Category Archives: Turks and Caicos

Welcome to Turks and Caicos

April 12, 2014 tkozachuk Leave a comment

3 day sail to Turks and Caicos was our first longish’ voyage…

No not 30 days across the ocean, but at least we were far enough offshore that my buddy Rusty would be crying to his Momma!

Pics to follow, were on super duper dialup right now…

First Day: Dead calm to start.. Some light Rain.. sun… more wind… rain, sun, sun sun sun…everyone getting into their groove.. 3 hour shifts… lots of sleep for everyone..

Second Day: Calm to start.. then WIND.. sun.. sun.. sun.. beautiful.. can’t be beat..

Sailing along without a care in the world.. 3 hour shifts as usual.. Mountains of DR are beautiful.. we really should have spent a month exploring them.. Jimmy Buffett on XM Radio

Sunset comparable to Lake Huron in August.. 🙂

Midnight: Vessel TwoFish calls Island Dancer seeing us on AIS.. they are on a Cat with 5000 miles so far on their trip heading to New York.. with 2 Canadians on board.. they want to trade the Canadians for a case of beer and a jug of maple syrup… Need more info on the crew eh…

Seems our schedules are the same.. perhaps we meet again?

Third Day: Perfect Wind.. Sunny. BIG Breakfest of eggs, bacon, hash browns, coffee…Then more wind.. then more wind.. then black clouds…

Reefing in the sail a bit.. more wind… more speed.. reefing in the sails again… when the wind hit 40.. then 42.. hummm… boat speed approached 8 with just inch’s of sail deployed, but easily manageable to a point Robin said to Timbo: “Are you going to get some sleep?”

I must say this boat can take swells and wind like they are a splash in a baby pool (Not really, but you get my point.. some were freaking HUGE MAN !!! but NO way I was going to bed!!!)

Later in the night the wind died down to 20’s again and we hit the sails to make landfall for daybreak…

Customs and Immigration: completed on a freezer at a grocery store.. it was Saturday so we asked a guy on a peddle bike to go to their house (wake them up?) and get them to come out and clear us in… soooo friendly people…

Come to find out there is a Marine Biology school 500 yards from our boat.. Kids from all over the world there.. We open the gate, walk-in, Allie is welcomed with open arms by more than 40 kids her age…

Robin and Timbo leave for Lunch at a local burger joint… Wonder how Allie is doing??? hummmmmm? Apparently a bunch of local school kids were coming over this afternoon for a tour, Allie will love meeting them as well.

According to the Dive masters at the school (who drove us to the burger joint), the diving RIGHT here is next to the best of anywhere, and thats why students are there from all over the world….. perhaps we are NOT leaving tonight as planned… but that will be yet… another story!

Have a Great Day

Timbo!!!

Turks and Caicos

New Mooring for Island Dancer

April 14, 2014 kozyboat.com Leave a comment

Spent the night sailing across the Caicos islands (14 hrs) fabulous sail.. we’re on the west side now in Provo… a Resort Island… Hello Walt Disney!!! We will take IT !!!!

Hotel here is $512.00 a night.. or… our option….dock fee is $48.00 (apparently with cable TV!)?
So.. Looks like we are staying on Island Dancer!

You get to use the resort and all the cool toys including fire ring tables, infinity pool, out door pool table, free Beach Bikes to take to town, swim up bar, bars, beach, etc..
It’s over the top elegant and were ready for it!

Spending the next 7 days here doing NOTHING!!!

Here’s the comparison of rooms available:

Turks and Caicos

Some Ketchup Pics

April 14, 2014 tkozachuk Leave a comment

Haven’t had high speed internet for a while, so here’s some pics of the action…

First Few are Allie at a Marine Biology School in South Caicos
Old house is the Governors Mansion.. (perhaps previous)
Then some sailing pics on the 3 day cruise..
Then of course PICO!!!! on the Stand Up Board!!!

Have a Great Day!
Timbo

Turks and Caicos

10 mile Bike Ride – Kayak Through Mangroves – Drink Beer

April 16, 2014 tkozachuk Leave a comment

Turks and Caicos Marathon was pretty awesome! Rather than do the complete event in one day we broke it up…
The resort let you use their beach bikes.. no locks required..
quote from front desk “This be da Islan’s mon.. no need to loc dem up, you be fine… If not, we hav your credit card” 🙂

Rode 1/2 across the island.. you can’t really go much further as you hit the Highway.. (much like London road in Sarnia)..
and bike riding there we were told was “crazy”.. (of course we tried it.. a short distance to Mis Amigo’s!”
High scores from the crew on the Mexican dish’s.. Our new friend Dervent treated us to the great food.. very very friendly people here!
I am now qualified to do the most famous Caicos handshake.. took about 5 tries but Dervent wouldn’t give up on Timbo until I had it.. 🙂
You can go into every resort except Sandals? and use their beach/pool… so lots of exploring still to do…
Hopefully that doesn’t include too much shopping in town.. this is the Grand Bend of the Caribbean!

