Headed down to Providenciales TCI again with my father-in-law for some diving, good beer, conch, and R&R. Most of you know the ins-n-outs of TCI so I'll spare the geography and history lesson.
Hurricane Faye as we passed over the Florida panhandle
The diving was pretty good: air temp around 95F with 90%RH, H2O temp around 88F @ 150FT with 100FT or so visibility, and the pool H2O temp at a cool 90F. This trip I hooked-up with Dive Provo and had a decent time. There are only a few quality dive operations on Provo and this is by far the largest with 3 dive-dedicated boats.
First day of diving was out on Northwest Point (NW Point) were we did the Amphitheatre, the Chimney & Thunderdome (the second dive was a 2-fer). Below is a cheesy video from the area (our dive day had much better visibility than this tossers dive).
The second day, we headed out to Grace Bay (if your dive operator has you going there- BAG THE DIVE. It isn't worth the time. The walls are small and it's always stirred up with sand due to the prevailing wind chop) to dive the Aquarium and some other lame site I didn't care enough about to remember the name of.
The third day, we headed to Pine Cay (pronounced 'key') where the snorkel boats go. That should be a clue that it is great for snorkeling- not diving. I did manage to get 140FT dive in were I found a 5FT nurse shark back in a cave. I hauled the bad boy out for the rest of the group to see and take pictures with, our divemaster didn't see that one! If you are told that you are going to Pine Cay, it's a 50/50 crap shoot. Our first dive was OK due to the sharks (nurse and black tip) as well as 3 turtles, the second wasn't worth the air in the tank- boring.
Pine Cay GPS location
The fourth day we were back at NW Point and did The Crack and then headed back to The Chimney and Thunderdome. We had a few newbie Brits on board (2 hot young things wearing next to nothing) so the horny dive masters wanted to take them to a nice easy site with plenty of sunlight (so they could take UW bikini photos!) Those wankers! At any rate, it was a good day of diving and nice to get back to the wall diving TCI is famous for. Here is our tosser host again with more cheesy video, I'm glad our lot was decked in neon kit like these divers:
My 5th and final day diving was out at French Cay. Wahoo, this area is know for large pelagics and many shark species frequent the area. I took an UW camera on this trip and got the first dive. The battery died so I missed all the great shots of the Black Tip that circled me for 15 minutes or so at 1FT from my mask, it was sooo awesome and I was sooo pissed the camera died. Mr. Murphy was diving with me that day (if it can go wrong it will go wrong) so all I have are the memories (here is a short video of a shark similar in size at French Cay)
We dove a site called Orgasm (because so many sharks mate there) and G Spot (get your mind out of the gutter- it's named for the wall of Gorgonian Corals). G Spot was the better of the two dives. On our way back to Provo, we noticed a huge Tiger Shark in the water (about 6 or 7FT long) and I wanted to dive with it. The divemaster said it was OK if I had someone to go in the water with, none of those chicken-shits on the boat wanted to go in. What a missed opportunity! I may never have that chance again. Here are a few photos of it from the boat- it was so awesome.
Here are a few raw photos from the first dive at French Cay. No flash so the colors are muted (I actually like these better this way):
Interesting name for a police boat eh?
So, all in all, it was a great trip. Next time I'll be diving with Caicos Adventures to see what they can offer. They are rebreather-friendly and usually focus on West Caicos and other remote sites, no cattle call boats there I'm told, we'll see.
Jessica wants a Potcake so I've been looking into it. We headed over to the brewery for a few cases of Turks Head Amber & Lager and I saw this guy hosin' down the back lot (like Buster would do)
Last day and sunset
