kalvyn
Guest
My wife Linda and I just returned from a week's diving in Providenciales (AKA Provo) with Dive Provo. From what I understand the "normal" Turks & Caicos dive destination is Grand Turk, so take my report with this in mind!
We flew overnight from Sea-Tac to Provo, arriving at our resort (The Sands at Grace Bay) about 1:30 pm on Tuesday, Feb. 1st. We got unpacked, took a nap, confirmed our diving reservations, hit the welcome party to eat free appetizers and went to bed.
The shuttle was scheduled to pick us all up at 8 am on Wednesday (5 am by our body clocks, mind you!), but being as we were on an island, the shuttle showed up about 8:20. We got to the shop, got signed in, filled out the waiviers and got back on the bus to head to the marina.
Once at the marina, we piled on the boat and headed out to French Cay. Little did we know then that we'd get to know French Cay very well over the next five days...
French Cay is a little pile of sand sticking out of the water at the edge of the Caicos Banks, about an hour's boat ride from the marina. The reef wall starts in 40-50 fsw and drops off almost vertically to 6,000 fsw. The variety of the corals and the topography of the corals on the wall make for some very cool diving. There wasn't as much marine life as there was in Bonaire, but we still saw turtles and reef sharks, along with the other more typical reef fishes. Visibility ran 80'+, and was actualy down some due to the winds churning up the seas. The water temp was 75 degrees, a little cool for my full 3 mil, truth be told. Since the wind was up, you couldn't get warm in the sun between dives either. Linda ended up borrowing a 3 mil vest to wear under her full 3 mil suit, and the divemasters were wearing two full wetsuits (one 3 and one 5 mil) and still complaining about the cold. By the third day, I was joking that I should have brought my drysuit!
Ok, about the weather; all the locals told us that the weather we had was the worst they have seen for this time of the year in their memory. It wasn't terrible, but the wind was up the entire time we were there. This brought air temps down to to low 70's, and definitely churned up the waters around the island. Where we stayed, Grace Bay, is normally dead calm. It was most definitely not while we were there, with huge surf pounding the fringe reef and the resulting surge washing up on the beach almost all the way to the vegitation at high tide. This made it not too fun to lay out on the beach, much to Linda's chagrin. The beach was beautiful as advertised, with power sugar fine white sand. It was just a little too cool to really enjoy it out there, unfortunately. Here's a link of a picture looking down at Grace Bay beach. It was not that flat while we where there.
Also, the weather severely limited our dive site choices. There's West Caicos, North West Point, Pine Cay and Grace Bay dive sites that we never had the chance to go to due to the wind. We got to dive French Cay for five straight days. Diving in Frech Cay was good, don't get me wrong, but a little variety would have been nice too. Not too much any of us could do about it, though!
One last thing... eating out in Provo is very expensive. Actually, everything in Provo was expensive. We went to the IGA and did our own cooking for the most part, and saved a lot of money that way. Some folks don't like to cook while on vacation, but they're going to pay for it when they eat out! Linda and I ate out twice for breakfast and three times for dinner. The Bay Bistro was a short beach walk from our resort, and they did a good breakfast. The only good dinner we had was at the Caicos Cafe. The restaurant on site at The Sands was mediocre at best, and I wasn't impressed at all with Danny Bouys. I would definitely cook in again if we went back to Provo.
All in all we had a good time down there. I would go back there, but I would probably choose another place in the Carribean over Provo if I had a choice in the matter. From what I've read, the diving in Grand Turk is better than it is in Provo... I'll let you know once we've been there, too.
Oh yeah, about my lost fin! Because the water was rough from the wind, the boat was rocking quite a bit. As I was getting ready to dive on the second to last day, I dropped one of my fins while attempting to keep my balance putting it on while standing on the dive platform. I watched it slowly sink, slightly dumbfounded. By the time I finally reacted and jumped in after it, it was well on it's way to 6,000 fsw. I ended up borrowing a pair of splits from one of the divemasters on the boat, which saved me from not diving. I realized very quickly that I missed my Jet fins, but that's a whole 'nother thread...
