ZippyBoy
Registered
Lodging: The Sands at Grace Bay - Continues to be our family friendly favorite on Provo. We usually go there during summer months but were very pleasantly surprised by the weather (I think we got very very lucky). Unfortunately, the resort was doing its Fall clean up in preparation for the Holiday high season and didn't warn us in advance. Some of the buildings were being having touch up painting done and there were refinishing the wooden decks by Hemingways restaurant and the pool closest to the beach.
Food: Hemingways - food was much improved over past years. Conch chowder is always good there but they seem to have improved the rest of the menu. Even my wife (who's a little picky about her food) was impressed and thought it rivaled her favorite restaurant Coyoba.
Diving:
- Big Blue: small boat/over crewed as usual. We did two days of diving (one was a requested 3 tank dive adventure that they had not run before), one day of kayaking and one day of a new (experimental) snorkel/lunch trip. They took their dive boat (Live and Direct) over to W. Caicos for both days of diving. We dive enriched air, and BB is very good about having some custom blends available so we can dive less/more enriched air depending on profiles. First day was G Spot and Rock N Roll. great dives - 84 degree water with 80-100' vis. Sharks, rays (southern sting and spotted eagle), turtles, every fish imaginable. Only disappointment was to find out that the lionfish have finally made their home there (we saw at least 1 on every dive during our trip). Second day was a requested "dive adventure". This truly was an adventure as the dive sites were picked when we were out on site, they were all drift dives (my favorite), and the first surface interval (2 hours) was partially spent walking around the ruins on W Caicos (nice diversion from usual sitting on the boat). We did 1 drift in the channel and two on the walls. Again, you name it, we saw it. Dive crew was nice and helpful (though you are responsible for gearing yourself up and down) and we decided to stick with the dive master as there was only 2 other cert divers with us (two others were being certified). As usual, BB let us dive our own profiles, so as the newbies were busy sucking up their air or the air divers ran out of no deco time, my wife and I were logging hour plus dives in the 80-60' range each time down. The "new" snorkel trip was a blast. We took our 5 and 7 year olds (both like snorkeling) to a place they called "the arboritium" and Smith's Reef. The arboritium had the most fantastic shallow water (15-25') collection of gorgonians and coral bommies I've seen in a very long time (reminded me of FLA keys back in early 80's). WE lunched at a local restaurant in Blue Hills (Three Kings) which was very tasty and gave our kids some land time to run around.
- Caicos Adventures: Only dove the Thursday three tank adventure w/ CA this year (ran out of time and money) but I really have to say Fifi knows the dive sites better than anyone else down there. He took the Caicos Cat out as there were only 4 cert divers onboard plus the guide (Wes - great guy). Fast trip out to the W Caicos. We dove 33% enriched air and we used almost every last lb of it. While we didn't have same mixed gas options as BB, but our tanks had more air than BB and the stickers with % O2 and MOD times were 100% accurate (BB generally had a couple hundred psi less per tank and the O2 contents were 1-1.5% lower than the stated sticker). The first two dives were moored dives and the last he gave us the option of a drift in the channel (which we agreed to do with the two newbies). First dive, Fifi guaranteed sharks, and we had 8 reef sharks literally circling us our entire time in the water, along with sting rays, playful groupers, etc. My wife has video with me swimming less than 3' away from a 7' female reef shark for about 10 mins. Last dive, Fifi guaranteed spotted eagle rays, and like clockwork...in the channel...we saw 8 spotted eagle rays (in 4 different pods), 3 large southern sting rays, a baby nurse shark and all the other fish/crustaceans you could count.
Big difference between BB and CA was surface interval and speed/comfort of boat. BB had extended surface times that benefited the air divers. They also had two dive masters in the water for a max of 6 tourists plus boat captain. CA's faster boat got us to the sites quicker (and got us home faster), crew geared us up and did all the change overs on the tanks (its nice not having to do that on vacation) by a technical diver (thanks Wes) and provided a hang line with spare octo in the water for safety. CA's Caicos Cat is also much larger and better designed, so people had no problem finding their own space, no problems walking to the platform to get in/out water, fresh water shower and they provided a clean fresh water bath specifically for camera equipment. Crews were equally friendly and competent. Each did a thorough briefing on way out, did the pre-dive questionaire to determine ability and nice site briefs. BB gave some of the modern history of W Caicos, while Fifi gave the ancient history of the area and surrounding islands during our surface interval (I personally appreciated the ancient history more but I'm a bit of a military history buff).
We've been diving T&C for last 4 years. Already planning next trip back for 2009. There was only moderate lingering damage from Hurricane Ike, with the exception of the conch farm which was pretty much destroyed but expected to be back in operation by December. I'm personally more concerned about the over building of Provo and surrounding islands. Its unfortunate but it looks like the gov't is busy trying to turn it into the next Grand Cayman (where we used to vacation). Losing a lot of its more rustic charm and open spaces. They are also importing construction workers from around the planet for all of the new mega beach resorts and cheesy strip malls/casinos which is changing the local culture.
