2000 Chapbook

These islands, situated south of the Bahamas and north of the Virgins, feature awesome walls and some of the clearest water in the world. On a good day, visibility is about 200'.... South Caicos wall, off Cockburn Harbor, has a stone arch at 50', a lip as sharp as a knife, and a breathtaking vertical face.... Provo, the glitzy island, has spectacular beaches, but it's at least an hour's boat ride to the better diving of South or West Caicos. Grand Turk, on the other hand, is a funky, laid-back island that has a wall right offshore. Salt Cay has a guest house and decent diving; West and North Caicos have no dive facilities; a small dive operation on South Caicos has had a series of ups and downs (mostly downs), but it now has a new owner who hopefully will do better... Bring a long-sleeved shirt during the winter months; it can get cool in the evenings, and water temperatures can drop into the mid-70s.... Stop by a post office and check out the marine life commemorative stamps U/W photo contests are held periodically here, and part of the prize is having your photo placed on a stamp.... Don't be tempted by contraband; for decades the Turks and Caicos have been a clandestine refueling stop-over for dope-smuggling pilots from South America; a Customs dope-sniffing dog will greet you in Miami....

For full reviews of the following Turks and Caicos destinations, see:

Salt Cay, Undercurrent- July 1998

Grand Turk, Undercurrent- June 1998

Sea Dancer,October 1998, Tom Chase, Prospect, KY. Vis: 40-70 ft. Water: 85 degrees. Restrictions: 130' deepest dive on first dive. Air on first dive, Nitrox after. Crew knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. Chef Stan outstanding! Great people. Weather outstanding. Crew was safety focused. Coral healthy. Good photography table. Excellent night diving. Older boat was challenging for my height, 6' 5''. Due to wind and tides we made 4 dives on one location (two afternoon, night and sunrise), the least dramatic and interesting location (Wineglass). Wish I had listened to previous divers from the Chapbook and brought fewer clothes. Spent whole week in swimsuit, t-shirt and barefoot. (Peter Hughes Diving, Inc.; Phone 800-669-9391 or 800-932-6237; Fax 305-669-9475; e-mail dancer@peterhughes.com; website www.peterhughes.com)

Sea Dancer,October 1998, Galen H. White, Lawrence, KS. Vis: 70-100 ft. Water: 83-85 degrees. Outstanding service, food, dive operation, dive location and all. Free Nitrox.

Sea Dancer,October 1998, Sue & Thomas Downey, Fresco, TX. Vis: 50-100 ft. Water: 84-86 degrees. Crew was outstanding. Capt. Ben, Brad, Trina, Kacy, Iris, and Stanley professional and catered to every need, no hassles. Dive times 8AM, 11AM, 2PM, 5PM, 8PM. Wish there had been some flexibility. Often we would prefer to do a midmorning or mid-afternoon dive. Diving was easy and comfortable. Saw lots of creatures!

Sea Dancer,October 1998, Timothy Black, Fort Worth, TX. Vis: 60-100 ft. Water: 84 degrees. Good dives, lots of dives, Nitrox. One night dive guide would have been helpful, everyone got lost. Advertised it goes everywhere in the Turks & Caicos, but only went to Provo and Caicos not Grand Turk.

Sea Dancer,December 1998, Ray Barry, Nokomis, FL. Vis: 75-100 ft. Water: 75-77 degrees. Restriction: 130 ft. Not a world class destination. Few large reef fish. Lack of fish in general. Lynx Air terrible. Dirty, poor service. Trip was overpriced and overrated. Dove the same reef over and over. Boat had generator problems. I would have rather stayed home.

Sea Dancer,January 1999, Robert & Gweneth Schwab (schwabrerix@netcom.com), Peoria, IL. Vis: 80-120 ft. Crew gave us a great week of diving. Water 77 degrees and always a cold breeze. A hooded vest would have made diving more comfortable. Hot towels after the night dive, the crew made hot chocolate and had it ready on the dive deck. Spotted eagle rays every dive. Great trip to have a video camera.

