Busted

View from the bow of our boat in Providenciales

Kirstin and I are night sailing......3/4 moon.....20 knots of wind. We're tired from 9 straight hours of bashing into big waves. L'ORIENT is 10 miles from our midnight anchorage in Turks and Caicos. Suddenly on the VHF:

Scary official sounding guy- "Vessel approaching Turks and Caicos from the northwest at 6 knots......state your intentions"

Tom- What ?

Kirstin- I wonder who he's talking to ?

Scary official sounding guy (again)- Vessel approaching Turks and Caicos from the northwest......state your intentions"

Tom- Hey, you know sweetie.......we're the only boat approaching from the northwest........I think he's talking to us.

Kirstin- OK call him back

So, we had been spotted by radar !!!!!!  No doubt our US tax dollars had been siphoned away to pay for some banana republic high tech radar to harass cruisers. We finally responded and answered the guy's question. What's our intention ? To anchor and eat at a real restaurant ! Anyway, we wondered what would have happened if we continued to ignore him. For all we know, a British submarine had us in their sights. OK, probably not but when you've slept 4 hours in 2 days, anything seems possible.

We did anchor and yes, we did enjoy a nice restaurant. We are in a beautiful marina and pampering ourselves briefly before we get on the road again.

Relaxing by the marina's pool