Hello from the sunny TCI

[Canibul]

Hello. I can't believe I haven't posted here since november of '06. Guess life kinda caught up with me. Wife and I are now in our third year as Americans who moved to a small tropical island nation in the Caribbean. We have built a home here, bought a boat ( sorry, first one had to be a power boat..a necessity of life here) and we started a photo blog about our life as expatriates. Now I found this forum again. I don't really use the "Canibul" name anymore....everywhere else I am "Gringo".

If people would like to see some tropical photos of where we live, I have a few thousands pretty good ones.
Stuff like this:


Would be happy to post warm tropical photos for you poor sobs stuck up North if you like.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Canibul

If people would like to see some tropical photos of where we live, I have a few thousands pretty good ones.
Would be happy to post warm tropical photos for you poor sobs stuck up North if you like.

Indeed, do post pics, 2Gringos.

[mickmul]

Torrential rain and very cold conditions here with a westerly 8-9 blowing . . bring on the warm and sunny pics . . . .

[Canibul]

well, this was the dawn Sunday morning from our construction site overlooking the Caicos Bank:


"Its always five o'clock somewhere"

thats my chair to the left of the cooler full of rum, OJ and limes...on the beach at Pine Cay.

View from a nearby hilltop, south side of Provo


I can post plenty more...and if you need a stronger dose, there are hundreds of photos on the blog site.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha,
Welcome back. I remember some of your posts from way back.
Good to hear you're enjoying the tropics.
Kind Regards,
JohnL

[Canibul]

Thanks. I enjoyed this forum, and I was heavily researching catamarans at the time. Then we got caught up in all the things involved in establishing our life down here. Went through the same evaluation process for a small power boat ( 22 ft. panga) which, for us, is a necessity in these islands. The past year we have built a house. Now....we are starting to think about a cat again. From what I have seen, the Gemini is still the best choice out there for our situation.

I wanted to tell a story about this forum. I had started corresponding here with RandyAbernethy. I invited him to contact us if they brought " Swinging on a Star" through here. Well, they did. Randy and Hideko emailed me when they were going to be in the TCI, and we got together and La Gringa and I spent a day with them, and visited their beautiful St. Francis 50 several times. He wrote about that in his sailing blog, even put a photo of us in there. It really kept the catamaran wish alive for us. And we hope to join them for a week, at their invitation, somewhere in the world. We think maybe NZ when they get there, if they go that way. Somewhere else if not. That's pretty cool, to meet someone living their dream, too, from a contact on this forum.

[ronbo1]

Hi Gringos,

Great blog for anyone interested in finding out what the travel books miss on the Turks and Caicos!

Ronbo

[Canibul]

Hello again,
Well, we have moved into the still uncompleted house. Building in a country like this...well...it's an experience. I can say that for it. I have tried to keep up with the blog, but lately it's been all about building and living here and not too much about the ocean. Besides, the wind has been essentially howling now all winter.

We have discovered a couple spots on the new house that lend themselves pretty well to framing photos. We get some decent sunrises over the water from the 'back patio":


And we get some okay sunsets looking out the front door:


And we do get out on the boat from time to time, although not as much lately as we would like. On one recent trip down to the marina, we saw what looks like a new boat here. Is this a Wharram design?


Obviously from someone who does not like bridgedeck cabins, but a handsome cat, I think;

[Canibul]

From last night:


The howling winds of winter have started to behave themselves more often lately. The temperatures are easing up into the 80's and staying where we like them. The ocean is reflecting the night, and the sounds of the wind and waves that have lulled us to sleep to for the last few months have softened in tone and insistency.

Summer is coming. Soon come.

[Canibul]

and from this morning:

[imagine2frolic]

Read through your blog....nice read, and of course BEST WISHES to continue living your dream. One question.....is the mast for the antenna in it's final resting spot? Thanks for the pics too!

[Canibul]

We hope it can stay there. It's the least obtrusive place we could find for it, not blocking any of our water view and we were also thinking of any future neighbors who might build on the next lot up the hill from us. If they look down, the dish should just disappear into the clutter of looking at our roof, etc. It won't block anyone elses view, either, in other words.

We are thinking of putting some palm trees around it, painting it sky blue, etc. It's not easy to camo an 8 ft. dish on a barren little hill. I must have studied a dozen potential places for it.

[Canibul]

Hurricane Hannah turned the sat dish into modern art. Hanna also turned our new boat into a piece of crumpled fiberglass. Oh well.

I replaced the 8 foot aluminum dish with a smaller, plastic dish. Which is working out well. Have to move it again, though. Found out it's over the property line.

Hows this for picking up a thread a little later in life? (11 months later)