Sea Dancer,February 1999, Barry Lipman, Brookfield, CT. Sunny, with occasional cloud cover. Water: mid to low 70's, 3 mm suit or more needed. Reef sharks on several dives. My sixth live-aboard, up there with the best as to service, accommodations, food. Captain Nigel, Brad, Kacy, Iris, and Chef Stanley put out 110% effort, enjoyment, and safety. Highlight was being serenaded by whale songs while diving along deep and healthy walls on almost every dive. Walls started 60 to 70 feet, and shallows were rarely shallower than 50 feet, so diving profiles tended to run deep, but the Hughes fleet has a great hang bar for safety stops, encouraging longer and safer hangs. Saw some pelagics including occasional reef sharks and eagle rays. Humpback whales seen from the boat, but never underwater. Not much macro life, even on night dives. Diversity and quantity of fish life below average for Caribbean. I'd bring a dry suit this time of year, not for the water as for the air afterwards; the trade winds had my teeth chattering after every dive! Very good time. Memory of diving to the songs of the whales will always stay with me.

Sea Dancer,February 1999, Don Beukers, San Jose, CA. Vis: 60-80 ft. Water: 72-78 degrees. Peter Hughes oldest boat (time to make a change). Crew great. Due to the AA pilot fiasco, there were only 10 guests, which was wonderful, otherwise it could be crowded. Weather was so-so; because of wind, we were forced to do most of the diving off West Caicos. Food spicy, even the spaghetti. Location of boat in port leaves something to be desired; too bad they could not dock in the yacht harbor.

Sea Dancer,March 1999, Alan Thayer, Commerce TWP, MI. Vis: 100-125 ft. Water: 77-78 degrees. Restrictions: 130 ft. depth. Cabins showing age. Service outstanding. Nigel (Capt.), Nick, and J.T. personable and cheerfully helped when asked. Iris wonderful. Stanley's reputation as chef is richly deserved. Dove Nitrox. Used air computer to add a margin of safety. Dives are deep and the 130' limit can sneak up on you. I've been on Wave Dancerand Sea Danceris right on par. Again, Peter Hughes delivers.

Sea Dancer,March 1999, Stephanie Mills (seawasp@earthlink.net). Oldest boat in the Hughes fleet but well laid out and lends an intimate feeling. Important to have a group that gets along because there's NO place to run. Great weather so pseudo-outdoor venue for meals worked out well. Nothing like eating with the sea breeze and spectacular sunsets. Dive deck well organized. Cabins clean and cozy. (this is coming from someone who is shorter than 6'2" and sleeps in one position all night!) The 5 crew members did a better job of handling the 18 guests than other live-aboards. They would have dinner and hang out with us. Stan, the chef, is a magician in his little galley. Creates wonderful dishes. Iris, the hostess, is always smiling and chatting. Nick, a funny guy with enough energy to power Provo if it were harnessed! J.T. divemaster and mechanic extraordinaire. Captain Nigel served as divemaster, photographer and Monkey LaLa mixer. Site charts outstanding! You can see them on Peter's website. Walls start around 60' and no relaxed hanging out at 20' to off gas as most reefs were 40-50'. Hang bar was de rigeur for the majority of dives. Rock & Roll: went to 80', saw a couple spotted eels, coral shrimp, huge barracuda...then went to 50' and poked around. 57 minute dive. G-Spot Yah...the women all loved this dive! Two dives, one with ripping current. Beautiful shear wall with lots of black coral, lots of juvenile spotted drums, cowfish, giant moray, gorgeous gray angels, filefish, hogfish, triggers huge reef shark, 4 eagle rays, 3 gigantic lobsters in a sponge. Crack: Lots of black coral and huge crabs and a big crack to swim in, sandfalls. Whales; saw a mother and her calf in the distance, framed by the sunset. I even got to be an international supermodel on fashion show night....my 5 minutes of fame, sigh....

Sea Dancer,May 1999, Grace Hampton, Merritt Island, FL. Vis: 50-100 ft. Water: 79-81 degrees. Restrictions: dive computers, max. 130 ft., dive with buddy. Of the 17 divers, I was the only one wearing only lycra skins. On the 4th dive of the 5th day I got skin bends on my abdomen that I thought was jelly fish larvae sting. When I brought my discomfort to the attention of crew member, Kacy, she immediately provided oxygen. Kacy called Dr. Bourne in Provo and gave him an account of the incident and my condition. Kacy and Capt. Nigel Beatty handled the situation with concern and professionally. After 30 min. of oxygen my red burning, swollen skin faded. I was instructed to awaken the crew if symptoms returned during the night. Dr. Bourne asked to see me the next morning. After the boat docked in Provo, Kacy drove me to the doctor's office. I was given undivided attention and a thorough consultation. Dr. Bourne advised me to not dive for 3 days. The cause of the incident was "insufficient clothing". I was cold and tired. The entire crew showed sincere concern and are to be commended.

