Wall-diving in the Turks and Caicos

The Turks and Caicos Islands are located southeast of the Bahamas, directly north of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. They are blessed with long white-sand beaches and crystal-clear warm waters, but it is the diving which marks them out from the crowd.

The Aquarium on Grand Turk is so-named because of the incredible number and variety of fish that you’ll find here. It is a spectacular deep dive at the northernmost end of Grand Turk’s western wall, where the sheer drop transforms into a series of elongated ridges and sand chutes.

The mooring ball is attached to a ridge running east to west in 17m, and you have two options – head north and you drop into a flat, sandy horseshoe-shaped area where you can encounter stingrays, flounder and the odd feeding eagle ray, go south and this sand channel takes you into a massive bowl dropping to below 40m. This is a favorite haunt of oceanic triggerfish, snapper, barracuda and jacks.

The G-Spot on French Cay – so named because it is reputedly ‘hard to find’! – starts in just 12m, but then the wall rapidly drops off to well over 2,000m. Thanks to the almost-constant current running past, it is covered in a healthy growth of barrel sponges, whip corals, gorgonians, elephant ear sponges and tube sponges.
On the point near the mooring, schooling fish feed on the nutrients being swept into the area, and this brings in jacks, barracuda and Caribbean reef sharks, as well as occasional eagle rays.

Some dive sites are given bizarre names, but on West Caicos, Land of the Giants accurately sums up what you will see. The top of the wall is quite sparse when it comes to coral growth, other than some stunning azure vase sponges, but drop over the edge and head down the wall into deeper water and you are greeted by the sight of gigantic barrel sponges, purple tube sponges, vase sponges, gorgonian seafans and black coral trees.

The Crack on Providenciales derives its name from a steep crevice that slices through the reef from the top of the wall at 15m down to about 30m.As you drop down this narrow crack in the reef structure, look on either side for lobster and crabs taking advantage of the nooks and crannies in the split, but don’t forget to focus your attention forward as you hit the deeper section – seeing the deep blue of the drop-off appear in front of you is an amazing sight.