Day 16--Heading North--St. Kitts to Puerto Rico to Grand Turk

Yes, all good things must come to an end. It was time to punch out and start our return journey to Canada. However, it's not over yet as we still have a week to go and plan to spend some time back in the T&C's.

I checked weather before we left and the only issue was a small trough lying just east of Puerto Rico. There had been thunderstorms in the area during the night, but they were forecasted to clear out by early morning. Since we were arriving by noon, I figured they wouldn't be a factor.

Wrong.

I filed 8000 direct GABAR (the intersection at the "boundary" where San Juan Centre picks you up), G633 to TUUNA intersection (on the southeast corner of PR) and then Route 4 across the island to TBQN. The flight across the water to St Croix and then on to Puerto Rico was smooth and uneventful.

Up ahead I could see a bank of clouds, but the tops didn't look that high. As we flew on, the scattered layer below us thickened to an undercast and the overcast started coming down. We were soon into the clag at 8000 feet, no issues, a little bit more bumpy but no rain initially. The forecast had included the standard "VCSH" which means rain showers in the vicinity so I expected to fly in and out of some light precip. which we started to do. The inside of the clouds was fairly bright so I wasn't concerned. Borinquen was reporting 2000 scattered, 5000 broken so I knew it would improve further on.

As we droned along in the clouds the rain began to get a bit heavier. San Juan Approach then called me and said his radar was painting heavy to extreme precipitation in the centre of the island (obviously a thunderstorm) and that my route would take me into it. Oh boy!! It sure would have been nice to have onboard weather radar! Unfortunately, the XM Weather on the GPS only worked in the US!! 

When I inquired, the controller suggested a turn to the north would take us around it, so I requested a 30 degree deviation to the right. My thinking was to get the coast and if we were still in it at 8000, I could descend once over the water and fly under the clouds as we were only 25 miles from Borinquen. The plan worked and we requested direct Borinquen once we were further to the north.

Again, I appreciated having the Garmin 396 GPS as it showed our exact position over the island. If I had to descend, I knew we would be over the water. Fortunately, that wasn't necessary. The weather improved as we approach Borinquen, but there were lots of build ups around. Clearly the air was still unstable from the effect of that trough. Looking to the northwest--the direction to Grand Turk--it was clear as bell. Good. We landed and taxied to US Customs.

We cleared customs, fueled up and took off for Grand Turk.  The flight was smooth and uneventful.  Within 4 hours, we  were back at the Manta House, our little B&B on the island in the Turks and Caicos.  It seemed like only yesterday that we had started our junket south from here to the Leeward Islands.

Back in Grand Turk, T&C

Soon it would be time to head home in earnest.