LAUNCH THE KAYAK!!! Trails in the mangroves are all over the national park we are moored beside.. an outfit called Big Blue sends people out all day…
They charge around $75 to do the tour.. so with our NEW KAYAK we had to check it out!
Marathon was almost over.. only thing left was the Turks Head Beer drinking contest..

Our friends from Denver (formally Sarnia) will be here later today (Gerry and Cindy)… will be fun to explore the island with them the next few days.

Mr. Weatherman aka Snowman, is hinting we will be “stuck” here a few days.. some strong winds are on their way… North of 40 knots.. and perhaps stronger?
Tied up the boat pretty well.. we will lash down the floating toys tomorrow and sea what happens!

Have a Great Day!
Timbo

Turks and Caicos

Robins Back

April 18, 2014 tkozachuk Leave a comment

Just a little update on Robins Back injury….

As you may recall back in St. Thomas she pulled her back in a bad way, lifting the anchor..

Well not really lifting it.. we have a windlass (electric winch) but as most injuries go, she found herself in a bad position and herniated a disc..S1 in her lower back.

Waiting a few days didn’t really help.. In St. Maartin she only went the wrong direction and found herself in extreme pain.

Off to Physio specialists which we so must thank Elco and his mom for picking us up and making this happen.

The specialist determined most likely what the problem was, but had no cure.. it was too deep in her back to work on.

His only advice was bed rest.. complete bed rest.. don’t leave the boat.. Stay off your feet and PRAY.. no kidding..

St. Maartin has the best of the best for technology, so we decided to get an MRI and determine 100% what the issue is….

From this…. a recommendation was made from the local Physio guys..

Pull the boat.. get on a plane.. go to Canada Get surgery and Pray…

Well.. not exactly what we wanted to do.. so a second opinion… the local doctor..

He also agreed surgery was the only option.. and do it now…

Damn.. ok.. so back to the MRI office.. There we met a young doctor who took us back into the scanning room.

There many huge computer screens showed Robin’s back in 3-D detail..

Telling this doctor our 2 opinions, his jaw dropped in shock..

No… this definitely does NOT require surgery.. It’s an injury caused form a movement much like swinging a golf club..

(ya.. or pulling a rope eh!) I like this guy already…

OK.. uploading the MRI to our website … we sent the high res pics off to Sarnia to Robins Physio guy there… for a 4th opinion..

Surgery ??? No … this doesn’t look like that to me at all.. Of course Im 2000 miles away and can’t give you official advice without seeing you in person.. but go on youtube and search:

Mckenzie technique

Im not going to over exaggerate this.. but 3 days later she was a different person.. a week later it was almost gone.. and today she is 99% perfect… what a change!!!!

If you have back issues in the same place as Robin…. here’s the youtube solution :

http://youtu.be/HFJCD0thmCM

You can find Robin laying on a blow up ball most mornings, insuring it stays this way..

Well back to the pool!

Have a Great Day!

Timbo

Turks and Caicos

Socked in Turks and Caicos

April 21, 2014 tkozachuk Leave a comment

Well maybe Socked in isn’t the correct term… She’s been blowin for a week.. so we’ve been lashed to the dock! but appears we will be moving very soon! (To Bahamas)
This is Robins favourite Island so far.. its a really nice change, there are NO charter boats here at all..
Only big super yachts and real cruisers heading to all locations of the globe.. Very interesting talking to most anyone on the dock!

We found out that our $48 fee to stay here includes use of ALL their sister resorts.. including free shuttle… So we cranked up the beach time this week!
Our new favourite location is called the Beach House.. there is a pretty darn good reef for snorkelling just off the beach.. they have free rental equipment too!.
Then we discovered the Hobbie Cat is also free to use.. That with the free beach bikes, this place quickly approached awesome!..
We had the hobbie out for a few runs with our friends (from home) Cindy, Gerry, Leslie and Terry. Lots of fun with this group all week!
Lots of festivals here, no time to be idle…
The easter bunny found an open hatch on Island Dancer… Hope he found his way to your house as well!

Have a Great Day!
Timbo

Open Ocean, Turks and Caicos

Sea Ya Turks n Caicos

April 22, 2014 tkozachuk Leave a comment

Casting the lines today for a jaunt up into the Bahamas.. likely 250 miles if all goes well =(about a mac race and a bit)
Snowman tells me the sails will mostly stayed furled as the wind is next to zippo.. which is sad, but better than the crazy winds earlier this week.. Never satisfied eh!
Thanks to Mr. Tracy, we have a new electric lift pump on the starboard engine.. the one remaining gremlin since we bought the boat is now solved..
We thought it was a small air leak into the diesel feed for about 2 months…but we got her now! Always electrical Timbo… remember that! 🙂
Love people showing up from the states with presents!!

Allie finally got her bon fire… by the end of the night we had 2 or 3 pallets on it and a bag of marshmallows in our belly’s.
Note: Palm tree branch’s work excellent for fire sticks!

Allie’s school project required some minor trespassing on the penthouse of the resort (for educational pics of course)…. nice place eh!

AIS will show us leaving tonight, and arriving on Thursday, but likely not much in between.

Should be heading out just before sunset…. cya on the other side!

Have a Great Day!
Timbo