MY TURKS AND CAICOS JOURNAL
In October 2001 I journeyed to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Specifically, I went to
Grand Turk, where I boarded the Peter Hughes liveaboard, the Wind Dancer.
The terrible events of September 11th has taken its toll on the dive trip business, and the boat was only half occupied. We had a small but determined group of divers, who were able to spread out in the living quarters and on the dive deck. The crew went out of their way to answer any questions and to make us as comfortable as possible. The Hughes operation has been doubly hit. The suicide bombings, plus the capsizing of the Wave Dancer, with the ensuing loss of life, has made the crew very aware that we have many choices when it comes to diving, and the fact that we were loyal to Peter Hughes was appreciated.
We started out diving off of Grand Turk. The viz was good and the coral pretty, but the marine life was the usual suspects, nothing out of the ordinary.
The third dive was at a spot called "Coral Gardens." This is the home of "Alexander," the giant grouper. He is as friendly as a shaggy dog, and let us pet him and followed us around the whole dive.
"Alexander"
"Alexander"
One of the more interesting things I saw was a butterfly fish with two isopods hanging on both sides of his cheeks. Ugly critters, the isopods are parasites that live on a fish. At our next dive I saw a terrific yellow frogfish. He was right out in the open, sitting in a small barrel sponge. What funny little creatures they are, with their cartoon faces and their funny walking on their fins. The next day we went to South Turk, but only did one dive there, as the seas got up to 6 foot swells. On our trip back we encountered 8 to 10 foot swells and it rained all the way across back to Grand Turk. That was a disappointment because the reef in South Turk was beautiful. The skies cleared and we went back to Austin's Reef, where we saw our friend, the frogfish again. I also saw a large quillfin blenny. On our night dive, I saw some wonderful critters. Basket stars, crinoids, cup corals(which are beautiful), and a decorator crab. One of the crinoids was "walking." It was the first time I ever saw that.
We went to Salt Caye and did some diving there. We encountered some large nurse sharks, turtles, octopi and spotted morays. We spent the last day, snorkeling off the boat at the dock and taking a trip over to a small caye, where we had a barbecue lunch and snorkeled with stingrays and a very curious barracuda. It was a nice ending to a good dive trip.