Sea Dancer,May 1999, Phil Hampton, Merritt Island, FL. Vis: 40-70 ft. Water: 79-81 degrees. Crew fantastic; lots of help and tender loving care when my wife Grace got skin bends. Accommodations great. Food was good, but too spiced with paprika and pepper. I rate the Belize Aggressor IIIand Wave Danceran A. The Sea Dancergets a B+. Thimble jellies were abundant, forming a solid blanket on some dives. Sea Lice bothered most divers. At weeks end some had oozing open sores. I wore a lycra hood and had no problem. Wall diving at Provo N.W. corner and West Caicos are awesome. Third live-aboard trip to West Caicos.

Sea Dancer,June 1999, Michael Kates, Atlanta, GA. First live-aboard trip. My wife and I had a blast. Crew upbeat and professional; high energy and relaxed with the guests. Nick the engineer had an impressive CD collection; just like O2 buildup, there is only so much Jimmy Buffet I can take. Would moor at one site for two morning dives then move to another for two afternoon and night dives. Diving sometimes spectacular for the Caribbean, sometimes much less so. Reefs around West Caicos and French Cay are healthy and diverse. Vis 30 to 100+ feet. Water 79 - 81 F. Some guests unhappy with occasional moderate to strong currents, so the Captain tried to steer us toward the gentler sites. Did not make a trip to West Sand Spit, with supposedly near-virgin reefs, strong currents and big, toothy fish. None of the sites lacked dramatic topography and great fish watching, both big and small. Plenty of jack, spadefish, barracuda, sharks (Caribbean and blacktip) and other pelagics on most sites. Spotted a bull shark and a bonnethead. Funny how an otherwise mediocre dive is boosted several notches by a juicy predator, the bigger the better. At night, the reef crawled with octopus, channel clinging crab, nudibranchs and decorator crabs. Stanley, the chef, is a diver's dream. Plenty of good food! Several months back we mentioned no fried foods, nothing hot and spicy. Stanley made sure our meals were as tasty and exciting as everyone else's. The boat, though not new and flashy, is impeccably maintained, clean and comfortable.

Turks & Caicos Aggressor,July 1999, Andrea Ocamb-Winters, San Ramon, CA. Vis: 40-100 ft. Water: 80-84 degrees. Restrictions: No deco diving, return w/500 psi. 130 ft. for Nitrox. My first live-aboard and I didn't get seasick. Nice reefs and walls. A trip where one could easily get bent no shallows in which to off gas, just the deco bar. Fantastic dive operation, crew and boat. I wish I had known how few clothes I needed. Other than swimsuits, I brought twice what I wore. Zero currents. Not as much macro as Bonaire but great diving. (Aggressor Fleet: Ph: 800-348-2628 or 504-385-2628; Fax: 504-384-0817; e-mail: info@aggressor.com;website www.aggressor.com)

Turks & Caicos Aggressor,August 1999, Mary K. Wicksten, Bryan, TX. Water: 80-84 degrees, Vis: 30-50 ft. Restrictions: 100'. Competent captain and crew. Photo rental gear, developing, photo help good. Dive briefings accurate. "Quad" cabin too cramped, bathroom in hall. Good food and lots of it. Corals in good shape, walls are sheer drops coated with black corals, sponges, etc. Blackcap basslets, black jack close up. Visits from eagle rays, reef sharks and huge permit, vast schools of jacks and Creole wrasse. Huge lobsters and crabs, cute small creatures on night dives. Not much to do on Provo. Visit the iguanas on Little Water Cay.

Turks & Caicos Aggressor,September 1999. Eliot and Jain Sekuler (ejsekuler@mciworld.com), Los Angeles, CA. Water: 84 degrees. Viz 15-50 feet, averaging 30 feet. Used skins with Darlex fleece, changed to 3mm neoprene for night dives. Seas choppy because hurricanes (Dennis and Cindy) skirted the area, sharply reducing the visibility, a pity because we could only imagine the dramatic drop-offs. I'd avoid playing the odds of weather during late August to mid-September. Good diving with barracuda, reef sharks, peacock flounder, stingrays, turtles and ubiquitous schools of yellowtail snapper, grunts and jacks. Night dives: massive lobster, octopus, squid, spotted morays and sleeping parrot fish. Board Saturday, begin diving Sunday, with five dives/per day for five days. On Friday, the boat returns to port after a single morning dive. Instead of a second morning dive, they offered us a trip to an iguana sanctuary. A tip to future passengers: get a second Friday dive instead. The sanctuary was the anticlimax. Food hearty and plentiful. Crew friendly and helpful. Dive your own profile, all restrictions (130 feet, return with 500 psi) were suggested but not enforced. Only one crew member in the water per dive, which made for independent diving but had a downside when the dozen divers wanted to follow along with the very knowledgeable Captain Piers Van Der Wait as he pointed out hidden critters and macro opportunities. Nitrox an extra charge.

