October 2006

This is a written report from my just completed dive trip to Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos… For those of you who don’t know where that is, or never heard of the Turks and Caicos Islands, it’s located East of Cuba, North of the Dominican Republic/Haiti, and South of the Bahamas… Grand Turk is known for world class wall diving with depths down to 7,000 feet…

It’s a very small island, only 6 miles long and 1 ½ miles wide… Scuba diving is the main attraction, with not much else to do… But that’s why I went there… Grand Turk is known for world class wall diving with depths down to 7,000 feet… It’s a very small island, only 6 miles long and 1 ½ miles wide… Scuba diving is the main attraction, with not much else to do… But that’s why I went there…

Day 1: We left Seattle at 10:30 pm and arrived in Atlanta at 5:30 am… It was a very bumpy plane ride! Then we had a 4 hour layover until our flight to Providenciales(Provo)… That’s the major tourist island of Turks and Caicos… We had a quick run thru customs and off we went to an 18 seat dual prop plane for our 30 minute flight to Grand Turk… The view out the window was amazing! Seeing all the islands and the different colors of the ocean made me want to get down there… It was indeed a sight for sore eyes… We took a short taxi ride to our hotel, checked in, and made for the beach… It was close to 90 degrees that day and it felt good to be lying on a lounge chair right at the waters edge… Our beach was pretty darn nice, with real sand mixed with broken coral from the waves. 10 steps out our patio door and we were on the beach… Some of the people we met said the diving is pretty spectacular, and the walls are something to see… We were going to play golf “tomorrow” and then start our diving on day 3…

Day 2: I woke up at 3 am to the sound of rain pounding the roof… It didn’t let up till 2 pm… I found out that it rained 1 ½ feet! We never left our room until the rain stopped… I couldn’t believe how much rain was falling… Then all of a sudden it stopped and the blue sky came out, much to our relief… I brought along some good Seattle coffee (thanks Briana) that we brewed up every morning at 6 am and sat on the beach drinking and forgetting about home… We went into town to get some lunch and get back into the sun… When I say town you have to understand that the main street runs from our hotel to town only a mile away… That’s how small Grand Turk is… After getting baked in the sun I got my snorkel gear on and brought my new u/w digital camera out and put it through the paces to make sure I knew how to use it, and that it worked… For dinner we walked into town and noticed on Sunday everything is shut down, except for the dive shops and food places… Talk about peace and quiet! I went to bed thinking tomorrow I get to dive…

Day 3: The day started off with some damned roosters waking me up at 5 am… That would be a re-occurring theme the whole time we were there… I was on the beach drinking coffee at 6 am and looking out at the open ocean thinking, what a sight… We went over and had some breakfast and then got all our dive stuff ready to be put on the boat at 9 am… We meet our dive master(Smitty) and he seems like a pretty cool dude, very laid back… Everything he said ended with “Mon”… We’re taking an advanced underwater navigation course so we’ll be able to find our way back to the boat using our compass, and not relying on the dive master… Smitty taught us some basic compass reading on land and said “It’s the same underwater as on land”…

I actually found my way back to the boat by myself and felt pretty good about that… After our first dive we came back ashore to off gas for an hour and we headed back out for our second dive… The reason we did that is because on Grand Turk the reef is only 5-15 minutes from shore, depending on the dive site… I liked that! While we were heading to the 2nd site it started raining again, but who cares when it’s 85 degrees out… I actually got cold underwater for the 1st time in “warmer” waters… It was only about 75-78 degrees underwater on this dive… I wear a 3mm shorty wetsuit and it was a little chilly for me towards the end of the dive… My cuz ended the dive when we got near the boat, but I stayed under 15 minutes longer… He wears only shorts and a dri-fit type shirt… There were people wearing full 5mm suits who got cold too… So go figure… I found my way back using my newfound navigation techniques, and Smitty said I was the only one out of us 8 that turned the right way at the end of the dive… He gave me the “Good job Mon” speech… I still didn’t know(understand) how I was navigating, but it was working… It was raining pretty hard now and I was in serious need of food! We walked into town and got some lunch then came back and took a nap… My cuz wasn’t feeling good(he had a head cold), so after taking a shower and having a few Appleton’s(rum) and cokes I went into town and had dinner with a few people from our boat…

Dive 1 was at Coral Gardens… A lot of big coral growth, and lots of snapper and groupers… Depth was 75ft. for 50 minutes… Dive 2 was at Fin Cove… Great color on the wall and many fish… Everybody seemed to get cold on this dive… Depth was 60ft. for 60 minutes

