Tim Ingersoll
Contributor
We're back from a week in Providenciales, Turks & Caicos. It was an awesome trip! I travelled with my wife and two children. She doesn't dive but doesn't seem to mind if I do.
We flew out of Buffalo, New York on February 15th. It was an hour drive and a 7:30 a.m. flight. That meant leaving the house at 4:30 a.m. Brrrr! We flew USAir through Charlotte, NC. No problems until we got to Provo. It was there that I thought I lost my scuba bag. Turned out that it was sitting right in front of me. Oh well at least we found it. We rented a house for the week. Check it out: http://www.nilavacations.com/Top_o_the_hill.htm It was a great house and I highly recommend it. We have stayed there before and it is a really beautiful place. Best view on the island.
We rented a car from Tropical Rentals. Very nice brand new Kia Sportage. We have been to Provo seven times and this was the first time we went all out and got a car with AC and a hard top. Niiiice! We were off to the IGA and stocked up with food for breakfast, lunches and snacks for the week. Spent a couple hundred on groceries that we more than saved even the first couple of days. Warning: Going out to eat on Provo is expensive. The greatest advantage to renting a house is having your own kitchen.
The first day was a family day so went to Malcolm Roads and hit the beach. If you go to Provo you must go to this beach. It requires a 4WD vehicle to get there but is well worth it. Fine white sand and turquoise water. The wall is about 200 yards out. It drops from 40 feet to the abyss. Very nice.
I checked in with Caicos Adventures for the diving starting Monday. http://www.caicosadventures.tc/scubadiver.htm I have dove with Fifi for several years now. There is no competition in my mind. He is consistently the best op in the islands in all categories. I have never had anything but a great dive experience with their op.
The nuts on this board convinced me to do my AOW after 89 dives. I picked up the materials and read up on the navigation and deep dive sections.
I decided to just do regular dives the first day rather than starting the course right away. Got on the boat at 8:30 a.m. Fifi will pick you up in a bus if you need transportation. I had the wife drop me off at the South dock. We headed out to West Caicos. It is a bout a 45 minute boat ride. Nothing but sun and clear skies (all week). The seas were flat. We came on scene to find a dive boat sitting watching something in the water. Fifi cut the engines and drifted down on them. Humpback whale! She (or he) breached and blew three times while we watched from 100 yards away. Not a bad way to start the dive vacation. It was a first for me and truly awe-inspiring.
2/16/03. Dive site: Devils Horns. 100 feet max depth. 53 minutes bottom time. Did the giant stride, 80 degree water. I held my breath listening for the whales. No songs to dive by. We were diving with the dive guide Asa. Sweet guy. He puttered along the wall and we followed. The reef was really healthy and we saw a lot of schooling fish. The wall is vertical and drops 7,000 feet to the abyss. I had brought a couple of extra dive slates (Fisher-Price Magna Doodles ($7.95). I gave one to Asa. He seemed delighted and proceeded to goof around with it at our safety stop.
The second dive was very relaxing. Boat Cove. 80 feet. 40 Minutes. Saw a couple of Eagle Rays on the way back. Little did I know that they would be the first of hundreds for the week. My computer was flashing: Low battery. Fifi threw me a rental and said it was mine for the week (No charge). This sight is right off the ironshore of West Caicos. A few years ago I swam to shore and climbed to a spot where you can see graffiti from shipwrecked sailors. One of them is dated 1762.
2/18/03. Next day was the deep and nav dive for the AOW. Me and a newbie (6 dives) were in the class. The instructor was a guy from St. Vincent named Cunard. Nice guy and very conscientious. We did our homework the night before and then went over it on the way out to the divesite. Only about six divers on that big boat.
First dive. Tons of Sponge - West Caicos boat channel. Deep dive. Max depth 136 feet. 43 minutes bottom time. As we were gearing up someone shouted dolphins. Two dolphins were heading at the boat like torpedos. I practically ran off the dive platform and got in just in time to see them swim past. Tooo cool. Another first. They were clicking and swimming like rockets. We went over the wall and proceeded to 136'. Our dive plan was 130 for five minutes. 100 for five minutes and 70 feet for 10 minutes. We were then to come up on the top of the wall for the remainder of the dive. I gave my other slate to Cunard and he promised a narc check at 130. A huge Caribbean reef shark (12' plus?) was cruising at 140 feet and he came within a few feet of us. Cunard did a gauge check at 130 and we did some math problems. Man was I narced. I got the math right but it took me longer to add 76 and 76 than it should have. As we came back up we ran into 4 reef sharks at about 100 feet. One was a baby (2 feet). Never saw a baby shark before. A couple of Southern Stingrays were in the sand on top along with a lot of garden eels.
