Three impossible things before breakfast ... Saturday April 28, 2018

Three impossible things before breakfast

Saturday April 28, 2018

While they aren’t “impossible” things, I have seen three things on this trip that I thought had vanished from the world. 

Firstly, I have noted that “Tang” was for sale in a number of supermarkets around the Caribbean. This powdered product is added to water to make an erzats orange juice.  When I was a child this product was heavily advertised on the television and billed as the drink of astronauts.  Later in the US fresh orange juice became widely available and “tang” seemed to disappear from the supermarket shelves.  Apparently “Tang” is alive and well in other parts of the world.

The second item that is very uncommon now in the US would be clip on sunglasses that can flip up (for when you go inside).  Last summer, I had a conversation with my brother about the problems of sunglasses for the visually impaired (those of us who need corrective lenses). He had opted to go down the route of prescription sunglasses, which means that he has to carry a case with his clear-lensed glasses and be changing back and forth.  He said that he thought it was a shame that the clip on sunglasses that can be flipped up had died the death. Admittedly, once you flip up the colored lenses you do look pretty foolish.  I imagine that dorky look was the reason those lost popularity.  I was stunned to see a couple of people checking in at one island or another using those flip-up clip-ons. I couldn’t say what fashion-impaired nation they came from.

The third item will be one that really shows my age!   In the early 60’s there was a type of shorts made of denim that looked for all the world like blue jeans that had been cut off at the knee.  The bottom was neatly hemmed and was worn rolled up to show the reverse side of the fabric.  When we look back at family photos from that era, there we are my sister and myself in these strange-looking long shorts.  I have spotted shorts of this type on several young girls.  I could barely restrain myself from approaching them to point out that they should never have their picture taken in those shorts. I fear these garments may be making a comeback.

Probably I should tell you about what we did today.  We set an alarm for 5:30 am and awoke to darkness.  We had coffee and got ready, donning our life jackets, applying sunscreen, removing the sail cover, etc. By 6:30 we were underway.  Our route took us out the cut at South Caicos and turned southeast to parallel the coast of Long Cay.  We traversed back onto the bank at a place called Fish Cays and headed almost due west across the Caicos bank.  This route across the bank is considered to be the “deep water route”.  It started off at about 26 ft. By the western end, the depths were more like 12 ft.  The lowest we saw was 10.4 but that got our attention.  The issue on the shallow bank is patches of coral.  These can be seen as dark colored areas if the light is good (the sun is high in the sky).  Inevitably some clouds intervene and it becomes very difficult to determine where the coral is.  The coral areas are likely to be much more shallow and have to be avoided. After 30 miles we exited the bank at “west sand spit”.  Turning north-westerly, we tried to sail but found that the course was directly down wind. The wind speed had dropped off a bit since morning and we found the boat speed unacceptably slow.  After about 7 miles we re-entered the bank at French Cay and anchored behind the island. 

French Cay is a low-lying sandy island with only avian inhabitant.  It’s very idyllic looking.  The island is a nature preserve and you require a permit to land on it.  So we are just admiring from afar (not that far).

Really the only notable occurrence was a radio call from what we think was the coast guard at Providenciales (Provo).  They wanted to know what our plans were, where we had checked in, what was the boat registration number, what type of life raft did we have, who was on board and what were the nationalities, did we have an emergency beacon and what was the number.... We figure they were monitoring AIS signals and spotted us.  I’m not sure if all vessels out and about get this grilling or if we were just lucky.  Clearly someone is paying attention though. 

Another gorgeous sunset - we were having cocktails in the cabin at this point!

Cotinga at French Cay in the moonlight

Cotinga at French Cay in the moonlight

Cotinga at French Cay in the moonlight