, a few more items to be stocked, clearing out of the British Virgin Islands at Customs and Immigration followed by a good nights sleep (hopefully without too many swells).

Thursday should hopefully see us under way for the Turks and Caicos Islands, a hop skip and jump across the sea which will probably result in 3 - 4 nights out on the blue yonder!

The weather thus far seems to have a 'thumbs up' for us to depart ... it seems we may have a number of rain bursts along the way which makes for squally conditions so we will be keeping an eye out for those ... and lets not forget the shallow banks ... Navidad and Silver banks which lie squarely on our line of travel. We intend to pass these to the north and are mindful of the number of boats that have met their fate here!

Why Caicos Islands?  Well, despite the fact that a number of sailors give these a broad sweep on account of the shallows and numbers of coral heads, who would not want to travel across one of the three marvels astronauhts speak of when looking back at the earth from outer space ... first they speak of the man made 'China wall', they speak of the two natural wonders ...  the beautiful orange colour of the Sahara desert and then of course the emerald greens and turquoise water of the beautiful Caicos banks!

The ocean around the Caicos Islands is seriously deep and plummets down some 3600 meters, when around the islands the waters are seriously shallow and one has to navigate during day light hours when the sun is high in the sky and the coral heads are clearly visible. It is said that the colour, clarity and warmth of the waters here are unbelievable ... yet it remains a place off the beaten track.

The most popular part of the islands is the Providenciales and is the destination for eco tourists, however we intend to enter the islands from the SE at a port of entry known as Cockburn Harbour on South Caicos Island.

But ... for now, we are still in the beautiful British Virgin Islands ... a 6 month stay is coming to an end for us ... sadly so!