Turks and Caicos

Pulled into the South Side Marina on Friday – so excited to visit this island of turquoise waters!
We were greeted by Bob Pratt (Owner and long time ex-pat resident) and Julian who helped us with our lines.

Gemma just wagged her tail and begged for a head scratch – so cute!South Side is a small marina that has all the conveniences you need on hand.
It is located on the polar opposite of Grace Beach (the North Side) where all those commercials originate that we are bombarded with every winter.

Those turquoise waters are everywhere you look.

It was almost happy hour when we got there and since we were there and happy we thought, hey lets hit Bob’s Bar.
Bob just recently added this on and it’s a beauty with a great view and a ceiling that looked like it needed a sticker, so we left our mark there.

Funny how things happen.  Bob’s Bar was where we met some people who would end up being a very big part of our experience n TCI.
One minute your chatting in a bar, the next your at their villa having copious amounts of meat at their villa!

OMG what a bee-u-tee-ful villa!
And OH the fun we had!
Sometimes you meet people who you feel like you’ve known forever – these are those people.

We slept great but it was weird not being rocked to sleep like in the boat.
It was however  very nice to not have to check on the anchor every 2 hrs.
The ocean was flat like a pancake.

There would be no sailing on this pancake flat day.
So we rented a car.

Advice:  If you come to Turks and Caicos do NOT hire a taxi (it’s $50 to go anywhere) I don’t know why…
The whole island is only 14 miles long.
Rent a car for $50 for the day.

Rent it from Scooter Bobs a fellow Canuck. Scooter Bob is from Port Carling – go figure!

Turks and Caicos has a rogue Dolphin.

His name is Jojo.

Jojo is a loner dolphin that wreaked havoc in the 80’s and was almost captured on account of bad behavior with the tourists.  That was until it was discovered that it was the tourists who had the bad behavior and had been teasing him!

He went from zero to hero and is now a national treasure and used to demonstrate why dolphins should not be held in captivity.
He never left.
He is not fed or trained – just a loner dolphin in paradise.

We weren’t lucky enough to catch a glimpse of this national hero but if we did we would have rang this bell!

So we circled the island twice, maybe more.
You see we were on a mission. We were looking for the best fish in town to take back to the boat.
We were repeatedly told of the guy, with a cooler under an umbrella on the side of the road downtown.
Vague yes.
Normally we’re not big on buying perishables from a guy under an umbrella at the side of the road but…

EVERYONE pointed us in his direction for the freshest fish.

Unfortunately we never found said guy – so we were disappointed.

But we did sneak onto the Beaches Sandals resort.

Pretended like we belonged there.

Until we got bored hit the non Sandals beach.

Funny how clouds are not as threatening on land.

Anyways we had to get going.
You see our plan was take to our new friends out on a boat tour of West Caicos the following day and thought a fish cook up on the beach would be nice.

Ask and ye shall find…a bunch of fisherman pulled into the slip beside ours.
I learned how to gut a fish and the secrets of keeping them fresh.
They sold 6 snappers.

It was a win win!
I love to cook but have never really delved into the fish side of things so the fisherman gave me a recipe too!

Next day bright and early Terry Steve, John and Vicky came aboard and our adventure began!

West Caicos was our destination.
That was the only plan, that and eating fish on a beach.

As we approached West Caicos we kissed the ocean bottom (oops).
Low tide!  So here was where we decided to anchor for the afternoon.

It was so shallow we could have walked all the way to the beach but we chose to dinghy.  We’re not heroes!

West Caicos is beautiful and weird.
It has a massive resort / complex that was put there by the Ritz Carleton and then abandoned in 2008.
We seem to have a knack for finding these creepy abandoned places everywhere we go.
Pics to follow.

Some rich guy has purchased the island and has security check on it every day.
He wanted somewhere to dock is mega yacht I heard, the creepy resort is just a bonus (I guess).

We decided with the creep factor being high like it was:
1)  It would be a great place to film the vacation version of Walking Dead
2)  It would from this point onward be referred to as Club Dead.

So we beachcombed, swam and a had an amazing fish BBQ on the beach.

An official Knot Anchored cocktail was created (thanks Vicky!)

But most importantly we met some great like minded people we have full confidence we will see again some day.
We all went back to the villa.

Had a great dinner (lots of meat) watched Walking Dead in real time and played Euchre.

This is a parting gift from Terry and a reminder of our beachcombing day.
His name is ‘Wilson’.
He is a coconut smoothed out by sand, salt and time.
He looks like a puffer fish and he makes us smile!