Turks and Caicos Christmas 2021 - Day 5: Christmas Watersports

Christmas morning started similarly to the other mornings here, with breakfast on the veranda.

Unique for today, however, was a Christmas-sock fashion show.

Just after 10 AM, we headed down to The Bight beach park for our appointment with Captain Marvin.

Captain Marvin was 10 minutes early, which was nice.

We piled on the boat and signed the waiver, without reading it, of course.

With five people, we could do a 3/2 split or 2/2/1; we opted for the former, and sent the three ladies up first.

When I stood up to film the launch, a gust of wind took my big, floppy hat right off my head, out the back of the boat, and into the water; there wasn't a way to stop and get it without dropping the parasailers into the ocean.

The routine is: send passengers up about 100' and cruise around, then dip them in the water, then back up to 300'+ for a view of the entire island for 5 or 10 minutes, then wind them back in.

The landing is a bit abrupt, in some people's opinion.

Once the ladies landed, Rudy and I were up.

Almost as soon as we were up, I saw a huge stingray cruising the reef. I immediately wished I'd brought my phone up with me, but probably would have lost that too.

Our landing was equally as rough, but without any funny exclamations.

We unharnessed and shed our lifejackets, while Captain Marvin and his first mate packed up the sail/parachute.

They dropped us off back at The Bight beach park, where we started, a solid mile from where I lost my hat.

I happened to have binoculars in my backpack, so Sabrina and I walked a mile or so up the beach, roughly to the location of the last photo I took before they went up, and scanned the waves for awhile, to no avail. 

We made it all the way to Smith Reef / Turtle Cove, where we snorkeled on our first trip. Had the wind and the current been slightly different, we may have found it. It was a lovely walk, nonetheless. There were a few people wearing Santa hats at the beach.

Once we sauntered back to the others, we sunned and swam for a bit, then departed around 1:30 to search for a new restaurant. As we were driving past the Airbnb, we stopped to swap out a few items, and I donned my backup hat.

Next, a brief interlude:

A few days ago, we had spotted a water filling station (one of several, it turns out). We happened to drive past the one right by our house, so we stopped to investigate.

A gallon jug of local, purified water currently goes for something like $2.20 at the IGA (imported [Florida] spring water is even more), so we decided to do as the locals do and get refills.

Despite the sign indicating $0.50/gallon, it was only $0.40/gallon. What a bargain!

For our late lunch / early dinner, we traveled past the airport down to Chalk Sound, arriving at Las Brisas (at the Neptune resort [thus, the statues]) just after 2 PM.

Sabrina and I had followed the road along the southern edge of Chalk Sound, the first time we were here, (on our last day), but we didn't see it quite like this.

What with this being our Christmas dinner, we made sure to eat our fill while enjoying the picturesque surroundings of their gazebo dining area.

I would definitely recommend the "Azorean stuffed chicken" (stuffed with chorizo), if you're ever in the area.

The restaurant is also the watersports rental center, so after lunch/dinner we procured three of their finest crafts and headed out to explore the sound for an hour or so. Lauren opted to test out a chaise lounge on the beach, instead.

The tandem kayak we rented, it turned out, was not one of their finest craft, as it had an old repair that had broken, opening a hole into the sealed cavity... which caused it to slowly take on water.

By the time I realized it, we were more than 1/4 of a mile out. By that point, we had to abandon ship to get the hole back above the water. As soon as we leaned over, the water inside the kayak shifted to the same side and we went over sideways. 

We half swam/paddled the kayak back to the beach, with Sabrina up top and me walking/swimming in the shallow water, trying to avoid stepping on sharp coral under the soft, sandy bottom.

Lauren was kind enough to document our soggy return, wherein I pointed out the obvious problem and swapped boats. 

Jeanne and Rudy took the opportunity to switch their watercraft (with each other).

We hustled back out to roughly where we had capsized, and enjoyed the sun, breeze, and water for another half hour or so.

While we were down at the southernmost area of the island, it seemed like a good opportunity to enjoy a sunset over the ocean; just before 5, we popped over to Sapodilla Bay Beach.

It's impressive what several years' worth of iphone camera improvements can do, BTW.

As the sun turned in, the bugs started to emerge, so we quickly fled back to the parking lot.

The sunset was providing a lovely gradient to the sky, looking north.

Behold the grandeur of the public parking lot.

This was not a terrible way to spend Christmas day 😉

It's going to be difficult to beat, next year (or whenever we can do this again).

Tomorrow is Boxing Day, as this is a British Territory, so maybe we should go shopping? I'm not sure what the traditional Boxing Day customs are, here.

Turks and Caicos Christmas 2021 - Day 4: Between The Bight beach and Grace Bay beach

 It was another beautiful morning at the Airbnb. As we had done last time it wasn't raining, we had breakfast on the veranda, and eased our way into Christmas Eve.

In pursuit of a new stretch of sand to lay upon, we headed about a mile up the road, just past where we got takeout last night, to a beach access / parking area. I didn't realize it until we got to the parking lot, but Sabrina and I visited this same spot almost 4 years ago.

Today, just as last time we were here, there was a steady trickle of people walking back and forth, some with snorkel gear, between resorts/beaches.

Occasionally, a parasail boat departed from the beach on either side and paraded back and forth for our entertainment.

We relaxed here for about 2 or 3 hours, swimming in the turquoise water to cool down, now and then. I donned snorkel gear and lazily swam down the coast, towards and around The Bight Reef.

The wind was blowing onshore today, so the water was a bit rough for snorkeling, but the visibility was still very good. We hadn't snorkeled this reef (AKA Coral Gardens) last time, so it was new to me.

Some time around 2 o'clock, we strolled up the beach, towards Grace Bay, looking for somewhere to get a snack. Unfortunately, all of the places in the 1/2 mile (ish) stretch of sand that we covered were part of all-inclusive resorts (mostly Beaches), and not open to the public.

Our only option were to continue farther up the beach, or head back the way we came (where the only option was the place we got takeout from, last night). 

Somewhat annoyed, we decided to return to the chateau for our own (early) happy hour. Once we reached our starting point, we had one last swim to cool down before piling back into the car.

Back at the house, I whipped up some mango daiquiris for our late-afternoon repose.

Around 5, we headed down the street for our Christmas Eve dinner reservation at the Magnolia.

We admired the sunset view over Turtle Cove Marina and enjoyed a veritable feast, al fresco.

After dinner, we promenaded around the marina to stave off food comas (and also to scout for future dinner venues).

The night air is full of lively music, and there was a brief fireworks show at the beach, visible from the veranda.

Tomorrow, we're going parasailing in celebration of the winter solstice. After that, who knows?