Second Dive. Angel Reef - West Caicos boat channel. Navigation dive. 75 feet for 35 minutes. Straight out ten kicks straight back ten kicks. Make a square with headings provided by DM. Easy stuff. Second half of the dive was just a regular dive.
2/19/03. First Dive - Gorgonia Wall West Caicos. 130 feet max depth. 42 minutes bottom time. Buoyancy control dive for AOW course. Typical stuff. Fin tips on bottom. Up and down with breathing. Hover at designated depth. Remainder of dive. Vis was not too great. Vis in the abyss was great (100 feet). Lots of particulate in the water over the reef. Like a sandstorm. DM took us deep again. Huge Eagle Ray over the wall. Experienced a downcurrent coming up. Kind of disconcerting. Put air in my BC for the first time in three years of diving.
Second dive Orange Wall West Caicos. Fish ID dive for the AOW Course. Pretty much a regular dive with fish ID cards and periodic quizzes from the DM. A flock of ten Eagle Rays in the abyss flying in formation. Unbelievable. Passed the AOW.
2/20/03 Fifi generally does a three tank on Thursday to French Cay. Do not miss this dive.
First dive Double D dive site French Cay. Max depth 110 feet. 40 minutes bottom time. Divesite takes its name from two rather large shall we say mounds on the reef. The reef here is the healthiest I have ever seen. Better than Coz or Little Cayman. Just incredible color and fish count. Lots of reef sharks (4) and I stopped counting spotted eagle rays at 20. There were schools of huge eagle rays. I have never seen that many big pelagics on one dive.
Second dive G-Spot dive site French Cay. 100 feet max. 40 minutes bottom time. Half dozen reef sharks. Tons of Eagle Rays. Two trutles. Crabs. Incredible.
Third dive. Rock and Roll dive site French Cay. 70 feet max depth. 45 minutes bottom time. More of the same. Dive number 98.
Conclusion: Turks and Caicos is the best I have ever seen for big pelagics. Sharks, rays, turtles, a whale, dolphins. Truly remarkable comapred even to places like Little Cayman and Cozumel. I will be back next year for sure. I think we will do Grand Turk.
We flew out of Buffalo, New York on February 15th. It was an hour drive and a 7:30 a.m. flight. That meant leaving the house at 4:30 a.m. Brrrr! We flew USAir through Charlotte, NC. No problems until we got to Provo. It was there that I thought I lost my scuba bag. Turned out that it was sitting right in front of me. Oh well at least we found it. We rented a house for the week. Check it out: http://www.nilavacations.com/Top_o_the_hill.htm It was a great house and I highly recommend it. We have stayed there before and it is a really beautiful place. Best view on the island.
We rented a car from Tropical Rentals. Very nice brand new Kia Sportage. We have been to Provo seven times and this was the first time we went all out and got a car with AC and a hard top. Niiiice! We were off to the IGA and stocked up with food for breakfast, lunches and snacks for the week. Spent a couple hundred on groceries that we more than saved even the first couple of days. Warning: Going out to eat on Provo is expensive. The greatest advantage to renting a house is having your own kitchen.
The first day was a family day so went to Malcolm Roads and hit the beach. If you go to Provo you must go to this beach. It requires a 4WD vehicle to get there but is well worth it. Fine white sand and turquoise water. The wall is about 200 yards out. It drops from 40 feet to the abyss. Very nice.
I checked in with Caicos Adventures for the diving starting Monday. http://www.caicosadventures.tc/scubadiver.htm I have dove with Fifi for several years now. There is no competition in my mind. He is consistently the best op in the islands in all categories. I have never had anything but a great dive experience with their op.
The nuts on this board convinced me to do my AOW after 89 dives. I picked up the materials and read up on the navigation and deep dive sections.
I decided to just do regular dives the first day rather than starting the course right away. Got on the boat at 8:30 a.m. Fifi will pick you up in a bus if you need transportation. I had the wife drop me off at the South dock. We headed out to West Caicos. It is a bout a 45 minute boat ride. Nothing but sun and clear skies (all week). The seas were flat. We came on scene to find a dive boat sitting watching something in the water. Fifi cut the engines and drifted down on them. Humpback whale! She (or he) breached and blew three times while we watched from 100 yards away. Not a bad way to start the dive vacation. It was a first for me and truly awe-inspiring.
