May 8, 2014
Island Moon
Sinko-De Mayo
A 11
Sapodilla Bay to Great Sandy Cay By Captain Sail Offcourse In Sapodilla Bay after checking in with Customs, the yachts in our group moved to the north side of Provo to Turtle Cove Marina on Grace Bay. Inside the cut harbor I meet Anne Pinder and found out about the Island. In 1966, a Swedish surveyor named Bengt Soderqvist met with Fritz Luddington, who had been flying over the island for many years. These two shared their interests with other developers of vision. The government allowed the group to lease/purchase some 4,000 acres on Providencials. In October of 1966, the seven investors, of the ‘Seven Dwarfs’ as they were called, arrived on Providencials on a boat named the Seven Dwarfs. Tommy Coleman was the advance man for Fritz Luddington and his Provident Ltd. Group. The five other investors were Julia Barber, Roger Morton, Peter Tompson, Theodore Roosevelt III, and Richard DuPont. Provident Ltd. Had certain
we left the Marina and headed east to the Leeward Going Through, which is a small channel that runs beside the Conch Farm. The channel starts at way point of 21 degrees 48.60’ n. and 72 degrees 07.30’ w. and carries four and a half feet at high water, so we had to move to make it across before the tide went out. On the first turn to the south the Catamaran ran aground on a sand bar and I went around them while they worked to get unstuck from the sandbar. They got free and in a short time came around me and we took off to the south running at a good clip to beat the 3 foot tidal fall. We were about a mile from the deeper water when I ran across a coral head and it ripped my rudder off, I stopped my boat, dropped sails, and deployed my anchor. I got off the boat and walked back to my rudder in 4 feet of water and found it had broken the rudder shaft. We were only 3 miles from the Caicos Marina and Boatyard which has a large travel lift, so my friends on the Cat got a line tied to me and towed me to the shipyard. There I paid for my haul out and bid my friends a good trip to the Dominican Republic..
I went to Caribbean Marine and Diesel and arranged for them to fix my rudder and left it in their Sailing off of Great Sandy Cay hands. I then went to the ships store and bought everything I obligations to meet to satisfy the government in needed for a bottom job, paint, sand paper, order to receive the acreage, and these were met brushes rollers, tape, ECT... I spent the next by 1971, scarcely five years from the inception week next to Captain Bill scraping and sanding of the project. This included the dredging of on the bottom of my boat, for a total cost of my Seller’s Pond and the creation of a channel to repair o $1,100.00 U.S.. When I launched the the sea, the building of roads to connect the boat, she sailed beautifully and I joined up with three settlements of Blue Hills, The Bight, and another yacht headed across the bank to Six Five Cays, the construction of a hotel and a jetty Hill Cays. There was Great snorkeling between at Five Cays, and the employment of a certain the cays over reefs filled with fish. That night number of the local population. The jetty was the north winds cranked up, so we headed to actually constructed at South Dock as Five Cays Cockburn Harbor at South Caicos at first light. was too shallow. We stayed in Cockburn Harbor that night and I Anne offered to let me move to her seawall in set out alone the next morning for Great Sand Turtle Cove for my stay in Provo and I promptly Cay. moved my yacht to her house. I stayed there The seas were 8 – 10 feet and following me while the other yachts were in the Marina. south but it was a fast down wind run and I This was my spot for the duration of our stay arrived at 4 O’clock pm. The next day I went to in Grace Bay while waiting on other yachts look around this famous island, landing on the to catch up from Florida. When they arrived sand beach in the middle of the island. Legend Sonic Drive-In 14401 S Padre Island Dr
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has it that Spanish treasure is buried on the cay and it is claimed that a British Captain Delaney recovered $150,000.00 in pirate treasure from a cave on Great Sand Cay in 1850. He claimed he left behind $10,000.00 for an entrepreneurial individual to find. This story was told around England and was the Basis for the book Treasure Island. Even the maps look like this island all the way to the Looking Glass Rock on the south east end of the island. Just across from the Looking Glass Rock on the western shore is the cave. Waves roll into the Cave sounding like cannon fire thundering...
Mary Ann McShane, Realtor, GRI, SRES e-mail: malm335@sbcglobal.net Corpus Christi Realty Group Considering a move to the Island? Let me help you find your piece of Paradise - waterfront or interior homes, condos, townhouses, lots Considering selling your Island Property? Call me for a free consultation to obtain the current market value along with tips to make your property the one buyers will put on their “must see” list
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