Turks & Caicos, South Side Marina

Turks and Caicos pretty much requires you to clear out from a marina, so we moved to the nearest one, South Side Marina. I was going to skip it, because it is a shoal-draft entrance, but we're glad we went.

We got to meet Bob Pratt, who single-handedly created the marina, starting with swimming the entry to find the deepest route. Then adding moorings, docks, a gantry crane to haul boats out, and carving out the cliffs to accommodate buildings. Today, the men's and women's showers have alcoves into the rock!

Above the marina is Bob's Bar, a fabulous venue that Bob claims is sized so that anyone can talk across the bar to anyone else. It was packed in the evening and we got to meet fellow cruisers including Mitchell & Mome of sv Shingitai and Tom & Mary on sv Soulmates.

We also found sv 2 Canoes, whom we last saw a few years ago at Cape Charles, VA. Captain Richard said "We've been around the world since then!"

While we were there, we decided to hire AquaTCI to "re-activate" our PADI diving certificates. This is pretty much a scam by PADI, as the original certificate is lifetime. But a few years ago, they stopped allowing PADI dive masters from taking people out without having recent dives (within 18 months, I think). So we got two dives in, with a personal instructor after completing an online course and exam.Lue lisää