2-02-03 Left Boqueron, PR (Lat 18°01.3'N/Lon 67°10.5'W) and are now in the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Planning to sail to the Turks and Caicos islands 335 nm away. The Turks and Caicos are geographically part of the Bahamas and have the same flat terrain, but are a separate country and a British Crown Colony. T&C consists of 7 main islands and many smaller cays. The passage should take us about 65 hrs (2.5 days). Weather looks good, once we cross through a weak cold front sometime tomorrow morning. Winds are northeasterly 15-20 kts, a nice reach, just what SIMMER likes. We're about 30 nm out of Boqueron and nicely making way. We really enjoyed sailing the south coast of PR. Great anchorages, scenery and pleasant villages to visits. Glad to be moving westward though. We've seen many boats heading toward the eastern Caribbean islands ... not so pleasant a trip sailing easterly against the tradewinds and seas.
2-07-03 We're in Providenciales, aka "Provo", in the northwestern Caicos island group. Have been in the Turks and Caicos (T&C) islands 3 days now. Great to be back in these beautiful shallow, turquoise waters again. With pure sandy bottom, shallow depths and minimal soil on these limestone islands the water is perfectly "gin-clear". The visibility is spectacular and we love seeing our anchor happily buried in the sand in waters only 10 feet deep. We're currently anchored in Sapodilla Bay (Lat 21°45.5'N/Lon 72°17.1'W) and planning where we go from here. Probably Mayaguana to clear into the Bahamas. (P.S. Sorry about the lack of digital pictures. Since the Virgin Islands, we have been experiencing technical difficulties with our camera.)
2-13-03 WE ARE CIRCUMNAVIGATORS! We're back in Bahamian waters and just crossed our outbound path at 10:12pm at Lat 22°59.6'N/Lon 73°51.2'W near Samana Cay in the Bahamas. What a feeling, a dream come true. We are currently enroute to Conception Island and should arrive tomorrow morning before lunchtime. We caught a 4.5 foot long mahi-mahi (dorado) fish this afternoon, our first one in a long time. We'll celebrate our circumnavigation and Valentine's day with champagne and grilled fish dinner tomorrow. Yahoo!
2-17-03 Arrived Georgetown, Great Exuma Bahamas today (Lat 23°29'N/Lon73°44'W). This is the harbor where we left all our close boating buddies over 4 years ago. It's such a great feeling to return and see many of them here waiting for us. Almost feels like home. We entered the anchorage with all our country's flags flying in the rigging amidst conch horns blowing. We're sure there will be some serious partying aboard SIMMER tonight. Our good friends, Barb and Joe aboard UNCLE HARRY, gave us their cell phone to call Pat's Mom when we arrived this afternoon. She is currently in the hospital in Philly recovering from surgery. Great to talk to her. Hope all our family and friends in the northeast US are recovering from the recent major snowfall. Understand it was a big one.
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