We have greatly enjoyed our stay here on Providenciales, but it is time to move further down the island chain.

From here we have two options as a next stop, either the north coast of the Dominican Republic, or the west coast of Puerto Rico.  It looks like we have a great weather window to hop right on over to Puerto Rico, and we were hoping to leave early tomorrow morning.  The boat is ready, we have (almost) everything stowed for sea.  We made arrangements yesterday with the marina to have Immigration come by today and check us out so we can go on to another country without complications.

The marina called Immigration and the arrangement was that they were due here “later in the day”, and there was another boat right across the dock from us that needed to be cleared in.  About 4:00 the Customs officer (who Karen knows by sight now) visited the other boat, and promised he was stopping by after he finished there.  Nope.  He went home without stopping to do our paperwork.  Sigh.

I have nightmares of our weather window evaporating as we diddle around here trying to get our paperwork approved to get out of Dodge! Or maybe worse, getting cleared out, and then not being able to leave because the weather turns bad.

Maybe we can get it done tomorrow. On a Saturday.  Any one care to give odds?

UPDATE:

We got an early start on Saturday morning, figuring we’d have a bit of a runaround.  At 07:00 there was a knock on the hull, it was the Customs officer, apologizing profusely for getting distracted and forgetting us. Paperwork finished! A last minute weather check looks great for sailing for the next few days.