Our plan was to sail to Crocked Island to anchor on the North west side at French Wells. On our way down there we changed our mind and decided to go further down south. We should have checked the weather before changing our sailing route. I suppose the main reason was that the wind was not exactly in our favour and came directly on the nose. Juca was pounding through the waves and at 5 in the afternoon we arrived at a little inhabited Island…Plana Cay. Luckily we were able to anchor there for the night, the anchorage seemed safe and we had a relatively quiet night. When we got up the next morning we Warren’t quite sure whether to stay or to move on. We liked it were we where and decided to stay for a couple of days. A few hours into the day we changed our mind, because if the wind would change we would have been quiet exposed, so we left at 11 in the morning and aimed to be at Mayaguana Island early afternoon. Again the wind was on 
our nose and Juca was pushing through the waves. Julia and Carlos handled it very well, I was unwell most of the time. When we finally arrived at Mayaguana Island we discovered that the anchorage there is not very good. However we did anchor and let the dinghy into the water and went to check out the Island. We were hoping and in need to get hold of the Internet to check the weather report. Once we had arrived on the Island, we found a tar sealed road and walked on it until we found a house. This was adventure pure and I felt like an ancient explorer. Walking along this deserted road, Julia hoped to find maybe a Starbucks or Internet Café somewhere … that was so cute! After half an hour walk we saw an older couple sitting outside in their garden. We waved and asked if they have a computer by any chance … of course they did not, but they knew someone in the little settlement of Betsy Bay that had access to the Internet. They offered us to use their car to drive to the little hotel at Pirate Wells. Even though they did not know us they trusted us, mind you where were we suppose to go with the car on that little island and a population of 50 people They give us the keys to their car and off we go to find the Internet, however Anna the old lady came along for the
ride and some excitement. Would you believe it, we found the hotel with 18 rooms and used the Internet to check out the weather. The weather report did not look too good and we quickly decided to hurry back to the boat and to look for another safe anchorage for the next few days. We wanted to sail around to Abraham Bay to the East of Mayaguana. However once we were there the wind had picked up and we were too scared to go into the little bay and it was already 6 o’clock getting dark. I asked Sven if JUCA would keep us safe and when he answered yes, I said lets go and make the passage across to the Turks and Caicos. He was not too keen to sail during the night in bad weather and strong winds, but we were kind of trapped and had to move forward. We sent the kids to bed and I secured everything on deck and put everything down below and off we went. Luckily it was pitch dark and I could not see the high sea and big waves, otherwise I would have not been as confident. The weather and sea got worse and worse, and we had 7 hours in front of us, we had calculated that we should be at the Turks and Caicos at around 4 in the morning. We huddled together in the cockpit, I was so tired, but happy that the children were asleep and safe in their bed and I did not need to attend to their needs in weather like that. It was a long and stormy, wet night. As we got closer to the Turks and Caicos the sea became calmer and I went down below to make us something hot to drink……. At 4.30 we set anchor in 4 metres of water… I was very relieved and sooooo tired… all I wanted to lie down. We did not have too much mess to clean up down below, just the fridge went open and everything was rolling around on the floor. That was quickly cleaned up and then we finally fell asleep at around 5 am….. I woke up when I heard someone calling out…..it was 7.30 in the morning and the police had come to check us out and to let us know that we cannot stay where we were (Turks West) we had to go to the port of call to check into the Turks and Caicos. It took us a while to get our head around where we had to go and at 10 am we left to Sapodilla Bay to check into the new country and to find a new safe anchorage for a few days to sit out the bad weather.
our nose and Juca was pushing through the waves. Julia and Carlos handled it very well, I was unwell most of the time. When we finally arrived at Mayaguana Island we discovered that the anchorage there is not very good. However we did anchor and let the dinghy into the water and went to check out the Island. We were hoping and in need to get hold of the Internet to check the weather report. Once we had arrived on the Island, we found a tar sealed road and walked on it until we found a house. This was adventure pure and I felt like an ancient explorer. Walking along this deserted road, Julia hoped to find maybe a Starbucks or Internet Café somewhere … that was so cute! After half an hour walk we saw an older couple sitting outside in their garden. We waved and asked if they have a computer by any chance … of course they did not, but they knew someone in the little settlement of Betsy Bay that had access to the Internet. They offered us to use their car to drive to the little hotel at Pirate Wells. Even though they did not know us they trusted us, mind you where were we suppose to go with the car on that little island and a population of 50 people They give us the keys to their car and off we go to find the Internet, however Anna the old lady came along for the
ride and some excitement. Would you believe it, we found the hotel with 18 rooms and used the Internet to check out the weather. The weather report did not look too good and we quickly decided to hurry back to the boat and to look for another safe anchorage for the next few days. We wanted to sail around to Abraham Bay to the East of Mayaguana. However once we were there the wind had picked up and we were too scared to go into the little bay and it was already 6 o’clock getting dark. I asked Sven if JUCA would keep us safe and when he answered yes, I said lets go and make the passage across to the Turks and Caicos. He was not too keen to sail during the night in bad weather and strong winds, but we were kind of trapped and had to move forward. We sent the kids to bed and I secured everything on deck and put everything down below and off we went. Luckily it was pitch dark and I could not see the high sea and big waves, otherwise I would have not been as confident. The weather and sea got worse and worse, and we had 7 hours in front of us, we had calculated that we should be at the Turks and Caicos at around 4 in the morning. We huddled together in the cockpit, I was so tired, but happy that the children were asleep and safe in their bed and I did not need to attend to their needs in weather like that. It was a long and stormy, wet night. As we got closer to the Turks and Caicos the sea became calmer and I went down below to make us something hot to drink……. At 4.30 we set anchor in 4 metres of water… I was very relieved and sooooo tired… all I wanted to lie down. We did not have too much mess to clean up down below, just the fridge went open and everything was rolling around on the floor. That was quickly cleaned up and then we finally fell asleep at around 5 am….. I woke up when I heard someone calling out…..it was 7.30 in the morning and the police had come to check us out and to let us know that we cannot stay where we were (Turks West) we had to go to the port of call to check into the Turks and Caicos. It took us a while to get our head around where we had to go and at 10 am we left to Sapodilla Bay to check into the new country and to find a new safe anchorage for a few days to sit out the bad weather. 
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