So it begins

Beaches and Barracuda

Published Date : March 27, 2012

I woke early this morning, too excited to sleep in.  Grand Turk is home to the world’s third largest barrier reef and I had been eagerly looking forward to diving it.   I was especially keen after watching the Descending team dive here just a couple of weeks ago.  Excitement level = high-pitched squeal!!

There had been some doubt as to whether or not I would be physically able to do this dive, making it all the more exciting to be doing it.  Two months ago, I slipped on some ice and cracked my head on the pavement, resulting in a mild concussion, whiplash and a strained back.  The muscles strains cleared up fast, but the concussion lingered.  I was still suffering from daily headaches and dizziness when I did a refresher dive three weeks ago.   As of today, it has been two weeks since I last had a headache.  My plan was to use the flight as a litmus test for the diving since flying is known to aggravate symptoms of concussion.  I survived the flight without so much as a twinge.  Yes!!  The dives are a go!!

After breakfast in my cabin, I headed for the promenade deck to watch the sunrise as we came into port.  Even in the early morning light, the turquoise hue of the crystal clear water was unmistakeable.  I couldn’t wait to get below those waves!

Collecting my fins, mask, snorkel and cameras, I was one of the first ones off the ship.  Leaving the pier, we were corralled through a souvenir shop into a purpose built outdoor shopping mall.  I had been expecting to be confronted with stores catering to tourists, but the reality was much worse than I had imagined.   While these monstrosities bring desperately needed jobs to the locals, this is not the Turks & Caicos that I came to see.

While waiting for the dive masters from Oasis Divers to fetch us, our growing group compared notes on dive experience, gear and travel plans.  In the end, there were 15 of us going out.   Once we finished the odyssey of paperwork, we headed for the beach, loading into the boat.   There wasn’t much room to manoeuvre, but our hosts were organized and we were soon geared up and under way to our first dive site, Coral Canyon.  We were split into two groups, one of eight and the other with seven.

The first dive turned out to be a calamity of errors.  To start things off, I was underweighted and couldn’t descend.  After adding a few more pounds, I got that sorted, but once on the bottom (30m) my mask started leaking – excessively.  With so much water in the mask, I was inhaling small amounts of water with each breath.  I managed to clear it easily enough, but could feel the beginnings of panic and had to work to control my breathing.  All the while I was struggling with a camera and strobe that, even though I wasn’t holding them (they were clipped on), insisted on causing problems.  I managed to get settled after a couple of minutes, but by that time I had sucked through a quarter of my air.  Doh!

As we meandered our way through narrow canyons with sandy bottoms, we were rewarded with a visit from two hawksbill turtles and a lone great barracuda. Visibility was about 30-40m and the aquatic life was abundant with plenty of blue tang, grunts, doctorfish and surgeonfish.  Our DM managed to spear a couple of lionfish as well – an invasive species that is hurting the fragile ecosystem.  I could see areas where the coral had been bleached, but overall it was a very healthy system.   

Not long after that, one of the other divers in our group went into a completely random, full-blown panic and started to bolt for the surface.  Luckily her buddy managed to stop her and our DM did a fantastic job of calming her down.  Talking to her later, she said she didn’t know what set her off and has never had that happen on a dive before.

By this time, I was reaching low levels on air, so we swam back to the boat so that I could surface while the rest of the group continued the dive.   I was disappointed to have to end my dive so early, but glad that the rest of the group didn’t have to miss out because of me.

The second dive went much better.  Properly weighted, mask issues sorted and camera left on board the boat, the Coral Gardens were fantastic.  Descending to only 20m this time, the already great visibility was even better.  Swimming along the edge of the wall, it was eerie looking out into the blue abyss – the change from coral to empty sand was abrupt and slightly disconcerting.  This dive rewarded us with another turtle, a very small lemon shark, a clinging channel crab and thousands more reef fish. 

Delivering us safely back to shore in front of the dive shop, I elected to walk back to the cruise ship along the beach, rather than wait for the boat.  While only 15 minutes from the pier, this part of the beach was deserted except for the handful of us from the dive excursion. The poverty along this stretch of the beach stood in stark contrast to the luxury of the shopping area at the pier only a short distance away.

I made it back on board the ship with minutes to spare before it departed – first one off, last one on.  After quickly cleaning up, I took my book and my camera up to the observation deck to watch as we left the Turks and Caicos behind.

I finished the day off with another fabulous meal in the Vista Lounge with my parents.  They had gone on a bus tour of the island so we were able to comapre our experiences of land vs sea.  The entertainment for the evening was a comedy/magic show in the theatre that made for a good end to the day.   I didn’t have enough time to do as much exploring as I would have liked on Grand Turk, but the dives were well worth that sacrifice.

Tomorrow we’re headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico!