Catalina Sunshine: BLUE HAVEN MARINA AND RESORT

1600 hours, April 17th, 2015, Blue Haven Resort, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos: As the tide was low, the Marina sent out a pilot boat to guide us through the reef. Even though the channel is well marked, there are obstacles within the channel that are a concern for a 5 ft. draft boat like ours at low tide. Notwithstanding that this is a relatively shallow channel this is a super yacht marina and several were docked as we arrived. One approached 200 ft, about half the length of the A which we had just passed anchored on a narrow shelf outside the reef, about a mile north of the reef entrance to the Marina. The colored lights on a number of the boats at night were amazing.

Blue Haven is an excellent IGY full service marina. And, like we had found at their Simpson Bay Marina on St. Martin, the Blue Haven personnel were very customer orientated. Although Customs and Immigration come to the Marina it was late in the day by the time we were full secured at dock, Marina personnel advised us that we were free to visit either of their two on site restaurants, and we could check in the next day. We had dinner in their Fire and Ice Restaurant in bottom of their condominium tower next to the Resort's pool and beach. Their second less formal restaurant, the Salt, is next to the Marina office. Also on site is a market and a deli, which serves a buffet breakfast and makes sandwiches and salads during the day.

The Marina and Resort are located at the north end of the highly developed Providenciales Island with mostly undeveloped Islands in the Caicos Island group to the north and east. The Marina sits in a channel which runs between the Caicos Bank to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. This channel provided access to the Bank by dinghy and access to both Providenciales and the other Islands to the north east, in side the Reef on the Atlantic side.