T&C question - French Cay VS. West Caicos?

We've done some diving off West Caicos, but not French Cay. Was wondering how the diving compares, and in particular how deep is the top of the wall or the shallows on dives around French Cay.

I thought it was slightly better.

We saw more sharks off French Cay certainly - at least 2-3 per dive. At one site there was at least a dozen stingrays resting near the mooring - most with their own snapper accompanying them. I don't recall the depth but it was pretty similar to West Caicos. Night dives were good if you're doing a liveaboard - lots of conch trails and larger lobsters/crabs. One time the pelagics were feeding in the ships lights. Later the sharks were feeding on the pelagics at the other end of the boat.

Lots of tiny fish nurseries in some of the larger coral heads also. At one site I did one entire dive where I never exceeded 50' within 200' of the mooring. There was a seriously good photographer on the boat, he didn't either. Saw his pictures later, all sorts of tiny nudis, baby fish etc. It's really similar to West Caicos, swim out a little from the mooring and the wall just rolls over at about 50' and starts to drop endlessly.

Love French Cay. Lots of sharks, last time out had a 30 minute dive with an adolescent turtle. G-Spot is probably my favourite site but Rock and Roll and Double D are very close. West Caicos is closer so the day is a little shorter. I agree with diversteve's comments as well. Did a live aboard with Explorer Ventures and did multiple dives at both locations in april and had great dives everywhere.

Any questions about TCI diving or visiting let me know.

Thinking about T&C for summer 2014. My daughter and I are experienced divers who love to be around other divers, and don't need night life or excitement but do want to eat good food and dive our brains out.

We've been to Coz many times (love the diving, boats, food, and variety) and Bonaire once (nice, but got bored with the similarity of diving, but liked the amount of diving we could do without adding lots of expense). I've traveled and dove extensively in my younger days, but budget and travel time limits us to the Caribbean for now. We go to Hawaii for family vacations and are based out of LA.

Live aboard is a no go as my dive buddy daughter gets sick so that also means boat rides to dive sites should be as short as possible.

We like walls, swim throughs, larger creatures, and variety. Availability of shore diving would be a plus. We like a small dive centirc hotel where we will make friends and dive buddies during our stay.

What would be your advice for T&C and do you think it would be a good fit?

Thanks!

ok guys the trip times from south side of the island to west caicos if you go with dive Provo (stunninhg operator )are 65 -70 mins
if you go with caicos explorers then its a slightly shorter trip But from dive provos dock to french cay 45 mins (the boats go from two different docks!)
the tops of the wall is a minimum of 50ft site depending to 60ft very quickly also depending on the time of day ALL dive sites CHANGE !!!!!
ive lived in provo for 8-9 years and i used to thing french cay was amazing ! and yes it has alot more soft corals but it can have poor viz with a lot of hanging plankton in the water (eagle rays love it!!) but with bad weather the conditions can change very fast i actually love west caicos and the huge amount of sharks aswell as the small stuff
there is a reason the mooring pins are where they are , its usually a great spot to be near!!! so there is no need to race of to the other end of the island at speed just incase you missing something lol!!!
there are some stunning dives in grace bay which is a 15 min run out of turtle cove and top of the wall 20ft down to 110ft with all the usual creatures which makes for a great way to spend the afternoon but as i have said some of the most amazing dives are at 5pm its shift change underwater its amazing the predators all come out to play !! and the night dives over at west caicoss and french cay are awsome!!
but at the end of the day what i like and what you guys like may be entirly different but i was only going to stay for a year and i have never regreted staying 8 years longer!!! summing up all the islands are stunning!! the t&c islands are a hidden gem flying under the radar!!! and NO cruise ships !!!!!

We are trying Grand Turk this year. Did Salt Cay and Provo over 2weeks last year. Salt Cay was fun but rustic and Provo too commercial and getting back from diving at 3- 4pm was a huge drag. Loved having lunch ready on Salt Cay around noon right after our 2nd dive, beer, burgers and the view!


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Grand turk sounds like it will be better for you the diving is very different than provo and runs to the dive sites are 10 mins if that , the way of life on the island is much slower!! UNTIL the cruise liners come in and quadrupal the population and crucifie the dive sites so be warned it goes mad!!!!!!!!thats 2-3 times a week
hope you have fun !!!

Tunaman68:

Thinking about T&C for summer 2014. My daughter and I are experienced divers who love to be around other divers, and don't need night life or excitement but do want to eat good food and dive our brains out.

Live aboard is a no go as my dive buddy daughter gets sick so that also means boat rides to dive sites should be as short as possible.

We like walls, swim throughs, larger creatures, and variety. Availability of shore diving would be a plus. We like a small dive centirc hotel where we will make friends and dive buddies during our stay.

What would be your advice for T&C and do you think it would be a good fit?

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I'm actually not sure it would. There's little to no shore diving off Provo and it tends to be larger resorts and condos on Grace Bay Beach for the most part. It's the most inhabited island so there's some good food. Boat dives to NW Point are short rides but as described, the other sites are farther. I'm not sure there is a dive resort on Provo, we looked into it b4 doing the liveaboard but didn't find one. Quite a few of the hotels do packages with dive operators and there's also 2 AI's. Beaches is kid-oriented and the Club Med is adults only. All are listed here: http://www.turksandcaicostourism.com/accomodations-overview.html

Grand Turk could be an option, it's smaller, quieter, Bohol Dive Resort is there, the wall is shore accessible but either of the dive sites we're discussing are a long boat ride away, IDK the time it takes but Grand Turk to West Caicos is 60miles, Grand Turk to French Cay is 40. I doubt anybody goes to West Caicos from Grand Turk either, there's equally good diving closer.

Salt Cay is slightly south of Grand Turk so maybe 30 miles to French Cay from there. You also cross deep water - on our trip, that was the rougher part - in May. fwiw, Grand Turk is the cruise port also.

I think Mikey already confirmed this in another thread but there's only 2 restaurants on Salt Cay afaik. You know Turks and Caicos is really expensive right? Second only to Grand Cayman as the priciest dive destination we've been to in the Caribbean.

gizmo1972:

Grand turk sounds like it will be better for you the diving is very different than provo and runs to the dive sites are 10 mins if that , the way of life on the island is much slower!! UNTIL the cruise liners come in and quadrupal the population and crucifie the dive sites so be warned it goes mad!!!!!!!!thats 2-3 times a week
hope you have fun !!!

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I'll let you know how it goes. I've talked to a few long time GT divers who claim it's nowhere as bad as this.

Pricey- It sure isn't cheap in the T&C.

We dove Grand Turk and Salt Cay last year and had a wonderful time.
Provo and West Caicos a few years ago. Liked Grand Turk the best,
except for the cruise ships and all the people.
Returning in two weeks to Salt Cay for a long weekend - just to dive and
kick-back.
Enjoy your trip.