Wind Dancer,April 1999, Donald Johnson (donde@dol.net), Dover, DE. Vis: 100-150 ft. Water: 78-82 degrees. Water: choppy, no currents. Dive Restrictions: Usual 130 Feet. Boat crowded, however operation was as advertising said, lives up to the best standards. Food could have been better, but had a never before cook. Lots of groupers and friendly! GPT great pixs of a Hawksbill feeding on a soft coral. Will be a great trip when more moorings are set up which takes time. Learned what it was like to end a dive, surfacing to find the boat 1/4 mile away. The mooring broke loose and no one on board noticed it with 16 divers scattered all over! (Peter Hughes Diving, Inc.; Phone 800-669-9391 or 800-932-6237; Fax 305-669-9475; e-mail dancer@peterhughes.com; website www.peterhughes.com)

Wind Dancer,April 1999, Constance Boland, Huntington Beach, CA. Second week of new itinerary, specifically Grand Turk. We spent a week aboard this boat in 1993 when she was the Truk Aggressor. Stable, comfortable with adequate staterooms and private heads. During the winter she operates as a whale watching enterprise for the spectacular humpbacks of the Northern Atlantic who migrate to the Silver Banks of the Dominican Republic. Sunny and mild, in the low 80's, water 78 F, we wore 3 mm suits and caps and were happy with that level of thermal protection for 4-5 dives a day. Some photographers and would dive solo. Vis exceeded 80 feet and close to 150' on exceptional walls. Chief Minister's and Black Forest were breathtaking with sheer and undercut walls decorated with scroll, table and lace corals, tube and elephant ear sponges, sea plumes and fans, and of course, healthy black coral at 75 feet. Fish life was abundant and indifferent to divers. Large tiger and Nassau groupers presented nice shots. No nudibranchs, a few juvenile turtles. Crew worked hard. Help provided divers with body weaknesses for entry and exits off the stable and spacious stern. Dive briefings Informative and fun. Most dives we were tethered to a mooring, some new. With winds flaring one afternoon, the boat broke loose and drifted seaward. Ten divers were in the water. The crew responded professionally and all divers were ultimately picked up by the large boat, though some with long surface swims. One diver was forced to drop his weights due to a faulty BC. We suspect the crew did not use the rigid hull inflatable tied to the stern due to the height of the swells. The height of the Wind Dancerafforded us the sighting of the drifting divers in blue water to fulfill rescue. While the food was plentiful and adequate, no one had to worry about gaining weight. A relatively Inexperienced cook tried hard but the food was bland and not "meaty" enough for some of the heartier men on board. Even beginner divers would not find too much difficulty on this trip, as along as they watch their depth. A snorkeling trip to Gibbs' Cay was provided by a shore-based operation for the last afternoon for those of us who were loath to start packing. A bumpy 20 minute ride took us to the uninhabited cay where a rustic barbeque offered hot dogs and hamburgers along with glimpses of a Peregrine falcon, Southern stingrays in 2-3 feet of water being hand-fed like Stingray City and a 3' juvenile lemon shark who swam in for the scraps. A young eagle ray swam just outside arm's reach in snorkel depth for about a half-hour. Little protection (one inadequate tarp); there are no facilities. Turks Head Inn dining service lacking; The kitchen was undergoing renovations and the menu extremely limited, but pricey.

Wind Dancer,May 1999, Russ Lido, Sterling Hts. MI. Vis: 50-100 ft. Water: 76-80 degrees. Dive restrictions: 130 ft. First live-aboard trip. Wind Dancerrecently moved to Turks and Caicos from Bay Islands. Reefs great, coral in good shape. Lots of fish including schools of spotted eagle rays in South Caicos. Night dives were some of the nicest. Staff good and took care of any desires. Had a lot of fun with fellow passengers. Boat is great! Lots of room. Excellent dive set up. Food was outstanding. Five dives a day, four day and one night dive.

