South Caicos, 2001: Will The Diving Be The Same?

Twenty-one years ago, one of our regular great travel writers, Doc Vikingo, visited South Caicos and the now-defunct Ocean Haven Resort. Here is what he had to say.

Diving almost exclusively takes place along the south shore, a protected area where fishing is verboten. There are about 20 sites within a 10- minute boat trip, some with surface moorings, some with subsurface moorings, and others where they drop anchor. The check-out dive takes place in 45-55 feet on the scattered partial remains of a crashed Convair. Inside the fuselage, I found a small aggregation of jacks, a few schoolmasters and French grunt, and a lovely lone gray angel. Our merry band of 11 experienced divers, having passed the muster, immediately began to do our own thing, as we agreed with management before we made our booking. I usually dropped down the wall to 115 feet, then worked up enjoying the overhangs, crevices, and spur and groove reef planted with impressive plate coral and stovepipe sponges. I cannot envision a more hospitable environment for properly trained divers wanting to go deep -warm water (76-78F in March) - good vis (80 feet, yet still a bit disappointing), easy navigation, and minimal current with no surge below 40 feet. On the first dive of the day, others and I occasionally dropped well below 130 feet, seduced by the 7,000-foot wall of the Turks Island Passage.

Among my favorite sites was The Grotto, a main flight path for spotted eagle rays. At least one appeared on each of several visits here, and schools of as many as 14 have been sighted. Caribbean reef sharks occasionally cruised the wall, and once I observed a group of three. On most wall dives, reef sharks from 5-8 feet in length cruised along, and small aggregations of jacks circled.

Spanish Chain typifies many sites along this coast and neighboring Grand Turk, 22 miles due west. Drop to a sand and patch reef bottom at 40 feet, then explore the area or fin out to the wall, which starts at 50-70 feet depending on the site. And what a wall it is. At some points, it's stepped, at others precipitous, nearly always covered with plate, rope and wire coral, and massive tube sponges. I worked my way back to the shallows, massive southern stingrays rest in the sand. Moving slowly, I could reach out and stroke them, which, if I'm not being too anthropomorphic, they generally seemed to enjoy. On one dive, I observed a large school of blue tang grazing as a pack.

The most distant site is The Caves, about a 35-minute boat ride to the Eastside. Once there, I swam down a long, comely trench with nothing but blue water ahead. Then I entered a cave perhaps 50 yards long that exited in a lovely coral reef - not for the claustrophobic. Along the way, I spied a budding Pillar Coral that was a breathtaking dark blue in the body and robin's egg blue on the tips. . . .

Click here to read the full article https://tinyurl.com/4s5vyk5r