Day 4: Up at 6 am for coffee and breakfast at 7 am… No roosters today cause the dogs(we called them hyena’s) chased them away… I would “tell” the hyena’s to get them damned roosters! Today the sun was out while we were heading out to dive… Both dives went well, and our navigation was getting better and better according to Smitty Mon… We had lunch and then tried to find him some Sudafed, then layed out in the sun… Then I took a little nap to get rested for my night dive… There were only 4 of us going out, since some people don’t like diving in the “black”… Actually the vis was pretty good… I stayed down for 1 hour and 5 minutes, getting close to the reef/wall to see the small critters… I came back in and mixed a rum and coke before rinsing off my gear… Then it was shower, eat dinner, and watch the Seattle Sonics playoff game… Tomorrow was going to be a long day…

Dive 1 was at Black Forest… Here as soon as you’re in the water, you’re staring at the wall and the endless bottom… Huge black coral and sponge growth… Dramatic silhouettes created by the overhangs on the wall… Depth was 70ft. for 55 minutes… Dive 2 was at English Point… More big coral growth and a few turtles and some barracudas… Depth was 60ft. for 60 minutes… Dive 3 was at The Library… This was my night dive and a split crevasse lead us to the wall… When you turned and looked at the open ocean it was kinda eerie because of the blackness… A lot of invertebrate life here… Depth was 50ft. for 65 minutes

Day 5: Same morning drill, coffee on the beach, breakfast, and then get ready to dive… Little did I know this was going to be the best dive I’ve ever done… As we were getting suited up, Smitty noticed a pair of dolphins in the distance and said they were heading our way… So he says “Hurry up and get in the water Mon and start snapping your fingers”… I was the 1st in and instead of falling backwards from the boat, I dove in headfirst and made my way to the bottom… For some reason I didn’t have problems equalizing like I usually do… As I descended to the sand at 25 feet, I turned my camera on and noticed something out of my peripheral vision streak right past me… I was spooked at first until I saw another dolphin swim right by me… I could’ve touched him, he was that close! There were 4 of them and they would shoot out of the water and then dive back down to us… They stayed with us for about 5 minutes swimming around, under, and below us… They left as fast as they came… I was so mesmerized by what I was seeing, I forgot to take any pictures…

After they left I was thinking to myself that I’ll never forget what I just witnessed… Then when we were at about 60 feet they came back, this time 7 of them… When I watched them shoot to the surface and dive back into the water, they would swim towards us like torpedoes… I took a few pics and watched in fascination as to how close they would get to us… They left again quickly, but at least I snapped a few photos! When we were coming back up and were at the top of the reef/wall, they came back for a 3rd time… This time one of them was coming towards me and it seemed like he actually posed for a picture and when he saw the flash go off he darted away… They were with us a few minutes and then were gone for good… I could not have asked for a better dive, ever… To see a pod of wild dolphins underwater has always been a dream of mine. And to see them 3 different times on 1 dive is unheard of, according to Smitty Mon… They must have liked my tattoo… Hahahahahahaha…

Bottlenose Dolphins Bottlenose Dolphins Bottlenose Dolphins

I was hoping and praying the pictures turned out! If I had to quit diving after that dive, I would’ve been content… I know that I’ll never have a dive to top that one… I saw the one thing(pod of dolphins) that I’ve always wanted to witness underwater… I was just thinking “How cool was that?”… When we all got back on the boat, we were all in one of those states… We were all thinking just how lucky we were to see them 3 times on one dive… After we got back and cleaned up we headed over to Gibbs Caye for a BBQ and run punch drinking… 9 of us went and we got to feed some stingrays and just mingle with them… I fed one while I was on my back(2-3 feet of water) and he came over the top of me and just hovered, flapping his wings while he ate the conch out of my hand… There were a couple big barracuda there too so I had to keep an eye out to make sure they didn’t try and feed from my hand… That would not of been good! I actually got pretty close to 1 and snapped a few pics before he backed up a few feet… We all had a pretty good time at Gibbs Caye… Drinking those rum punches seemed to do the trick…

Dive 1 was at Rolling Hills… Large amounts of sponge coral… We saw turtles, a nurse shark taking a nap, and some barracudas… Depth was 85ft. for 55 minutes… Dive 2 was at The Landing Approach… We renamed it Dolphin Approach after our encounters with the pod(3 times in 1 dive)… Depth was 70ft. for 55 minutes…

