Dive #108 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log

A sheephead porgy, a new sighting for us
Videograph by Rich Torkington in TCI 2002

Dive Journal: This morning 2 full boats are headed out to Grand Turk, with Debbie and Michael as captains. The nine mile trip over there is fairly calm with Debbie at the helm of our boat, and we enjoy the trip. When we arrive at Tunnels, we see another dive boat tied up already, and so we’ll have to find another place. We head back towards the south a little bit to a site called Windmill, due simply to its proximity to an onshore wind tubine electricity generation station, and both boats tie up there.

Janel has stayed back on Salt Cay this morning, so it’s just Linda and John and me. There are probably 10 other divers among the 2 boats. Micheal will lead the dive, although he states he’s never been to this site before. Linda will dive with John and so I’ll follow the rest of the group.

The dive starts in sandy flats peppered with coral patches. The group slowly swims over to a wall area that has some good overhangs, and I spy a few new fish I haven’t seen off Salt Cay: a sheephead porgy and a glasseye snapper. For brief period I explore some of the deeper reaches of the wall, but did not see much reason to stay down there, a couple of bar jacks maybe.

As usual, I enjoy exploring around in a wide pattern under the boat using my last 15 minutes of air while others finished the dive. I spent quite a while looking for a good peacock flounder but came up empty. The garden eels at this site are great and I started checking out several species of gobies. Nearing my exit, I enjoyed a southern stingray touring through the area under the boat.

“Welcome to Salt Cay!”