Sailing Life Day 44: Our Day in Provo, Turks and Caicos : Cleared In Customs and Immigration, New Passport Stamp for Captain Ahab, Steak for Dinner and Issues Fixed!

“Everything happens for a reason!”

What a more incredible day compared to the day before this! I believe that our emergency detour and stop-over here in South Side Marina in Provo is a blessing in disguise! The owner, Bob, is incredibly nice and even drove us to the grocery store twice! He introduced us to some expats here who owns different properties and Jonathan met some British who moved here and started their own business.. seems like the best place to invest or get some work projects esp that Jonathan’s old career was in Architecture! Haha! Let’s see what will happen next esp my husband keeps telling to everyone that he’s “semi-retired”! lol 🤣🤩

Anyway, early morning the Customs and Immigration officials arrived at the marina and cleared us in! We had to pay $65 for the entry permit + weekend overtime fee and $50 for our exit permit... usually cruising permit is $300 but since we’re only on a transit for 7 days we only paid the minimum. We also paid $15 for the immigration overtime fee since we arrived on a weekend. It’s all smooth and the officers were really nice! They knew about our kitty cat and even stamped Captain Ahab’s Pet passport! 😍 The only requirement they asked is the documentation of our sailboat + our passports. I learned a new thing as well for Philippines passport, it’s not visa-on-arrival here (have to update my article).. only if you have UK or USA then we can get a 3-month visa-on-arrival but if you’ll just fly via airport with PHL passport, they’d require an advance approved visa. Ha!

By afternoon, Bob the owner, drove me to the grocery store where I was able to buy a really good steak for dinner! The prices here is almost the same in the Bahamas but have more choices and it’s VAT-free! There’s even an aisle full of Filipino food! Heard there’s a lot of Pinoys here too! Haha!

When I returned to the boat, Jonathan already finished with the boat project - sealed the leak and cleaned the bilge and that deep hole (where the table pole used to fit in) with a lot of diesel!

For Captain Ahab, it’s too hot for him so he’s just hanging out on the Captain’s table with his mini-electric fan! Then he starts running at the marina dock at night time! Wooh! 🐈⛵️

Projects are never-ending but we’re definitely enjoying and learning a lot on this sailing adventure esp if we have a really good steak for dinner! Haha 😎