puffer
Guest
Got back about 10 days ago from Turks and Caicos. This was my first diving trip after becomming certified. I left just as the US started broad casting travel advisers to Turks and Caicos and US airways was cancelling flights due to Huricane Isabell. A lot of people were telling me to cancell my trip and I would have had I been able to reschedule my trip but it was too complicated so I decided to go any way and just make the best of my trip. I stayed at Beaches, the all inclusive, which was ok, but not for divers. Almost every day Beaches dive shop was saying the waters were too choppy and unsafe to go into so the all inclusive diving was not happening. I stupidely asumed this meant all over the island and entertained myself by hanging out at the pool drinking pina coladas. Every day Beaches would make us report in person at 08:15 am to see if they were diving, they never were. It sucked to get up so early in the morning, lug your scuba gear down to the dive shop only to be told "not today maybe tommorow". You think they could have called us or something or since they made us sign up a day in advance or at least have let us call from bed.
Anyway towards the end of the trip I met a group of disgruntaled divers who had hooked up with a dive operator called Caicos Adventures run by a funny but cool french guy named Fifi . Turns out they had been diving the whole week!!! The leason to learn, just cause the dive operator in your hotel isn't diving doesn't mean others in the area aren't. I learned that likely the dive operator at Beaches didn't want to move their boat from Grace Bay to the other side. The diving with Caicos Adventure, on the other side of the island, was amazing and the staff was very friendly and patient with me, with only seven dives under my belt they helped me feel very safe. We had a very small group (7) including many photographers. The photographers said that they felt that staff was very accomodating to their needs. We dived as a group at French Cay, specifically at Rock and Roll and Double D. The dives were 70-90 feet. Visability was 90-100 feet and the water was bath tub warm. The walls were spectacular with tons of sponges and there were so many fishes and so much to look at that I didn't know where to look first. Saw huge angelfish (grey and queen), spadefish, hamlet, parrotfish, squirrelfish, goatfish, triggerfish, filefish, trumpetfish, turtes and sharks. A real riot of color. This is why I wanted to learn to dive. Can't wait for my next tropical vacation. Other divers on the boat complained that the vis was not great they said usually its 150 feet! I am a so cal diver and I consider 50 feet to be spectacular so this was a real treat.
Anyway towards the end of the trip I met a group of disgruntaled divers who had hooked up with a dive operator called Caicos Adventures run by a funny but cool french guy named Fifi . Turns out they had been diving the whole week!!! The leason to learn, just cause the dive operator in your hotel isn't diving doesn't mean others in the area aren't. I learned that likely the dive operator at Beaches didn't want to move their boat from Grace Bay to the other side. The diving with Caicos Adventure, on the other side of the island, was amazing and the staff was very friendly and patient with me, with only seven dives under my belt they helped me feel very safe. We had a very small group (7) including many photographers. The photographers said that they felt that staff was very accomodating to their needs. We dived as a group at French Cay, specifically at Rock and Roll and Double D. The dives were 70-90 feet. Visability was 90-100 feet and the water was bath tub warm. The walls were spectacular with tons of sponges and there were so many fishes and so much to look at that I didn't know where to look first. Saw huge angelfish (grey and queen), spadefish, hamlet, parrotfish, squirrelfish, goatfish, triggerfish, filefish, trumpetfish, turtes and sharks. A real riot of color. This is why I wanted to learn to dive. Can't wait for my next tropical vacation. Other divers on the boat complained that the vis was not great they said usually its 150 feet! I am a so cal diver and I consider 50 feet to be spectacular so this was a real treat.
), so I'm not going to complain, but I was just curious.
