Saturday, March 17, 2007

It Never Rains in Turks and Caicos. It Poured!




After a nice motor sail, the four cats anchored in Sapodilla bay, 5 miles from anything except some second homes built along the shore. We were welcomed by Sarah and John and their 5 children on the boat Leohana. Seems they were on a slow world cruise and were asked to start up a Mormon church on the island, delaying their world cruise for over a year.
On Sunday morning we hitch-hiked to church having no idea where it was or what time it started. By luck, we got a ride, found the church and made it almost on time. We were fortunate to have found an English speaking, younger, humorous priest who performed Sabrina’s reconciliation. He was most impressed by her ability to recall Act of Contrition perfectly. The thought of Sunday Brunch faded as nothing was open. A taxi driver said he would take back to the boat for $5.00. The fare also included the chance to show us just how fast his little car would go in a 40 MPH zone. Answer: 79 MPH. I tried to explain that we weren’t really in a big hurry, we typically don’t ever see speeds over 8mph the way we drive….in a boat.
For days the wind blew from the “wrong” direction and it rained and it rained. While driving a rental car through the flooded streets the kids yelled, “Hey daddy, water is coming in the doors!.” Angie and I had been here when Parker was 1. Other than a lot more second homes, hotels and more traffic nothing had changed in Provo.
Despite everything we could possibly do to leave our land life picture perfect, we had two back-to-back financial debacles that were totally unwarranted. The stress of it all pushed Angie into days of dread and self blame for doing enough. We have our health and that’s something money can’t always buy or fix.
The next weather window was sad and sweet. It was sweet that we could leave. The saddest part was goodbyes to DC and Beach Magic… and the two new kid boats that showed up from Georgetown, Sea-ya-manana and Tantara. We had 15 kids over for a movie night on our last night so say goodbye. It was especially hard to leave Dream Catcher who had been boat buddies with us for over a month. There were tears, gifts and promises of see you later and not goodbyes. This time was especially hard for Parker and Nicole who had gotten very close. Despite a forecast of unsettled weather with potential for 40 knot squalls, we sailed with Leocat to the DR. During a storm at night, the wind generator base broke. I had to take it apart on the roof with a pitching boat in the rain, wind and dark only using one hand! 28 hours later, we were in the DR.

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