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Joined on
1/14/2006
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I thought I would send a posting if anyone has interest in diving at TCI. My wife and I were down there 1st wk. of April and the diving was excellent. 80-100' + visibility horizontally in most cases and 80' vertically. Water temp. was 76-77 degrees F. Being from the north and having dove in "the carribean of the Midwest" (Haigh quarry) I toughed it out in a 3mil shorty. Most were wearing full length 3mil. The walls are impressive. I would liken them to Grand Cayman. Same for the reef dives as well. Encountered most types of marine life, except no eagle rays seen. The highlight was the last day of course..we dove a wall called "Ampitheater" with 2 gray reef sharks cruising 10' below us. (NorthWest Point) . On another dive called " the Boat Cove" (West Caicos) we encountered a gray reef shark that cruised by within 5' of us in the sand flats. We also saw a fish called a " Flying Gunard", which can only be seen at this spot. It navigates on the sand with its fins and it has a cape that it can draw over its body. Just when you thought you had seen it all. I would highly recommend using Dive Provo when staying on Providenciales. They will dive Northwest Point on Provo or if you ask them and the schedule jives, they will do a trip over to West Caicos or down south to French Cay. They also go to Grace Bay. I dove 4 times with them.. 2 at Northwest Point and 2 at West Caicos. The other 4 dives were within the resort- Beaches. Unless you have kids, where you need babysitting services or programs offered to kids, I would not dive with the resort. I would stay with them again, but I would not dive with them. I wanted to do a couple with them due to convenience, etc. They are very strict and safe, which is not a bad thing. On a 2 tank dive, they would record your psi from both tanks before you left the dock and you would initial the clipboard. They are also constantly asking you to move up when on a wall dive. I think the deepest depth I encountered was 74'. One of the dives we were told would be an 80' dive and we did 60' for 30 mins. My buddy and I surfaced with 1600 psi. We could have enjoyed another 20 mins. minimum. My whole point here, is that they are more geared to Certifying people on vacation than they are to catering to Advanced Divers who would like their own itenerary. With Dive Provo, the divemaster and I were the last ones up. Dive with Dive Provo!! Some of the other divers said Provo Turtle Divers was another good operator. Website www.diveprovo.com Happy Diving, CubFan
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