Jan 31, 2013 - Palm Springs & Caribbean Cruise - January 2013

New Year's was uneventful - it's great having satellite because you can watch the Eastern feed at 9 pm and pretend it's the New Year already. The weather continues to be beautiful but cool. We met two really nice couples in the hot tub. Cathy and Larry from Campbell River and Cheryl and Brad from Nanaimo. We have found that the owners here are not that inclusive to renters - having their own groups and activities already set from coming down here for so long. So we gravitate to fellow renters! We spent several quality Happy Hours with them...

Mar 4, 2012 - Providenciales, Turks & Caicos

Providenciales is the most visited of the Caicos islands and the main entry for the country. To the increasing number of visitors has to offer miles of beaches, all with the same snow-white sand and incredible turquoise water plus a very good selection of Restaurants for a fine dining experience. Be aware tough, it’s not a secret anymore and the time when it was the remote Caribbean escape has long since past as you can see from the number of new beach-front properties under construction. However, Provo (as it’s locally known) remains the...

Mar 15, 2011 - sailing the banks and Atlantic ocean

Hello People, We have had a long sail and just now changed our map to the Western Caribbean, We got our despacio documents and were glad to be underway again. The weather gods have been on our side, sailed across the Turks and Caicos banks with 16 ft under the keel. A safe anchorage and we were on our way again. This time we were heading out into big water for a 13 hour sail to the Domincan Republic. This leg had to be done at night for two reasons, one we needed to arrive in the morning so we could find our way once arriving near land and...

Nov 11, 2009 - Island Hopping in the Caribbean

We decided to take a week long cruise of the Eastern Caribbean on the Carnival Liberty, a chance to live it up and eat it up and see some amazing islands. After so much constant moving, it was a nice change to spend a week in the same bed- and what a nice bed it was! The ship itself held over 3,000 guests and had enough entertainment options to keep most people in the diverse crowd happy. There were pools, hot-tubs, waterslides, mini-golf, a movie theater, live shows, comedians and much more. The restaurants and buffets were all 5 star and...

May 13, 2009 - Turks and Caicos

Well the journey from George Town Turks and Caicos took 24 hours. it was my first time really on a professional boat doing watches while underway. these included engine room checks, for those of you who think that i dont do anything other than have fun and polish stuff ill outline some of the things that i have do to while underway. Checks on generators, oil, fuel, temp, load drawing. fuel level checks in all tanks. black water and grey water levels. (we actually have a sewage treatment system on board that can make water capable of...

Apr 22, 2009 - Day 1

We're on vacation! And we couldn't be more excited. (Turns out that lawyers work A LOT. Who knew!). We chose sunny, relaxing Turks & Caicos as our getaway destination. It's only a three and half hour flight from Boston and thanks to the slumping economy, we got a sweet deal on a private villa in an amazing resort. Yay for recession marketing! We arrived in Providenciales around three o'clock and were greeted by eighty-eight degrees of bright sunshine. The Turks & Caicos Islands are geographically part of the Bahamas Bank and lie just...

Feb 13, 2009 - Grand Turk

On this day we finally got the Caribbean cruise day we originally signed up for. The winds were down, the waves were down, and the temperatures were up. It was perfect for our balcony breakfast and after breakfast we stayed on the balcony and read and just enjoyed the time until the sun finally drove us inside. It was a beautiful morning! The temperatures continued to climb until we were happy to be inside. This was the first time we have been HOT since we left home. Finally it was shorts and tee shirt weather. As we approached Grand Turk...

Dec 9, 2007 - Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos

Sad to be on our last day. Happy to be on a beautiful beach and able to walk back to the ship for lunch. We found our best snorkeling here, a short walk down the beach, away from the cruise ship beach. And we found the Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville Bar on the beach ...

Dec 15, 2006 - Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos

There are two kinds of islands in the Caribbean: some like St. Thomas are volcanic and scenically very beautiful with dramatic vistas from the mountain tops. Others like the Bahamas are created over the millennia by coral deposits on reefs and have nice beaches, but are flat and hard to spot from the sea until you are almost on top of them. The Turks and Caicos are among the latter. They are two small island groups - about 28 islands in all with a total population of less than 10,000 people. They were part of the British Commonwealth and...

Jan 25, 2006 - Cuba

After flying on the worlds worst airline for safety - we were glad to reach solid ground. Cuba was waiting..... Lots of cigars, rum, and pork. The worst place for a vegetarian...we lived on cheese and bread...(ohhh and pickles). We stayed with a variety of families, the worst of which was 'samba grandpa` who tried to feed us frozen salad and flakey bread with ants. Cuba is challenging if you are traveling (as opposed to staying on a resort), there is no customer service and everyone is trying to make a buck. The party vibe is good - we...

May 29, 2005 - Grand Turk

Weather a bit overcast here so decided to try out Grand Turk. Arrived early enough to be put on the earlier flight - 20 minutes in the air, just like catching a bus. Got to Cockburn Town by 8.30am - everything still closed, only a few divers heading off to get on their dive boats. As we surveyed the beautiful beach front what did we see but a heavy rain shower heading up the shore towards us (they have even heard of our reputation here!) - made for cover of the veranda of the financial building and watched the water pour off the roof. Once...

May 3, 2005 - Providenciales

Well we have got to this little British island that is so flat the highest point is 125 ft above sea level, so is mega different from ST. Lucia. We are staying in an efficiency a studio with 2 beds a kitchen and bathroom, a pool!! and 50 mtrs from the Altlantic beach which is protected by an off shore reef, so is not as wild as cornwall for massive waves. Saw a dolphin and turtles on our first day, we have seen eagle rays, and hundreds of fish. The island is only 14 by 4 miles so i'm sure we will see most of it in 4 weeks but as we only...