Turks And Caicos (provo) Dive Spot Review

[Trevormclay]

Updated with another dive site! Rock Garden ! Here is a summary
Here is a link to my blog with other dive sites and photos at each one! Trevor McLay

Summary: Rock Garden is directly next to Rock Garden Interlude. The dive sites are extremely similar to each other. At the beginning I found the coral to be less impressive than the other dive sites, it was mostly single limestone rock formations with a little soft coral. The Wall: The wall had plenty of overhangs, cracks and hideaways for small creatures. Turn around/60ft range: The coral at the turnaround point was much more impressive than the start of the dive. Lots more coral, hard coral, soft coral and the reef looked a lot more alive. I would recommend staying on top of the wall and slowly weave between the coral formations. Dive site is in West Caicos.


As normal if anyone has any comments or questions please ask! I want to be able to help and get better !

Thank you for taking the time to read

 

[Skeptic14]

What type of batteries did you use when one exploded in the ys-03 strobe?

Did you ever get any feedback from sea&sea on what might have caused it?

That is the strobe I'm using with my tg-4 setup.

Good write ups, nice shot of the barracuda.

 

[Trevormclay]

What type of batteries did you use when one exploded in the ys-03 strobe?

Did you ever get any feedback from sea&sea on what might have caused it?

That is the strobe I'm using with my tg-4 setup.

Good write ups, nice shot of the barracuda.

Thank for taking the team to read it and the comment about the Barracuda! I used normal double A duracell batteries so I was surprised it exploded however Sea and Sea and Mozaik were great service in replacing the unit. I never even had to deal with Sea and Sea directly as I was given a new one from Mozaik after Sea and Sea inspected it. So I cannot answer what caused it. But after that incident I switched to the Ni-MH batteries and haven't experienced a single issue with 6 dives and 500 photos.

 

[Skeptic14]

Interesting... I've only used Ni-MH in mine but supposedly alkaline are fine too. It does say not to use lithium.

Good to know they replaced it so quickly and no issues since!

 

[Mia Toose]

I lived and worked on The Turks & Caicos Explorer II scuba liveaboard for Explorer Ventures. I'd be happy to answer any questions from a liveaboard diving perspective. I've also done lots of land based diving in Turks & Caicos including Provo and Grand Turk as well so can compare quite a bit.

On a side note, both the Explorer and Aggressor operate off the island of Provo (Providenciales), but also on occasion do trips to Grand Turk diving along the way.

 

[drrich2]

Did a little quick checking online. If I understand correctly, Caicos is not one of those 'cruise ship playground' type destinations with lots of excursions? People diss cruise ships, but areas pandering to that market often offer a range of activities - jungle hikes, ATV group rides, horse back riding, Mayan ruin tours, parasailing, etc...

So, aside from a beautiful beach scene (I am not a beach person) and eating well at restaurants, what else besides diving do the tourists do there?

I focus on this because in other posts, people more familiar with the place have indicated T&C is a rather expensive destination by Caribbean standards, rather like the Cayman Islands. With the Caymans, you can get the cruise ship playground (Grand Cayman) or take a puddle jumper & do rustic (Little Cayman or Cayman Brac), and get great diving. But I don't hear people talking up the great restaurants on L.C. or C.B.; rather how nice the buffet food is at LCBR or CBBR dive resorts. I've read a live-aboard is the way to go for the best Turks & Caicos diving .

So, for the prospective tourist sizing up Turks & Caicos, is there a compelling reason to go there instead of one of the Cayman Islands? Or what are you missing out if you do T&C by live-aboard? Just good restaurants & a pretty beach, or is there more to it?

Richard.

 

[Trevormclay]

Did a little quick checking online. If I understand correctly, Caicos is not one of those 'cruise ship playground' type destinations with lots of excursions? People diss cruise ships, but areas pandering to that market often offer a range of activities - jungle hikes, ATV group rides, horse back riding, Mayan ruin tours, parasailing, etc...

So, aside from a beautiful beach scene (I am not a beach person) and eating well at restaurants, what else besides diving do the tourists do there?

I focus on this because in other posts, people more familiar with the place have indicated T&C is a rather expensive destination by Caribbean standards, rather like the Cayman Islands. With the Caymans, you can get the cruise ship playground (Grand Cayman) or take a puddle jumper & do rustic (Little Cayman or Cayman Brac), and get great diving. But I don't hear people talking up the great restaurants on L.C. or C.B.; rather how nice the buffet food is at LCBR or CBBR dive resorts. I've read a live-aboard is the way to go for the best Turks & Caicos diving .