Day 6: My cuz is getting better from his head cold… Hopefully he won’t have to skip any more dives, or stay in shallows… We went on seashell hunt after breakfast… The sun was out and it was a beautiful morning, and the temps were gonna hit close to 90 today, which more more than ok by me… For some reason the vis wasn’t as good today, maxing out at 50 feet… Must’ve been the winds blowing last night… The divers on our boat were a joy to dive with… Everyone of them were friendly, which is atypical in my experience… There is always “that one” who try’s to spoil it for the rest… We had Dale and Gail from Vancouver, Canada; Hugh and Clare from London, England; Mark and Marguerite from San Franciso; John Paul and Laura from Boston via Italy; and Dave and Kathy from Pittsburgh… I would dive with those guys and gals anyday! We all had a blast together… Clare called my cuz and I “The crazy guys from Seattle”… We all planned on doing 3 dives but my cuz skipped the last one because of his head cold… On the 3rd dive I stayed at 60 ft. max because of 3 dives in 6 hours… My cuz had a rum and coke ready for me when I got back… I was getting to like that Appleton’s rum… Dinner and a early dinner because I’ve got 3 dives scheduled for tomorrow with an option to do a night dive…

Dive 1 was at Alien Nation… Saw some friggin huge lobsters here, and a grouper that mustâ??ve weighed as much as me… Depth was 90ft. for 60 minutes… Dive 2 was at Fish Pond, or Fish Soup as my cuz called it… A lot of fish life here… A Yellow Tail Snapper was following me the whole time on this dive… Depth was 65ft. for 58 minutes… Dive 3 was at Black Forest… 2nd time we dove this site because everybody like the huge coral overhangs… I turned over on my back several times and shot pics looking back to the surface… Depth was 60ft. for 62 minutes…

Day 7: Those damned roosters are driving me insane in the membrane! I wish I had a shotgun so I could go on a hunt… I made coffee and went on the beach and saw 2 donkeys… We called them taxi and cab… It started raining hard on the boat and everybody was saying “I hope today isn’t a repeat of Sunday”… In between dives the sun and blue sky came out and another 85-90 degree day was in store for us… On our 2nd dive we saw a huge Pompano, and I got to within 10 feet of it… The thing must’ve weighed 250-300 pounds! I also had a stare down with a 4ft. Barracuda that was pretty cool… Both of us were just hovering and looking at each other, then he bared his teeth to me… He let me take a few pics before backing up… After the dive we all met up and had lunch together… 8 of us had pizza and beverages for dinner… We were talking about tomorrow, which was our last dive day…

Dive 1 was at McDonalds… Here you swim thru a good size coral arch(hence the name) at 30â?? and when you get to the end youâ??re at 60â?? and looking straight down into the deep… I liked seeing the coral all around you then the next thing you know, thereâ??s nothing but the the ocean… Depth was 75ft. for 55 minutes… Dive 2 was at Coral Gardens… It was a request since we did this dive before… I again, had a long stare down with a 4-5 foot barracuda… He actually let me get real close to him, then he would open his mouth and bare his teeth to me… Depth was 55ft. for 65 minutes…

Day 8: More roosters today! They are one thing I will not miss about this place! They drove everybody crazy… There were only 6 of us on the boat for the 1st dive… Smitty Mon was going to teach John Paul a class so he asked if I would buddy up with Laura… I said “As long as you call me dive master Mark Mon”… He laughed and said “Yea Mon”… So I got Laura all suited up and checked her out before telling her she’s ok to get in… I went in after her and we talked for a few minutes at the surface about what to do “in case of this, or in case of that”… She told me that she has problems staying neutral(bouyant) at 15 feet for doing safety stops… I told her we would work on that, and just do as I do… I told her just to relax on the dive, don’t use your hands to much, and that I’d be close to her… I think she was a little nervous not being close to Smitty Mon… No worries Mon was the last thing I said before going under… She was much improved over her 1st days dive… I would remind her to keep her hands close to her chest and relax… At the end of the dive I had her grab the 15ft. line and get relaxed… Then I motioned for her to let go, and noticed she was floating up… I pulled her back to me and the rope, and let some air out of her bc… I finally got her neutral after several minutes, but she wanted to go up… I told her to go slow and I’d watch from below…

