Who's Been to Turks & Caicos Since Hurricanes Hit

[BDSC]

I love the Explorer II and will be on the boat again in a few weeks. I was not saying that as a representation of the boat overall. I find it my favorite boat in the caribbean and surely the most fun liveaboard i have ever been on..I just thought Stan was a dick, that's all. Not enough to call corporate and get the guy fired though. I tried to talk to him and he was abrasive at best. He is gone now anyway so who cares.

Jo, Pippa (when she was on the boat) and JF are freaking awesome. Andy(Andrea) is a great guide as well. best crew i have ever seen on a liveaboard.

Same here. Great boat and crew. I liked the food OK. The problem a few folks had with Stan was if you asked for anything other than what was on the menu for the evening meal, he had an attitude. I'd do the trip again.

 

[Scott from LongIsland]

I have been on the T&C Aggressor down there as well and without question i prefer the Explorer...even with the better food on the Aggressor

 

[elbig]

Great discussion BUT the op wants to know experiences post hurricane. So would I.

 

[scbaNE2179]

Page 11 of this thread has a diver who was just on the TCEX2-looks like French Key is still a little torn up.

 

[Fragola]

I just returned from a week of diving off Grand Turk starting on Christmas Day. All the wall dive locations on the west side were fine. Visibility and weather were excellent except one day of mild rain and reduced visibilty of ~50 feet.

 

[Saboteur]

I just returned from a week of diving off Grand Turk starting on Christmas Day. All the wall dive locations on the west side were fine. Visibility and weather were excellent except one day of mild rain and reduced visibilty of ~50 feet.

Fragola, where did you stay and what OP did you use? How does the island and infratructure look? I really want to to get to GT.

 

[Fragola]

Fragola, where did you stay and what OP did you use? How does the island and infratructure look? I really want to to get to GT.

Saboteur, I stayed with Bohio Dive Resort. It's a small boutique dive resort but it does get crowded on cruise ship days with daytrippers renting out lounge chairs and filling up the bar and restaurant. Hotel guests get a special area reserved and can preorder lunch so it's ready after your two dives and hot shower.

Bohio will book your domestic flight from Provo to Grand Turk as part of their package. When I landed on GT we had to wait outside the airport terminal for our luggage. Someone said it was due to roof still under repair. However a week later we were inside the building.

There are some damaged buildings on Front St. One restaurant that I tried to find isn't there anymore but I don't know if it was the hurricane that put it out of business. National Museum was closed due to damage.

Bohio suffered damage to the roof of the building I was staying in and wooden walkways around the housing was brand new. Their dive shop was wooden and totally destroyed but the new building is concrete. They lost some gear though - many rental dive computers and flashlights. This may take more time and money to replace. Bring your own device if you want to do a night dive. Due to the Christmas crowds they brought in Ollie from Salt Cay Divers to help out and I was in his boat for the week. The practice dive pool, satellite TV signal and wifi were out of commission during my stay. Actually wifi was out all across the island so people were using roaming data. It should be fixed up soon and the other things did not affect their ability to house guests. The unoccupied rooms were still being spruced up when I arrived. No problems with power.

I didn't personally visit the cruise ship centre but other guests said it was fully functional and the port schedule was fairly full.

For other housing choices another guest had previously stayed at Osprey Inn and Salt Shaker Inn which are both less posh than Bohio. Only Bohio was open for Christmas dinner.

Flying tip: leave lots of time between your flight arrival in Provo and domestic connection to GT. There's only one runway in Provo and lots of congestion for airplanes and immigration lineup. We circled over Provo for 30 minutes before landing. On leaving Provo the security lineup is also crazy. It snaked over 5 times across the length of the check in desks and took me 90 minutes to get through.

I met someone in the airport lineup who had just finished a week with Explorer Ventures liveaboard and enjoyed it.

Enjoy GT!

 

[Saboteur]

Saboteur, I stayed with Bohio Dive Resort. It's a small boutique dive resort but it does get crowded on cruise ship days with daytrippers renting out lounge chairs and filling up the bar and restaurant. Hotel guests get a special area reserved and can preorder lunch so it's ready after your two dives and hot shower.

Bohio will book your domestic flight from Provo to Grand Turk as part of their package. When I landed on GT we had to wait outside the airport terminal for our luggage. Someone said it was due to roof still under repair. However a week later we were inside the building.

There are some damaged buildings on Front St. One restaurant that I tried to find isn't there anymore but I don't know if it was the hurricane that put it out of business. National Museum was closed due to damage.

Bohio suffered damage to the roof of the building I was staying in and wooden walkways around the housing was brand new. Their dive shop was wooden and totally destroyed but the new building is concrete. They lost some gear though - many rental dive computers and flashlights. This may take more time and money to replace. Bring your own device if you want to do a night dive. Due to the Christmas crowds they brought in Ollie from Salt Cay Divers to help out and I was in his boat for the week. The practice dive pool, satellite TV signal and wifi were out of commission during my stay. Actually wifi was out all across the island so people were using roaming data. It should be fixed up soon and the other things did not affect their ability to house guests. The unoccupied rooms were still being spruced up when I arrived. No problems with power.

I didn't personally visit the cruise ship centre but other guests said it was fully functional and the port schedule was fairly full.

For other housing choices another guest had previously stayed at Osprey Inn and Salt Shaker Inn which are both less posh than Bohio. Only Bohio was open for Christmas dinner.

Flying tip: leave lots of time between your flight arrival in Provo and domestic connection to GT. There's only one runway in Provo and lots of congestion for airplanes and immigration lineup. We circled over Provo for 30 minutes before landing. On leaving Provo the security lineup is also crazy. It snaked over 5 times across the length of the check in desks and took me 90 minutes to get through.

I met someone in the airport lineup who had just finished a week with Explorer Ventures liveaboard and enjoyed it.

Enjoy GT!

Thanks for that report Fragola.

 

[Fragola]

The latest blog update from Bohio Resort: An Update From Bohio | Bohio Dive Resort

 

[KeithG]

Great discussion BUT the op wants to know experiences post hurricane. So would I.

We were on tcexii the second week of November. We did see evidence of damage but the diving was still very good.

Northwest Point sites had no indications. All dive sites were as before even in the shallows.

West Caicos showed a few small signs of damage only in the shallows 40 feet or less. Some missing soft corals and small logjams of debris here and there. Over the wall was totally fine. Viz was normal.

French Cay got hit hard. Gspot lost all of the black fan coral at the spot and the site was a rubble field. Rock n Roll was rubble as well. Lots of fish digging in the rubble so still an okay dive. Viz was poor at about 50 feet.