Wind Dancer,May 1999, Bethany L. Kolb (BethanyKolb@compuserve.com) Tucson, AZ. Vis: 40-80 ft. Water: 79-81 degrees. Restrictions: 130 ft. never checked; buddy system stated, not enforced. Camera table crowded with 5+ set-ups. Peter Hughes provides the consistent service. Staff professional and helpful. Most diving good, not great. Should investigate more diverse sites to set them apart from the land-based operations. Eagle's Nest off South Caicos delivered the goods, squadrons of eagle rays too numerous to count. Dramatic enough for four dives! Lack of reef fish. Flew AA through Provo, T&C Air to Grand Turk. No problems, airport in Provo is new and user friendly. Charged for extra weight on return to Provo, T&C Air was willing to negotiate. Recommend the Gibbs Cay trip, sting rays, free diving for conch and an all around pleasant way to spend an afternoon off gassing.

Wind Dancer,June 1999, Tom Rain, Irving, TX. Vis: 75-100 ft. Water: 80-82 degrees. Restrictions: 130 ft. max. Watch your computers, lunch at 12:30, dinner at 6:30, 1.5-hour surface interval. I started diving in 1995; this was my first live-aboard and it's at the top of my favorite trips. Small but adequate bedrooms. Excellent meals, excellent service and excellent diving. 24 dives in 5.5 days. Nice to be able to dive your own profiles!

Wind Dancer,August 1999, Diane Nash (dnash@erols.com), Mechanicsville, VA. Vis: 50-100 ft. Water: 78-82 degrees. Sunny, windy. Water: choppy, surge. Depth limits, surface 500 psi, 1-1/2 to 2 hr SI. Great trip the week before hurricane Daniel. Disappointed in the condition of some reefs. Lots of dead coral, sometimes the whole top of the wall was bleached. Most walls awesome. Dramatic overhangs on one wall literally took your breath away. But, these were few and far between. Great boat though the air conditioner in the salon died. It was windy enough to keep us cool topside. Should install fans in the salon and cabins to move air when needed. On night dives one diver wore a strobe light. If you got far from the boat and became low on air and saw this strobe and started swimming toward it there could be serious consequences. They should not permit strobe lights for a night dive. Dove with sharks, eagle rays, turtles and sting rays. Crew fantastic. Capt. Nick is the epitome of a Peter Hughes' Captain. He and his wife Christina are moving to Switzerland. Food was great.

Wind Dancer/Sea Dancer,August 1999, Cathi Sumner, Fredonia, KS. Vis: 60-80 ft. Water: 84-85 degrees. Did one week on Sea Dancerand then took small aircraft to Grand Turk for another week aboard Wind Dancer. Hurricane Dennis developed on top of us on a Tuesday night and kept us from diving all day on Wednesday. Vis was much worse Thursday. Missed the beat diving on South Caicos. Wind Danceris a much nicer boat but the crew on Sea Dancer was awesome. If you really want to dive West Caicos, Sea Danceris the way to go. Up to 5 dives per day and all but a few at West Caicos. I would have loved to go to French Caye but weather and one ill diver prevented it. The illness was not dive related and it seems they should have hired a day boat to make the trips back and forth to Provo. Missed 3 dives because of circumstances.

Wind Dancer,August 1999, Jean & Bob Kirkpatrick, Russellville, KY. Vis: 50-75 ft. Water: 83-86 degrees. Restrictions: 130', 550 psi remaining, 3m safety stop. Wind Dancermoved here in April so location is new to the crew - all of whom were terrific! Gave personal and smooth service. Diving was very good, tho' rough water prevented diving some of the best sites at Grand Turk. They are installing more moorings. Diving easy - listen to briefing, put on wet suit and go in. Gear set up on tanks, which they refilled in place with storage below. Nitrox available - assistance with tanks was happily provided. Boat lived up to Hughes' standards of safety, comfort and cleanliness cabins roomy enough, good storage. A/C in cabins and dining area/lounge. Food excellent. Other guests interesting and fun to be with. Excellent trip. Sighted squadron of 21 eagle rays.

Wind Dancer,August 1999, Bob Gray (gray.hamilton@bld.bls.com) Duluth, GA. Vis: 75-100 ft. Water: 80-85 degrees. Sunny. Water: calm. Restrictions: 500 psi back on board and 130 feet depth. Plenty of room for cameras on dive deck. Crew camera friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. One person flooded his Nikonos and a crew member cleaned it so he could operate it in a manual mode (electronics were shot). Camera-only fresh water. Boat is spacious and well-maintained. Dining area is air conditioned. Best dive deck I've used. Food just average, but plenty of wine made up the difference. Chef could use more experience. Grand Turk area is great. Saw school of 20-25 spotted eagle rays and 'danced' with mantas. Many turtles and several sharks. Enjoyable time. Wish I had packed less clothing. I'll rent dive lights rather than lug them next time.