Cruise: Grand Turk

It's time to stand on dry land! We were up early, as our cabin was low down and at the back we could really hear the engines when the ship was maneuvering in to ports. No bad thing really as it was good to be up early on those days. We had ordered room service breakfast the night before and it arrived right on time - yummy bagels with smoked salmon. Room service is even better when it is free!

We then headed out to the forward stairs to get off the boat. The stairs were packed with people waiting to get off, but we didn't have to wait too long to go down to deck 0 - the benefits of being in the cheap rooms at the bottom :-)

We headed off the boat and to our only excursion that we had booked - snorkeling. We had to wait for a little while for everyone to arrive as debarkation was a little slow for some, but after a wait we were loaded up onto a boat and headed to "The Wall". 

Just in case you weren't sure where you were

Not much better than this!

It was around this point that the whole pot of coffee Matt drank for breakfast was making him a bit wobbly. Nevertheless, we got our snorkel gear on (we had our own) and jumped into the warm clear water. We were a way off the beach at the point where the reef drops off from 20-30 feet deep to over 7000 feet deep and it was amazing. The perfect time to try out our new underwater digital camera.

The fish were not afraid

Couldn't get much deeper than this. Definitely couldn't touch the bottom

We also sneaked some cereal off the boat. Turns out fish love cornflakes and will almost bite your fingers off to get it - those teeth are surprisingly sharp. It was very cool to be surrounded by so many fish everywhere. It wasn't a colourful coral reef but it was fun to swim around, back and forth over the wall and just watch all the fish. I even found a little zebra fish after swimming away from the group.

Just an idea of how many fish there were

This boat got washed ashore during a hurricane (I think the captain said Sandy)

After a while we got back on the boat and went to snorkel site number 2. This was closer to the beach with fewer fish but more sharks. I even got to swim down and touch one! Matt wasn't feeling too good at this point but he at least got in to see the nurse sharks hanging out.

Nurse sharks (note: no sharknados here)

Matt doing his thing. Much shallower here.

Here's a video of the sharks and me swimming down to touch it. It's a much better quality on my laptop but I had to degrade it to get it to upload. Anyway, hopefully you get the point!

Back on the boat and back to shore. After waiting a while at the beach and me searching the terminal area for a can of something fizzy we decided to head down the beach. We walked straight past Margaritaville (a nice pool but the beach was better) and past the main beach area and lounge chairs. We made it to Jack's Shack, and enjoyed some conch fritters (not as good as I hoped) and a local beer (better than I hoped). After a while in the sun, we were getting pretty hot so it was a stroll back down the beach, a stop in duty free and back on the boat. Getting back on was quick and easy but we watched everyone else in a huge line from the 3rd floor promenade with a nice cold drink!

I can't remember what we did that evening, but it more than likely involved karaoke, food and drink. Another early start the next day so we didn't stay out too late. What a great day in Turks and Caicos!!

Excited about snorkel time in Grand Turk