We were sailing with friends past the Turks and Caicos on their boat bound from Puerto Rico to the Bahamas. We anchored for a few hours at French Cay for a few hours for a swim, and some sleep before continuing on a night passage. This location has some land that is awash, and is in the Turks and Caicos territorial waters. We turned off our AIS. As we were leaving, the Providenciales radar station started snooping for information in our area and even tried to get the US Coast Guard patrol plane to check out the boats. The Coast Guard was dealing with a distress call and had no interest. We pulled anchor and continued on our way.

Some Canadians on a charter responded to a call when their boat was identified on radar in T&C waters. They gave all kinds of detailed information about the people and the boat but said that they were resting for a short time and bound for the Bahamas. The radar folks said they would need to ask authorities if they would be allowed to continue without checking in. After a couple hours, they were informed that they would need to check in. On a weekend that meant surcharges. The Canadians lost at least a day and a ton of money.

Meanwhile as we were about to leave their territorial waters (I was off watch) the T&C radar folks called to talk with the boat at a position about a 1/2 mile from us. Our crew on deck concluded it couldn't possibly be us and did not respond. We slipped away and made our Bahamas landfall the next morning.

Technically we were in T&C waters but sure didn't appreciate their aggressive attitude.

P.S. Greetings from central Vermont where we are helping relatives tap sugar maples on a large scale operation. Scenic, lots of snow, stiff muscles!