We flew into Provo ( Provodenciale ), one of several islands that make up the Turks and Caicos group. This flat sandstone rock island only started development in the 1960's with the first major development being 'Club Med' in 1984.
Today this development looks dated and a bit shabby and is eclipsed by many new high rise apartments and hotels. There are many kilometres of white sandy beaches with beautiful turquoise sea. We are anchored in Grace Bay in about 3 metres of water. Very close to the boat the sea turns dark blue where there is a drop off into a depth of more than 100 meters. We heard that the fishing is fabulous here. We book a fishing charter boat with captain 'Bite me',( Chris ). We troll for 4.5 hours without any success, even though we saw a number of birds feeding on the surface and it is the start of Marlin season.
Sunday. We meet with Jeff and Amy Picard our friends from Boston. They arrive bearing generous gifts of jewellery, books, new fishing lures and French red wine.
In the afternoon we meet up with Jon and Libby Alston our neighbours from Brighton Australia, who are with us for two weeks. We have a great get together that night starting with a deck quoits competition together with our now traditional rum punch.
Monday. MB, Jon and Jeff set off with the Club Med divers to North West Point, for a two tank scuba dive.
Our first dive is called 'The Wall', and it was a sharp drop off from 60-40 meters. It is a spectacular scene just like a movie set, rugged stone wall with lots of fish turtles, colourful plants and coral. There are also a few friendly Nurse sharks. Our second dive was called 'The Dome'. This is a broken steel structure originally used in a French reality show doing free diving competitions in 10 metres of water. The show stopped when someone got trapped and died. The broken steel set is now a home to many fish including good sized snapper. We then continued on to another spectacular wall dive. Back on board JB has led the yoga class for the girls, followed by a swim then relaxing and reading in the sun. We are now moving up the coast to Fort George. The boys and JB go in the tender to fish on the way up there. We have purchased 'Balau' ( Garfish ), which we combine with squid skirts, which is a popular way to fish for Pelagic's in this area. However, like the day before we have no luck.
After lunch we head to the beautiful sandy beach for a game of Boules, which is won by Jeff.
That night after dinner we start our Canasta card class and trial round, with lots of mistakes and laughs.
Tuesday. We up anchor and leave for Mayaguana, the island that gives us entry to the Bahamas. This is a five hour cruise , the latter part of which we troll with Jeff's new lures, that are made by Captain Beamish. We get a huge strike which takes an enormous amount of line out that we are almost spooled. We tighten the drag and the fish busted off. We don't know what it was but we assume a Marlin.
After we have cleared in at customs and immigration, MB takes JB, Amy and Libby for fishing in the tender, along the fringing reef. Our first strike on an amazon lure of MB'S, produces a 6 pound snapper. However, we have come out without a net and loose this great fish when trying to drag it into the boat. We are really disappointed for Libby. Amy goes on to catch a Mackerel and JB some large Trevally.
The boys attempted to fish off the jet ski with no luck as they have some issues with balancing and Jeff looses his new closed ear snorkelling mask in the water. It was still interesting as they had several manta rays and sharks swimming under the jet ski.
While cleaning the fish that evening off the back off the boat, a large school of Trevally swim at the back in the lights. Some are caught on fly, they are solid fish fighting vigourously. That night we also have our first serious Canasta comp., boys versus girls. The boys end up leading by a large margin.
Wednesday. It is an early start to cruise northwest 6 hours, to Hog Sty Reef. This was a punt as it was in the middle of a vast area of sea on the way to Crooked Island. We were not sure if we can find a safe anchorage here, or not. This reef is as remote as you can get in the Bahamian waters, it is over 30 nautical miles from land in any direction. It is a one off in the Western Hemisphere, a near perfect Atoll, one of three in the Atlantic Ocean. It is about five kilometres long, three KMS wide and has been a real ship cruncher. There are many large rusted wrecks and a number of beautiful white sand cays. The water is exceptionally deep rising from thousands of meters to where we anchor in some five meters of water. It reminded us of Elizabeth Reef, north of Australia's Lord Howe Island, where the fishing is exceptional and many boat wrecks are perched on the reef.
We anchor safely and visit the beach for snorkelling and beach fossicking. Paul goes off looking for Crayfish and spears two beauties. Jon and Jeff take off to fish from the jet ski again this time having good luck hooking some good size Trevally and some small Coral Cod. MB and Paul take the girls fishing from the tender. We have some great exciting reel action with lots of solid Trevally, Mackerel and small Coral Cod, which we released.
A great day ends with a dinner of BBQ cray, mackerel steaks and rum punch. This is followed by a very exciting finish to our Canasta comp., won by the boys, despite Jon insisting an Ace is wild.
Again, there are lots of fish in the lights to catch before bed, totally exhausted.
Thursday. MB and Jon are up early to fish. They troll the drop off, then find birds feeding. With the feathered lures (amazon made ), we hook some very good size Yellow Fin Tuna. At one stage there is a triple hook up. Jeff is really disappointed as he has slept in. The wind and swell have come up so we decide to leave this extraordinary anchorage, and head to crooked island about 45 miles to the north. We troll with Jeff's new skirted lures.
Almost immediately we strike a monster Marlin which leaps from the sea and takes 100's of meters of line. We put Jeff in the harness, he fights the fish for 30 minuets but when we get it to the boat we see it has broken half the double leader off. We thought the Marlin was tiring but just as it got close it takes off again leaping through the air. Some great photos are managed to be taken of this beautiful fish. Jeff is exhausted but thinks he has now won the battle with the Marlin but just as he gets to the back of the boat the line snaps and it is gone with one final jump in the air. It was very exciting.
We strike another three Marlin and land a beautiful Yellow Fin Tuna. As we round Castle Island at the southern tip of Acklins Island-Crooked Island, we land another good sized Mackerel. We now have a fridge and freezer full of delectable fish.
We anchor along a sheltered coastline with stunning white beaches and the most clear turquoise water. We all head to the beach for boules, swimming and beers as the sun sets. Dinner is fresh Tuna sashimi, Mackerel and Tuna steaks and beautiful French wine followed by another quoits comp.
narrowly won by MB.
JB and Mick