Northwest
Point
Malcolm
Roads beach and the Northwest
Point dive sites, are approximately a 40 minute boat ride
from Harbour Club Marina
The
wall starts at 35 feet and plunges to more than 3000 feet.
Divers will see black coral, tube sponges and wire coral with
abundant schools of fish such as Creole Wrasse and Mahogany
Snapper
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
Amphitheatre:
85 feet |
At about 85 feet, there is an undercut on the wall which goes
back into the wall at 10-15 feet. A large orange elephant ear
sponge sits on the top lip with black coral and orange rope
sponges found below the undercut. Lobsters, schooling horse
eye jack and flamingo tongues are common on the soft corals
on the top of the wall. |
| |
|
Black Coral Forest:
110 feet |
Divers will find large areas of plate coral and deep water
gorgonians and see a ledge at about 200 feet leading off into
the blue. Lots of black coral here including wire and pinnate
and schools of grunts and parrotfish are often seen on the top
of the wall. |
| |
|
Chimney:
90-100 feet |
Starting at about 50 feet, divers swim through a ravine and
exit on the wall at 90 feet. The wall is a nearly vertical drop
to about 200 feet with scattered wire coral, soft corals, and
crinoids in many of the holes. Keep your eyes on the blue water
for the occasional shark and eagle ray. |
| |
|
Coral Stairway:
90-100 feet |
The top of the wall at about 45 feet starts sloping down like
a stairway. No sand patches just a unique stairway-like wall.
On the wall are found schools of barracuda, horse-eye jacks,
Bermuda chubs, and hamlets. Sometimes the occasional hawksbill
turtle swims by. |
| |
|
Eel Garden:
50-130 feet
|
Many brown garden eels can be found near the cable and wireless
cable. Nurse sharks and peacock flounders too. Lush corals cover
the top of the wall starting at about 50 feet and the wall itself
is covered with soft corals, tube and rope sponges, and star
corals with a huge sand patch at about 130 feet. |
| |
|
Hole
in the Wall
55-90 feet |
A hole in the
top of the reef drops vertically from 55 feet
and exits from the
face of the wall at 90 feet. Space
is limited to one diver in the chimney at a time. Growths
along the inside walls are brittle and sharp. Lots of plate
coral, schooling fish and lobsters. |
| |
|
| Real
Mans Wall
90 feet |
The
dive site starts with a large canyon leading out to 'the wall',
and exiting at about 90 ft. Pillar Corals are found here and
lots of schooling fish. Remnants of 'spur and groove' coral
formation form small ridges. Lobster, crabs, and other critters
that enjoy the recesses of the reef like to hang out.
|
| |
|
| The
Crack
50-100
feet
|
South
of Eel Garden, the mooring is in a large sandy area again
with garden eels. A deep crevice cuts down the wall from the
top at about 50 feet down to 100 feet. This area has loads
of Christmas tree worms and feather dusters. There's a large
black coral tree if you
exit the wide crevasse on the wall at 75 feet.
A large pillar coral is on the top edge of the wall. Schools
of yellowtail, schoolmasters, and mahogany snappers can be
seen. |
| |
|
| Thunderdome
15-35
feet |
Originally
was part of the set for a French game show. The
top of the steel structure is at 15 feet and the bottom at 35
feet. What remains of the dome is covered with scallops, clams,
Christmas tree worms, Secretary blennies and other small life.
Red stripe cleaning shrimp are often seen there, as well as
a resident barracuda, gray angelfish, and Queen Angelfish. Scattered
around the dome are coral heads. |
| |
|
Tiki
Huts
40-45 feet |
Just
offshore from the Amanyara on Malcolm Roads Beach, this site
starts at about 40-45 feet and great for blennies and gobies.
Knobby and corkscrew anemones
are common with golden and beaded crinoids found in many of
the nooks and crannies. Gray angelfish are also often seen on
this site |
| |
|
| Two
Step
40-100
feet
|
The
top of the wall starts at about 40 feet and drops sheer to
100 feet where there is a sandy shelf. The wall then drops
off into the deep. An old anchor is cleverly disguised as
a pillar coral. Nurse sharks are commonly seen as
well as
whitespot
filefish, blackbar soldierfish and squirrel fish. |
|
| |
| Sandbore
Channel |
| Lying
halfway between Providenciales and West Caicos, Sandbore Channel
is outside the marine park and has some of the best diving with
walls that are sloped or sheer. Good area to watch for for eagle
rays, dolphins and sharks. |
| |
|
| |
|
Land
of the Giants
40-110 feet |
This
dive area is found in a deep water channel between Provo and
West Caicos, leading to the Caicos Banks. Can be rough in the
winter months. An abundance of nutrients pass from
the banks to the reefs and sometimes this reduces the visibility
and makes this site undiveable. These conditions are often the
best though for spotting large pelagics...... sharks, eagle
and manta rays so keep your eyes fixed out into the “blue”.
