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Bright and squirrely, Philadelphia International Airport a view of our 7:10AM flight to Miami. This is the only way to get from Philly to Salt Cay in one day. |
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The 757 on our connecting flight from Miami to Provendenciales (Provo) in the Turks and Caicos. Provo is bright lights big city in the Turks and Caicos, and is being rapidly developed. |
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We checked in at InterIsland Airways. Our bags were pushed through the hole in the wall to get loaded on to the plane and we sat down and waited. And waited. Heike was getting a little impatient. She went up to ask the status. She was told the plane broken and that we couldn't get to Salt Cay until the next morning. After making arrangements, I went out to take another look at the plane. HEY WAIT! Those people getting onto MY PLANE! |
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The gentleman in the foreground is trying to calm down the very loud, very irate, very ugly American tourist on the other side of the camera. "My ass should be in that airplane!" was heard reverberating off of the walls of the domestic terminal. I later met with part owner of the Airline and brother of the pilot. Seems that Civil Aviation (The UK's FAA, this is still part of the Empire), had been through and had just grounded the plane for a vacuum leak in a gauge. The gauge could fog up in flight. His brother was taking the family to a funeral on North Caicos. I was still skeptical, we were the only two passengers that day and there was the plane going away with a full load. But what are you gonna do. |
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The airline wanted to put us up at the rather
unattractive Airport Motel. Or, we could make up the difference in rates
and get a room in the much nicer Turtle Cove area. Using the advice from all of those savvy
traveler books, I tried to negotiate a better deal. Response:
"Look, This is a two plane airline with one grounded plane. We
can't do any more." I did manage to wrangle a free cab
ride. We ended up staying a the Erebus Inn.
The view from the Erebus Inn over looking Turtle Cove. We had a nice dinner there. That's Peter Hughes' Sea Dancer at the dock in the marina. Sigh! maybe someday... |
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Heike on the nice beach at Turtle Cove. She didn't want to unpack her swim stuff, so she just hung out at the beach. I NEEDED to get into that water. I am so happy that I did! In the first five minutes, I saw three big Spotted Eagle Rays and two Hawksbill Turtles, all within 30 yards of the beach! The rest of the snorkel was great, lots of fish and nice coral too. Too bad I didn't bring my camera. |
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Sure enough, the InterIsland plane really was broken. InterIsland had to charter a plane (a vintage Piper Aztec) from the ambitiously named Global Airways. Here we are boarding. We met fellow divers Martin and Cindy. |
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The view of Salt Cay through the windscreen of the airplane. |
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Another view. This is the leeward side of the island. Northwest Point is at the left of the picture. Mt Pleasant is just to the right of the vegetation on the left. The dive sites are lined up along this side of the island. |
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Candy at Mt. Pleasant sent her truck over to pick us up at the airport. We all piled in and we were off. |
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A view of the new Salt Cay International Airport. |
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Well, here we are. Salt Cay is home to about 70 people, a dive operation and a handful of Guest Houses. |