So, for the prospective tourist sizing up Turks & Caicos, is there a compelling reason to go there instead of one of the Cayman Islands? Or what are you missing out if you do T&C by live-aboard? Just good restaurants & a pretty beach, or is there more to it?

Richard.

I will let the others talk about the live-aboards, since I don't have experience in Turks and Caicos doing one. But to your point, it really is the beaches and the food that make the island so amazing. The people are very kind and helpful too. Provo is not a cruise ship destination however Grand Turk is. Provo is where the international airport and where most people who fly into the island stay (unless you take the puddle jumper to Grand Turk). On Provo there are the main water activities you would find anywhere but the reason why most people love the island is the food and the beach/water. My parents have traveled the world for work and they settled on going to Turks every March because the beach is the worlds greatest and from Toronto we have direct flights (only 4 hours). If you aren't a beach person (neither am I) then I would recommend the live-aboard for you. You will fly in the day before any how and fly out the day after so you would have the chance to experience the really nice dinning if you desired but even the cheaper options such as (Mr Groupers, Danny Boys, Somewhere) offer amazing food.

Activities: Wind surfing, Parasailing, Snorkelling off the beach out front of a hotel called Coral Gardens, Kite boarding, deep sea fishing (some of the best in the world), Bone fishing, Lobster diving (if in season)

The biggest thing my parents enjoy besides the water and food is the safety of being able to walk anywhere and feel safe. The locals are really friendly and they understand how important tourism is to the island and they want to make your stay really enjoyable. There is only 1 all inclusive on the island is its 1) very expensive and 2) geared towards families with small kids.

Here is a photo of the beach from our room (Alexandra).

 

[Joneill]

I will let the others talk about the live-aboards, since I don't have experience in Turks and Caicos doing one. But to your point, it really is the beaches and the food that make the island so amazing. The people are very kind and helpful too. Provo is not a cruise ship destination however Grand Turk is. Provo is where the international airport and where most people who fly into the island stay (unless you take the puddle jumper to Grand Turk). On Provo there are the main water activities you would find anywhere but the reason why most people love the island is the food and the beach/water. My parents have traveled the world for work and they settled on going to Turks every March because the beach is the worlds greatest and from Toronto we have direct flights (only 4 hours). If you aren't a beach person (neither am I) then I would recommend the live-aboard for you. You will fly in the day before any how and fly out the day after so you would have the chance to experience the really nice dinning if you desired but even the cheaper options such as (Mr Groupers, Danny Boys, Somewhere) offer amazing food.

Activities: Wind surfing, Parasailing, Snorkelling off the beach out front of a hotel called Coral Gardens, Kite boarding, deep sea fishing (some of the best in the world), Bone fishing, Lobster diving (if in season)

The biggest thing my parents enjoy besides the water and food is the safety of being able to walk anywhere and feel safe. The locals are really friendly and they understand how important tourism is to the island and they want to make your stay really enjoyable. There is only 1 all inclusive on the island is its 1) very expensive and 2) geared towards families with small kids.

Here is a photo of the beach from our room (Alexandra).

Exactly - the nicest beach and water I've ever seen and plenty of water-sports to keep you busy. Plenty of great restaurants as well - but it is an expensive island, no doubt. I'll be there in May again and it will be the first time I've dived there, so I'm looking forward to it. A few more shots of the beach/water:

 

[Trevormclay]

Exactly - the nicest beach and water I've ever seen and plenty of water-sports to keep you busy. Plenty of great restaurants as well - but it is an expensive island, no doubt. I'll be there in May again and it will be the first time I've dived there, so I'm looking forward to it. A few more shots of the beach/water:

Great beach photos! I don't know who you are using for diving but Dive Provo was pretty open to suggestions regarding dive sites. My third day (I haven't wrote about those 2 dives yet) Was at West Caicos as well and I talked to them about where I've dove already and they made sure not to do those sites again. So if you read my blog and some of the sites sounds interesting to you then I recommend asking about visiting them. May will bring different weather than I had in March so you might have even more variety.

 

[Trevormclay]

Hey everyone I updated my blog today ! I have been swamped with school work the past week but wanted to get something done today. These are definitely my best Turks and Caicos photos to date and the next post will be even better ! look forward to the reviews

Boat Cove summary: Sandy bottom, longer distance to the wall. Steepest section of the wall to date with plenty of overhangs for creatures to hide in. Turn around point is a sandy patch so guidance and distance are very simple.

Trevor McLay Underwater Blog

Any comments or questions please let me know (rather comment here or the blog itself)