|
| |
|
| Tons
of Sponge
30-100
feet |
Diveable only during an incoming tide, the topography
is mixed with huge sand patches at the top of the wall, shallow
reefs with holes and hiding places for fish. Great site for
watching fish.....schools of Atlantic spadefish, horse-eye
jacks, grunts, angelfish, rock beauties, and chromis.Watch
for lobsters, channel-clinging crabs, eels, and stingrays
too. |
|
|
| |
|
| West
Caicos |
|
| Located
10 miles southwest of Providenciales, West Caicos is an uninhabited
island offering pristine walls and numerous pelagics. Caribbean,
black tip reef shark, and eagle rays are often seen along
the sheer walls. This is your best chance to spot wild flamingos,
osprey and brown pelican. West Caicos is approximately 45
minutes from our dock. |
| |
|
| |
|
| Beckys
Beautiful Bottom |
Huge
coral heads and barrel sponges line this wall, each containing
a community of fish and creatures. Great site for photographers
who like shooting macro shots. You'll find hermit crabs, pederson
cleaning shrimp, and corkscrew anemones. |
| |
|
| Boat
Cove (aka Rock Garden Interlude)
40-130
feet |
The
top of the wall is a sand plateau with many small coral heads.
The sandy area attracts many rays and flounders as well as
yellow coral shrimp. The reef on top of the wall has small
clumps of staghorn coral and is home to grunts, snappers,
groupers, rooster-tail conch, and many juvenile fish. Lots
of fish found on this site. |
| |
|
| Brandywine
55-120
feet |
The
top of this dive site starts at 55 feet and drops down the sheer
wall to about 120 feet. Sand chutes lead down to the wall and
create overhangs where fish can hide. You will find giant sea
anemones, blue tangs, soft corals, tiger-tailed sea cucumbers,
and white spotted filefish.Watch for azure vase sponges as well
along the wall and on top of the reef. |
| |
|
| Coney
Island
5-25
feet |
A
small, sloping mini wall in about 25 feet of water is home
to several small caves and overhangs great for finding those
elusive critters that like to hide in the shade, including
the occasional nurse shark. A lush coral field is located
in 40 ft of water and is home to many fish, southern stingrays,
eels and flying gurnards. On top of the wall, the depth gets
as shallow as 5-15ft, but is one of the prettiest parts of
the dive. Large 'sinkholes' are home to giant sea anemones,
and the small creatures that live in and around them. |
| Devil's
Horn
55 -80 feet |
This
site is named for a large coral outcropping ('the horn') on
the wall. It starts in about 55 ft, with the top of the horn
in approx 80 ft of water. A
spectacular view greets the diver as you round the top of
the horn with schooling fish congregating on the top of the
out cropping. Under the boat sometimes you'll see large Southern
Stingrays, and beds of garden eels |
| |
|
| Driveway
(aka Skislope aka
Yankee
Town)
40-100
feet
|
A
sand area with
scattered coral
heads lies
under the mooring in about 40 feet of water and
leads into a sand chute that heads down through the reef from
50 feet to a ledge at about 80-100 feet where the wall drops
vertically to the deep.
All along the wall,
as at
many of the sites at West Caicos, divers will find black coral
and purple tube sponges, with yellow-headed jawfish, golden-tailed
morays, groupers, black durgons. The ledge area features some
excellent growth of plate and star corals. |
| |
|
Elephant
Ear
Canyon
40-90 feet |
Named
after the largest known orange elephant ear sponge in the
Turks and Caicos. It's a huge one.......nearly
11 feet in diameter and
almost perfectly round.
The top of the reef starts in 40 feet of water where coral
heads are scattered amongst sand chutes that extend down the
reef. The sponge is located at the foot of the sand
chutes in 95 feet of water.
|
| |
|
| Gully
50-70
feet
|
The
Gully gets its name from a cut in the reef that forms two
distinct sections before dropping off vertically. The wall
begins in about 50 feet and the top of the wall is a dense
coral reef with many cleaning stations. Divers
begin by swimming through this cut and dropping onto the wall
at 85 feet. The vertical wall here has many undercuts covered
in sponges, black corals and long tentacled anemones. If you're
real lucky, you may see a redbanded lobster at about 75 feet. |
| |
|
| Pot of Gold |
This anchor site at the North end of the Gully was aptly
named, as one diver explained, for the myriad of rainbow colours
in the fish and wall as you drop into the abyss! You might
not find treasure of the metallic kind here, but this deep,
sheer wall, is reward enough!
