Finbar`s Reef
By Mick O'Loughlin
This reef on the northwest side of Grand Turk is named after the
former island magistrate, a cork man who came to island on a two
year contract but is still here 40 years later. The funny thing
is Finbarr didn’t find this reef, indeed he has never even
dived it. But like a lot of things on this island you got to have
the local perspective to find the real story. When Mitch Rolling
founder of Blue Water Divers, (grandturkscuba.com) first started
diving here about 23 years ago it was difficult to pinpoint the
various dive sites that he found as there were very few unique
features on shore to mark against with the exception of a few
isolated houses including the house occupied by the newly arrived
Irishman. This was directly on shore from the reef where a large
anchor sat on the ledge of a great drop off to infinity and thus
it became known as Finbar`s reef and has so ever since. Mitch
has in the interim buoyed 25 dives along the west coast of the
island and has logged over 8000 dives in the process. We were
with him when he logged number 8000 and shared the cake on the
boat.
And to get away from the diving Mitch straps on the guitar and
plays with a band in the Osprey Beach hotel a couple of nights
a week, Rhona in her inimitable fashion joined him on bongos on
one evening to up the tempo with a unique Irish rhythm.
Grand Turk is one of the Turks and Caicos chain of islands due
south and a little bit east of the Bahamas and about 100k due
north of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti). It’s
only about seven miles long and a couple of miles across. Formerly
a British colony it is now independent and this small country
is trying earnestly to develop a tourism business, which is currently
concentrated on the island of Providenciales where there is a
great deal of hotel and harbour development to accommodate the
giant cruise liners of the Caribbean. While this bodes well for
their economy it may only be a matter of time before this laid
back quiet island succumbs to package holiday makers and hordes
of day trippers off the ships.
Once ruled from the Bahamas, Grand Turk’s only product
of value was salt which was produced from the many natural salinas
around the island. The beast of burden of the era was the humble
donkey and once the salt production ceased the d
onkeys
were abandoned and now many wild donkeys are to be found wandering
the island, and survive quite well on the scrub grass but suffer
during the long dry spells and subsequently can cause havoc as
they forage for water in the grounds of the many wealthy ex pat
British and American residents. The salinas are still home to
a local population of pink flamingos which make great sight early
in the mornings.
Columbus is believed to have come ashore here in 1492 when the
island was inhabited by an indigenous Indian people known as Lucayians.
In the inimitable 
fashion
of the conquistadors these people were completely wiped out within
two hundred years between the abuse of enslavement and diseases
brought from Europe.
Admiral Nelson encountered the French fleet there in 1783 and
is credited with suffering his only naval defeat in the seas to
south of Grand Turk. In the advent of the cold war the US established
a tracking station on the island to keep an eye on potential incoming
from Russia and in 1962 John Glenn splash landed 40 miles from
the island after his trip to space in the Mercury Atlas mission
and was brought to the US base to recover. The base ceased operations
in 1984 but some of the large masts and dishes are still rusting
away there.
Many of the locals are survivors of the salt production era and
some from the slave trade which had a trading post here also.
Many others are from the Dominican Republic and more recently
Haiti.
Grand Turk rises dramatically from deep water making for some
spectacular drop offs, the famous wall, apparently going all the
way down to 2000m, I’ll leave that to Shane to confirm sometime.
The east side of the island facing the Atlantic tends to be wind
swept most of the time but this leaves the inside of the island
relatively calm and sheltered. The reef drop off lies about a
quarter mile off shore and inside this the water is a beautiful
turquoise colour but the rip tides are not to be underestimated
and its best to swim parallel to the shore as against trying to
get out to the reef unless conditions are absolutely flat calm.
Blue Water Divers are one of three small dive operators on the
island all based on the west coast and within a mile of each other.
All use the same type of boat, a 7m skiff with 70 or 90 hp engines
on the back and generally travel up and down the coast to the
various dive sites all of which are along the reef so you are
never more than half a mile off shore. The best of the dives are
where the drop offs are most dramatic and particularly where there
a cracks in reef near the surface which allow you to descend through
a canyon or arch effect. The top of the reef tends to be at about
8m and spreads for a bout 10 to 20 m inwards towards the shore
from the drop off before giving way to sand. Therefore the best
of the diving with the greatest concentration of fish and coral
is close to the drop off down to about 25m. After that depth there
is very little life, with the exception of some great gorgonian
fan corals clinging to the wall. I did see an enormous crab on
a ledge at 30m and wondered how long he had been there because
there appeared to be no way for him to get off without falling
into the abyss, and given his size he would never be able to climb
off the ledge.
All of the usual reef fish are represented but with a few local
variations and colour changes. In particular there are a number
of dramatically patterned groupers (Nassau Grouper), silver barracuda,
hawksbill turtles, grunts, parrot fish, porcupine fish, hawkfish,
mullets etc. There was however a fish particular to these seas
that I had 
`nt
come across before, the drum fish, and like many other fish, changes
dramatically from juvenile to adult states. As luck would have
it I saw one on my last dive. Unfortunately it wouldn’t
come out from the shadows so that I could get a decent photo.
It’s quite a small fish with what appears to be a very long
dorsal fin like a feathered plume when they are young. This shortens
as they mature but remains quite a unique feature.
Unless you are a complete beginner the Divemasters tend to leave
you to do your own thing in the water. They will brief you on
the boat about the dive site and what the best aspects of the
dive are. Getting your gear sorted, buddy checks, buoyancy control,
tank content and usage, are your own responsibility and nobody
is going to look after them for you. Also they operate on the
American style two tank dive principle in that you go out on the
boat in the morning with two tanks each, do your first dive and
after only about an hour surface interval go back in for a second
dive. Even with a computer you need to be very careful to keep
within NDL limits doing this type of diving over a few days and
you should make your case for a longer interval between dives
with the Divemaster. Having said that there have only been two
referrals to the chamber in ten years and these were just as a
precaution, (their claim). The chamber is 100k away on the main
island of Provincidales which is inclined to focus the head a
bit. We did ten dives over six days and only one was poor and
this because of strong wind on shore which stirred up the sand
and reduced the visibility.
Grand Turk like many of the better kept secrets takes a bit of
planning to get there. There is an option of a weekly flight from
London to Provincidales and taking a further small plane on the
last 100k to the outer islands. Or if you prefer to break the
journey you can go via the US with the daily scheduled Delta flight
Dublin to Atlanta and c
ontinue
with Delta down to “Provo” as the locals call it,
(I didn’t go into the problems this might cause in trying
to get the DUP annual holiday organised).
Best time to visit is Christmas through to May as this is dryer
and cooler. It gets too hot through the summer and is subject
to storms in the autumn. It rained for the first time in three
months when we were there for about 2 hours and that was some
sight, but within an hour it was back to blue skies and sunshine.
We were staying with a friend but can advise that what few hotels
there are, are small but attractive and generally good value.
Food and drink prices tend to be on a par with the US as most
items tend to be imported from Miami.
But the diving is good and the drop off spectacular in places,
a good variety of life, but without the dramatic colour of Red
Sea coral reefs and fish. Good for photography as there is little
current and visibility is 20 to 30m most days and the fish are
a little like the humans in this part of the world, laid back
and not in any hurry.
As usual diving on your behalf were,
Mick OLoughlin
Rhona Mannion
See photos of Grand Turk sea life
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