2/16/03. Dive site: Devils Horns. 100 feet max depth. 53 minutes bottom time. Did the giant stride, 80 degree water. I held my breath listening for the whales. No songs to dive by. We were diving with the dive guide Asa. Sweet guy. He puttered along the wall and we followed. The reef was really healthy and we saw a lot of schooling fish. The wall is vertical and drops 7,000 feet to the abyss. I had brought a couple of extra dive slates (Fisher-Price Magna Doodles ($7.95). I gave one to Asa. He seemed delighted and proceeded to goof around with it at our safety stop.
The second dive was very relaxing. Boat Cove. 80 feet. 40 Minutes. Saw a couple of Eagle Rays on the way back. Little did I know that they would be the first of hundreds for the week. My computer was flashing: Low battery. Fifi threw me a rental and said it was mine for the week (No charge). This sight is right off the ironshore of West Caicos. A few years ago I swam to shore and climbed to a spot where you can see graffiti from shipwrecked sailors. One of them is dated 1762.
2/18/03. Next day was the deep and nav dive for the AOW. Me and a newbie (6 dives) were in the class. The instructor was a guy from St. Vincent named Cunard. Nice guy and very conscientious. We did our homework the night before and then went over it on the way out to the divesite. Only about six divers on that big boat.
First dive. Tons of Sponge - West Caicos boat channel. Deep dive. Max depth 136 feet. 43 minutes bottom time. As we were gearing up someone shouted dolphins. Two dolphins were heading at the boat like torpedos. I practically ran off the dive platform and got in just in time to see them swim past. Tooo cool. Another first. They were clicking and swimming like rockets. We went over the wall and proceeded to 136'. Our dive plan was 130 for five minutes. 100 for five minutes and 70 feet for 10 minutes. We were then to come up on the top of the wall for the remainder of the dive. I gave my other slate to Cunard and he promised a narc check at 130. A huge Caribbean reef shark (12' plus?) was cruising at 140 feet and he came within a few feet of us. Cunard did a gauge check at 130 and we did some math problems. Man was I narced. I got the math right but it took me longer to add 76 and 76 than it should have. As we came back up we ran into 4 reef sharks at about 100 feet. One was a baby (2 feet). Never saw a baby shark before. A couple of Southern Stingrays were in the sand on top along with a lot of garden eels.
Second Dive. Angel Reef - West Caicos boat channel. Navigation dive. 75 feet for 35 minutes. Straight out ten kicks straight back ten kicks. Make a square with headings provided by DM. Easy stuff. Second half of the dive was just a regular dive.
2/19/03. First Dive - Gorgonia Wall West Caicos. 130 feet max depth. 42 minutes bottom time. Buoyancy control dive for AOW course. Typical stuff. Fin tips on bottom. Up and down with breathing. Hover at designated depth. Remainder of dive. Vis was not too great. Vis in the abyss was great (100 feet). Lots of particulate in the water over the reef. Like a sandstorm. DM took us deep again. Huge Eagle Ray over the wall. Experienced a downcurrent coming up. Kind of disconcerting. Put air in my BC for the first time in three years of diving.
Second dive Orange Wall West Caicos. Fish ID dive for the AOW Course. Pretty much a regular dive with fish ID cards and periodic quizzes from the DM. A flock of ten Eagle Rays in the abyss flying in formation. Unbelievable. Passed the AOW.
2/20/03 Fifi generally does a three tank on Thursday to French Cay. Do not miss this dive.
First dive Double D dive site French Cay. Max depth 110 feet. 40 minutes bottom time. Divesite takes its name from two rather large shall we say mounds on the reef. The reef here is the healthiest I have ever seen. Better than Coz or Little Cayman. Just incredible color and fish count. Lots of reef sharks (4) and I stopped counting spotted eagle rays at 20. There were schools of huge eagle rays. I have never seen that many big pelagics on one dive.
Second dive G-Spot dive site French Cay. 100 feet max. 40 minutes bottom time. Half dozen reef sharks. Tons of Eagle Rays. Two trutles. Crabs. Incredible.
Third dive. Rock and Roll dive site French Cay. 70 feet max depth. 45 minutes bottom time. More of the same. Dive number 98.
Conclusion: Turks and Caicos is the best I have ever seen for big pelagics. Sharks, rays, turtles, a whale, dolphins. Truly remarkable comapred even to places like Little Cayman and Cozumel. I will be back next year for sure. I think we will do Grand Turk.