Zippy
Food: Hemingways - food was much improved over past years. Conch chowder is always good there but they seem to have improved the rest of the menu. Even my wife (who's a little picky about her food) was impressed and thought it rivaled her favorite restaurant Coyoba.
Diving:
- Big Blue: small boat/over crewed as usual. We did two days of diving (one was a requested 3 tank dive adventure that they had not run before), one day of kayaking and one day of a new (experimental) snorkel/lunch trip. They took their dive boat (Live and Direct) over to W. Caicos for both days of diving. We dive enriched air, and BB is very good about having some custom blends available so we can dive less/more enriched air depending on profiles. First day was G Spot and Rock N Roll. great dives - 84 degree water with 80-100' vis. Sharks, rays (southern sting and spotted eagle), turtles, every fish imaginable. Only disappointment was to find out that the lionfish have finally made their home there (we saw at least 1 on every dive during our trip). Second day was a requested "dive adventure". This truly was an adventure as the dive sites were picked when we were out on site, they were all drift dives (my favorite), and the first surface interval (2 hours) was partially spent walking around the ruins on W Caicos (nice diversion from usual sitting on the boat). We did 1 drift in the channel and two on the walls. Again, you name it, we saw it. Dive crew was nice and helpful (though you are responsible for gearing yourself up and down) and we decided to stick with the dive master as there was only 2 other cert divers with us (two others were being certified). As usual, BB let us dive our own profiles, so as the newbies were busy sucking up their air or the air divers ran out of no deco time, my wife and I were logging hour plus dives in the 80-60' range each time down. The "new" snorkel trip was a blast. We took our 5 and 7 year olds (both like snorkeling) to a place they called "the arboritium" and Smith's Reef. The arboritium had the most fantastic shallow water (15-25') collection of gorgonians and coral bommies I've seen in a very long time (reminded me of FLA keys back in early 80's). WE lunched at a local restaurant in Blue Hills (Three Kings) which was very tasty and gave our kids some land time to run around.
- Caicos Adventures: Only dove the Thursday three tank adventure w/ CA this year (ran out of time and money) but I really have to say Fifi knows the dive sites better than anyone else down there. He took the Caicos Cat out as there were only 4 cert divers onboard plus the guide (Wes - great guy). Fast trip out to the W Caicos. We dove 33% enriched air and we used almost every last lb of it. While we didn't have same mixed gas options as BB, but our tanks had more air than BB and the stickers with % O2 and MOD times were 100% accurate (BB generally had a couple hundred psi less per tank and the O2 contents were 1-1.5% lower than the stated sticker). The first two dives were moored dives and the last he gave us the option of a drift in the channel (which we agreed to do with the two newbies). First dive, Fifi guaranteed sharks, and we had 8 reef sharks literally circling us our entire time in the water, along with sting rays, playful groupers, etc. My wife has video with me swimming less than 3' away from a 7' female reef shark for about 10 mins. Last dive, Fifi guaranteed spotted eagle rays, and like clockwork...in the channel...we saw 8 spotted eagle rays (in 4 different pods), 3 large southern sting rays, a baby nurse shark and all the other fish/crustaceans you could count.
Big difference between BB and CA was surface interval and speed/comfort of boat. BB had extended surface times that benefited the air divers. They also had two dive masters in the water for a max of 6 tourists plus boat captain. CA's faster boat got us to the sites quicker (and got us home faster), crew geared us up and did all the change overs on the tanks (its nice not having to do that on vacation) by a technical diver (thanks Wes) and provided a hang line with spare octo in the water for safety. CA's Caicos Cat is also much larger and better designed, so people had no problem finding their own space, no problems walking to the platform to get in/out water, fresh water shower and they provided a clean fresh water bath specifically for camera equipment. Crews were equally friendly and competent. Each did a thorough briefing on way out, did the pre-dive questionaire to determine ability and nice site briefs. BB gave some of the modern history of W Caicos, while Fifi gave the ancient history of the area and surrounding islands during our surface interval (I personally appreciated the ancient history more but I'm a bit of a military history buff).
We've been diving T&C for last 4 years. Already planning next trip back for 2009. There was only moderate lingering damage from Hurricane Ike, with the exception of the conch farm which was pretty much destroyed but expected to be back in operation by December. I'm personally more concerned about the over building of Provo and surrounding islands. Its unfortunate but it looks like the gov't is busy trying to turn it into the next Grand Cayman (where we used to vacation). Losing a lot of its more rustic charm and open spaces. They are also importing construction workers from around the planet for all of the new mega beach resorts and cheesy strip malls/casinos which is changing the local culture.
Zippy
