Grand Turk is a small, flat tropical paradise. The Ruby Princess docked at the cruise ship center, which only has one pier, and as soon as you step off the end of the pier, white beaches and turquoise water stretch off in either direction. Immediately by the pier, there’s also a collection of the usual Caribbean shops and bars (including a Margaritaville).
I went on a gorgeous scuba diving excursion. The small group from the ship boarded a dive boat from Oasis Divers right from the beach not 30 yards away from the pier, and headed out to two locations along the wall of reefs that border Grand Turk on that side. The first site was called The Tunnels, had a maximum depth of 70 feet, and was a spectacular underwater cliff covered with all sorts of coral. We saw many colorful tropical fish, sea turtles, and other creatures. It’s difficult to describe what the experience is like, swimming along with a vibrant underwater wall on one side, teeming with life, and on the other side is the open ocean as the wall stretches into the depths.
The second site was called Coral Gardens and had similarly beautiful marine life. There were many schools of fish, including a school of black and silver angelfish the size of dinner plates. I took photos on the disposable underwater camera I bought at the CVS in Ft. Lauderdale, but when I came up from the two dives there was some condensation inside the supposedly waterproof case, so I’m not sure the photos will turn out. If they do, I’ll post them here later.
After leaving Grand Turk at sunset, we had a final day at sea before returning to Florida. Our day at sea was relaxing: we played our final Scrabble game of the cruise, and I read and finished up a little work that I brought with me. Now we’re almost all packed up and ready to disembark!
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