Turks & Caicos, 1999
Author: Kelly

Posted by Kelly on August 17, 1999 at 08:49:58:

Well, I feel I can no longer procrastinate on writing this trip report. This is my first I believe so, be gentle...

Left from PIT July 24th approx. 10am on US Air. After a 4 hour layover in Miami another short flight to Provo on United. We arrived around dinner time on the 24th. In all the flights were uneventful. I do have to put in a good word for the Bacardi restaurant in Miami though. Their food was wonderful and they didn't even bat an eyelash when 14 divers from PA took over their restaurant. They earned the praise, believe me.

In all, 14 of us rented out the Aggressor for the week. It was a really great group and we all got along extremely well. It was much better than I think it would have been if we went as singles.

Two taxis picked us up at the airport, which for those of you have never been there, is very tiny. Only one or two rooms and the first time I had to walk onto the tarmac to board a plane. Everyone was very nice though. The drivers loaded up about a million bags into the vans and we were off for the boat.

I really can't say alot about Provo. We only spent a short amount of time on the island, basically just saw from the airport to the dock and that's about it.

The boat itself was very nice. It was just retrofitted this year and turned out very well. The crew helped unload all of our things and took everything to our rooms for us. They were extremely helpful the entire week and cannot tell you enough about how professional and helpful they were. They also are very friendly and it was neat because they interacted well with our group.

The boat is equipped with 5 two person rooms and one 4 person room. Each double has a private bathroom in the room and the quad had a slightly bigger bathroom next to the room. I thought before I arrived that the quad would be very small and I wouldn't be at all comfortable but I was wrong. It was big enough for the 4 of us but I would not have wanted to share it with people I did not know. Just a little too close for comfort if you're staying with complete strangers, but perfect between friends.

The dive deck is great. There's plenty of room to maneuver, even with 14 people running around in gear. There's also dive lockers under your seat for everyone's stuff. The very best part was that you don't even have to move your tank to get fills. Every tank can be filled right at your seat. No lugging tanks! That also meant that you didn't have to break down gear after each dive which was really nice, especially for the students who took slightly longer to set up than the rest of us. They also had hangers for everyone's wetsuits right above your seat so you had a dry wetsuit each dive.

I really don't even know where to start on the diving. There was absolutely no current on almost all of the dives, except when went to West Caicos (I think). That current was even minimal and I was really amazed at how effortless diving could be. The seas were flat the entire week except again when we tried to go to W Caicos, it got a little rougher.

The wall diving was completely wild! This was only the second time I've been diving in warm water and I have never seen anything like that before in my life. In some places the walls started at 50-60' and dropped off to 3,000'! The coral were in great shape and the colors and diversity were immense.

I finished my deep and night certs while I was there and went to 150' for the first time. I got a little narced the first time but the second was much better. We also did alot of scooter diving, we brought 3 from home.

Since I completed 20 dives throughout the week, this would be entirely too long a report if I told you about each one. Instead I will give you some highlights.

The first highlight happened on Tuesday around lunchtime. We were all eating lunch in the galley and talking excitedly about the 2 morning dives when the captain, Piers, came in and said that a pod of dolphins were running beside the ship! Well, most of us rushed out and went to the bow to watch them frolic beside the boat. I got a couple of good pictures of them jumping out of the water. That was the start of what turned out to be an amazing day.

The next dive, my buddy and I descended and headed for the wall. We were just hanging out getting our bearings and looking around, hadn't been in the water for more of a minute when I looked out over the edge of the wall and saw a school of 10-12 spotted eagle rays! As I motioned violently for my buddy's attention, they slowly flew by, checking us out and letting us check them out. They sure are fasinating creatures! Unfortunately, another diver came barreling over the edge of the wall and scared them off. But at least we saw them for a while.

The next trip highlight happened around 4pm on the same day. I had remarked to my buddy that after the dolphin encounter and the rays, I didn't think the day could get any better. Next thing I knew, the captain informed us that the Sea Dancer, which was at the next site over had radioed over to say another pod of dolphins had just left their boat and was headed our way. Three crew members, myself, the dive shop owner and his wife all decided to put our snorkeling gear on and take a scooter out to find them.

We ended up getting to snorkel with the dolphins for about an hour. I also got some underwater pics but they didn't turn out as well b/c I didn't get close enough. I don't think I'll ever forget that experience though. While I don't have a problem with people snorkeling with tame dolphins, it is another story altogether to see wild dolphins up close and get to spend time that close to them.

The rest of the diving was wonderful. That was by far the best day. By the end of the week I was a little disappointed that I had not seen a shark. Well I got to see one finally on my last dive of the week. It was a night dive. One shark had been circling us and we covered our lights with our hands and swam the edge of the wall and were able to get really close. I got one picture but I think my buddy got a pretty good shot. That was also the 1st shark I'd seen in the wild.

Throughout the week we saw tons of octopus, crabs, lobsters, eels, and tons of fish. We took one snorkeling trip to the mangroves, which was a really cool trip. We also went to Little Salt Cay and saw the iguanas. I got alot of good shots of them too.

All in all a fantastic trip. This report is already so long and there's so much more I can write. Don't want to bore anyone to tears though. In a nutshell, great diving, can't recommend the crew enough or the boat. I would go back tomorrow if I could.

If you would like anymore details let me know. Feel free to email or post here. I will try to throw together some pics for you guys and let you take a look too. I have to procrastinate a while longer on that though...

Take care and dive safe! Kelly

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