Terry and Barbara
had this to say.. "The diving was nothing less than spectacular.
We were able to dive West Caicos
for 4 days, the
highlight of which was encountering a 35ft
Humpback whale underwater.Terry (photo to
left) and the friendly grouper that loves to play and be touched.
|
| |
|
| |
|
WOW!!
Here's
Jim Reiter (who stayed with us at Harbour Club Villas) diving
with a humpbacked whale.......imagine
this after some 400 dives. Mickey
of Flamingo Divers snapped this amazing
photo. You just simply can't top this!
|
| |
|
| |
|
| Highway
to Heaven
50-100
feet |
Located
towards the north end of West Caicos , the dive begins in
50–60 feet of water with a large colony of garden eels in
the sand chute resembling a highway or alley. This is one
of our deeper dives with coral arches and swim-throughs around
80-100 feet. There are two unique and rare rope sponge colonies
whose form mimics staghorn coral. The site is a popular one
because of the many stingrays and frequent shark sightings.
Thank's Terry for the great shark photo!
Lots of scorpion fish, Atlantic spadefish and large eagle
rays too. |
| |
|
| Magic
Mushroom
20-85
feet |
The
site is named after the rock formation near West Caicos that
is shaped like a giant mushroom. The wall is buttressed with
sand chutes covered with rope sponge and black coral leading
down the wall. Look for the huge black coral tree at about 80-85
feet. On
top of the wall,
for a shallow
2nd dive, the large coral heads are home to numerous fish,
eels, and conch. |
| |
|
Southwest
Reef
50-70 feet |
This
reef has a deeper wall beginning between 50-70 feet. The wall
is vertical with enormous barrel sponge, deep water gorgonians
and frequent sightings of shark and eagle ray. |
| |
|
| Sunday
Service |
At
the top of the wall on this site, three sand chutes extend
to the sloping wall. Divers will find lots of schools of small
barracuda, squirrel fish, yellow goat fish and several members
of the hamlet family. |
| |
|
Whiteface
(aka
The Anchor)
70-100 feet |
The
name of this dive site comes
from the steep cliffs along the shoreline. Along the top of
the wall is an expansive reef with some impressive stands
of pillar coral.
Fish
include barracuda, parrot fish, French angelfish, longsnout
butterflyfish and groupers. Just north of the mooring is a
crack in the wall with a large anchor from the mid 1800's
embedded at 70 feet. The wall is well undercut to a depth
of about 100 feet. Keep your eyes out for the many white-spotted
morays along this site. |
| Yankeetown
50-55
feet |
This
site is named for the community that existed on West Caicos
from the late 1800's – 1920's. The top of the reef is in 50-55
feet and is fairly flat with scattered coral heads. Amongst
these coral heads are large tube sponges, star coral, and plate
corals along the wall. You'll also find large Nassau
Groupers, porcupinefish, honeycomb cowfish, puddinglifes, and
trumpetfish |
| |
|
| |
|
| French
Cay |
|
| Alan
Knox came all the way from jolly old England and stayed at
Harbour Club Villas for three weeks diving with FiFi, Asa
and the gang at Caicos Adventures. He is letting me use his
terrific photos and here's what he had to say......
French
Cay is a tiny atoll (only a few hundred feet long) about 15
miles due south of Providentiales. It offers virtually no
shelter from the seas so needs to be dived in good weather.
It is well worth the 50 minute boat ride, with some of the
best walls and reefs on the islands.
It
has two distinguishing features which make for great dives.
First, the wall faces south and is usually well lit by the
sun's rays. Secondly, the top of the wall is relatively shallow
at around 40 feet and well covered with coral clumps, rather
than the sand bottom which is found on West Caicos sites.
This offers divers a rich sunny playground in shallow water
with long dives.
|
|
| |
|
G
Spot
150 feet |
I
dived the G spot (named after the Gorgonion soft corals which
abound), and Coral Gardens sites with Caicos Adventures on
their 54 foot catamaran. At the edge of the wall near the
fixed mooring lives a large spotted drum inside a coral clump.
On the wall we saw a turtle and were visited from the blue
by two magnificent eagle rays who came close to greet us (
see picture). Barrel sponges, fans and other hard and soft
corals abound on the wall. Above the wall we saw a wide variety
of fish amongst the corals, including a large sting ray, yellow
snappers, blue chromis, queen triggers, goat fish, cow fish,
butterfly fish and rock beauties. To round off two magnificent
dives we were joined under tha boat by a large school of horse
eyed jacks and a large barracuda. This site offers the best
in Caribbean diving ........ Alan Knox |
| |
|
Turks & Caicos Dive Sites Providenciales, French Cay and West Caicos 