We talked on the boat and I said she did great on the dive but we need to work on her buoyancy on the next dive… On the beach I told her what we were gonna do on our next dive… We were the first in and when we got down to 25ft. we played with a turtle all by ourselves… He swam all around and in between us… Very friendly he was! Laura was doing much better and looked relaxed… That to me is one of the signs of a good diver… We hit the safety stop line and she held on to it until I gave her the signal to let go… I purposely swam 10 feet away from it so that she would have to get neutral by herself… She held on to my BC for a minute and then let go… She was floating all by herself at 15ft. I gave her the “OK” sign, and timed us for 5 minutes… Then I did something that I usually do at the end of my safety stops to practice my skills… I took the regulator out of my mouth and slowly exhaled, watching the bubbles make their way to the surface… When I looked at Laura she was wide-eyed… She must’ve thought I was crazy! I wonder what she would’ve thought if I would’ve taken my mask completely off then put it back on? She asked if I was OK, and I said yes… When we got back on the boat she asked “What in the hell was I doing”? After I told her, she seemed to understand… She did give me a pretty good compliment afterwards… She said she felt completely relaxed and safe diving with me as her buddy… That made me feel pretty good! She still doesn’t understand how I can take u/w pics so close to the reef without touching it, or get as close as I get to the “scary” fish… All I said was “Practice, practice, practice Mon”…

Dive 1 was at Cecilâ??s Reef… Saw some more huge lobsters and great coral life… Depth was 85ft. for 57 minutes… Dive 2 was at Chief Ministers Place… Huge number of garden eels on the sandy bottom as we descended… They seemed to go on forever… As you make your way to the wall you see nothing but corals of all types and colors… We somehow got mixed up with a school of barracudas for a few minutes… I thought that was cool, but you could tell others didn’t like it that much… Depth was 50ft. for 70 minutes

We all agreed to meet for drinks and dinner later that night after we rinsed and cleaned our gear… As we were having beverages(several) , we all said how much we liked diving with one another… All throughout drinks and dinner I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes… I still have the bite marks from them on both legs from my chins down to my feet… We were still talking about the dolphin dive and how amazing that was… We were treated to a pretty spectacular thunder and lightning display over the water, with some of the biggest lightning bolts I’ve ever seen…

It rained pretty hard that night too, but not as much as the previous Sunday… The next day after we were all packed up we went to the dive boat to say goodbye to Smitty, and all he said was “You two guys better come back soon Mon”… Man of very few words he is… I know he will miss the people on our boat because we had him laughing all the time… We also saw John Paul and Laura before they were heading out to dive and said our goodbye’s… Laura thanked me again for watching out for her underwater… I told her again to keep your hands/arms close to your body and just relax… Hugh and Clare stopped by to say goodbye to us two crazy Seattle guys… Now I just have to download all my u/w pics… I have a feeling there’s going to be several good ones! I wonder where the diving will take us next year?

Delta lost my luggage on the way back home, and I finally received it 3 days later… Thanks Delta!

We stayed at the Osprey Beach Hotel… From my research that was the best hotel on the beach, plus the dive shop was directly across the street… The hotel was pretty nice and simple… The only thing I would’ve liked to see was an outdoor shower to rinse off after diving… The people who ran it were nice and friendly…

We dove with Sea Eye Diving… I did a lot of correspondence with Johanna in the main office to make sure everything would go smoothly… She made everything go very smoothly, and was a very big help… The dive operation was next door to the main office and I learned not to be deceived by how it looks from the outside… Smitty is one heckuva dive master… He stressed reef awareness, the requirement to do safety stops after every dive, and let us dive our own profile… Even the 2 other dive operations told me that he was the best dive master on the island… When he was teaching the course to us, he’d tell us what to do, and then step back to see if we did it right or wrong… I liked the hands off approach that he used… When we were done he said we should never get lost underwater… The boat would pick us up on the beach in front of our hotel… That was kinda cool I thought… Grumps was the other dive master and BBQ genius… He sure whipped up some good food… All in all, Sea Eye Diving scored an A in my book…

We ate breakfast everyday at a place called the Courtyard Cafe, which was run by two ladies from England… Lunch and dinners were ate at the Sandbar and the Waters Edge… Pretty good food, and filling too… As I said before, Grand Turk is a small island that caters to diving and not much else… If you’re not a diver you wouldn’t like Grand Turk… It’s a world class dive location, but not much else to do except lay in the sun… Carnival Cruise Lines is building a dock and hotel there and will be open next year… I wonder how much that will spoil the diving with the influx of people? I hope it doesn’t end up like Cozumel… Grand Turk needs to keep that small town charm that divers enjoy…