Jimmie
We flew overnight from Sea-Tac to Provo, arriving at our resort (The Sands at Grace Bay) about 1:30 pm on Tuesday, Feb. 1st. We got unpacked, took a nap, confirmed our diving reservations, hit the welcome party to eat free appetizers and went to bed.
The shuttle was scheduled to pick us all up at 8 am on Wednesday (5 am by our body clocks, mind you!), but being as we were on an island, the shuttle showed up about 8:20. We got to the shop, got signed in, filled out the waiviers and got back on the bus to head to the marina.
Once at the marina, we piled on the boat and headed out to French Cay. Little did we know then that we'd get to know French Cay very well over the next five days...
French Cay is a little pile of sand sticking out of the water at the edge of the Caicos Banks, about an hour's boat ride from the marina. The reef wall starts in 40-50 fsw and drops off almost vertically to 6,000 fsw. The variety of the corals and the topography of the corals on the wall make for some very cool diving. There wasn't as much marine life as there was in Bonaire, but we still saw turtles and reef sharks, along with the other more typical reef fishes. Visibility ran 80'+, and was actualy down some due to the winds churning up the seas. The water temp was 75 degrees, a little cool for my full 3 mil, truth be told. Since the wind was up, you couldn't get warm in the sun between dives either. Linda ended up borrowing a 3 mil vest to wear under her full 3 mil suit, and the divemasters were wearing two full wetsuits (one 3 and one 5 mil) and still complaining about the cold. By the third day, I was joking that I should have brought my drysuit!
Ok, about the weather; all the locals told us that the weather we had was the worst they have seen for this time of the year in their memory. It wasn't terrible, but the wind was up the entire time we were there. This brought air temps down to to low 70's, and definitely churned up the waters around the island. Where we stayed, Grace Bay, is normally dead calm. It was most definitely not while we were there, with huge surf pounding the fringe reef and the resulting surge washing up on the beach almost all the way to the vegitation at high tide. This made it not too fun to lay out on the beach, much to Linda's chagrin. The beach was beautiful as advertised, with power sugar fine white sand. It was just a little too cool to really enjoy it out there, unfortunately. Here's a link of a picture looking down at Grace Bay beach. It was not that flat while we where there.
Also, the weather severely limited our dive site choices. There's West Caicos, North West Point, Pine Cay and Grace Bay dive sites that we never had the chance to go to due to the wind. We got to dive French Cay for five straight days. Diving in Frech Cay was good, don't get me wrong, but a little variety would have been nice too. Not too much any of us could do about it, though!
One last thing... eating out in Provo is very expensive. Actually, everything in Provo was expensive. We went to the IGA and did our own cooking for the most part, and saved a lot of money that way. Some folks don't like to cook while on vacation, but they're going to pay for it when they eat out! Linda and I ate out twice for breakfast and three times for dinner. The Bay Bistro was a short beach walk from our resort, and they did a good breakfast. The only good dinner we had was at the Caicos Cafe. The restaurant on site at The Sands was mediocre at best, and I wasn't impressed at all with Danny Bouys. I would definitely cook in again if we went back to Provo.
All in all we had a good time down there. I would go back there, but I would probably choose another place in the Carribean over Provo if I had a choice in the matter. From what I've read, the diving in Grand Turk is better than it is in Provo... I'll let you know once we've been there, too.
Oh yeah, about my lost fin! Because the water was rough from the wind, the boat was rocking quite a bit. As I was getting ready to dive on the second to last day, I dropped one of my fins while attempting to keep my balance putting it on while standing on the dive platform. I watched it slowly sink, slightly dumbfounded. By the time I finally reacted and jumped in after it, it was well on it's way to 6,000 fsw. I ended up borrowing a pair of splits from one of the divemasters on the boat, which saved me from not diving. I realized very quickly that I missed my Jet fins, but that's a whole 'nother thread...
Jimmie
