Princess Cruise: Sail to the Caribbean
Climb Aboard!
Thu. Nov. 22
Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos Islands [Catamaran & Snorkeling]
Landing at Grand Turk I was surprised to be able to see the whole island just from the sea. I later learned that Grand Turk is actually only 7 miles in length, having to be the smallest island I've ever been on. We were then led to a Catamaran for our excursion and let me tell you, this boat was huge! Much bigger than it looks in the picture, holding about 100~ people. As we sailed around the island we made small talk with some of our fellow ship members as the crew members were handing out some fruit punch and water. They stated that there would be some rum punch that they'd be handing out after our diving since they were a 'party boat.' We went pretty far out into the ocean to where a large reef was and we noticed that this must've been the prime spot to go snorkeling since the area was cluttered with other ships.
While we were given the basic instructions of how to snorkel my sister came towards me and our mom looking very alarmed. "There's jellyfish in the water!" she exclaimed. I, of course, got a bit nervous about jumping in, but I also didn't want to miss out on an experience that I've been looking forward to. I would hope that the crew members would alert us if they meant any harm as well, so I trusted the situation and both my mom and I jumped in.
Upon jumping in, I notice that the water in Grand Turk was much cooler than Princess Cays. The wind had picked up over the span of our vacation and there were many clouds in the sky so it was harder to get warm, but the view from underwater was as beautiful as ever. I have to say the Princess Cays takes the cake for the coral reef that I just loved, but Grand Turk had much more fish that swam around.
We swam away from the boats and were met with the sudden end of the reef, dropping deep into the depths of the ocean. I'll be honest here. As beautiful as I find the ocean, it's depths often scare me. Especially if I can't see anything underneath me, that freaks me out entirely. I tried my best to stay away from the ledge and not look too much at it, attempting to stare at the cute fishies instead.
So we did indeed find jellyfish! I think that over the whole excursion I'd seen about a dozen or so jellyfish. At first, I had been terribly spooked and didn't want anything to do with it. My mom kept reassuring me that if they stung then we would already be feeling it as soon as we jumped in, but even so, I still avoided them. (Just in case, ya know?) I had gotten really close to one and saw little green electricity jolting through its tentacles as it swam past and I quickly shooed it away.
As I had been swimming and getting used to the colder water I see a whole school of yellowtail snappers all surrounding one of our guides. On closer inspection, I see him holding a bottle full of some sort of fish food that they just loved. A few people started surrounding him to touch the fish and it became harder to take pictures so if you're wondering what's with the crowd of people, that's why. ^^; They were beautiful though, it's probably the first fish that I've seen up so close and personal before. Most of the fish back in Hawaii would turn tail and swim away, but here they seemed friendly and knew that the people here meant them no harm. (And free food, right?)
I had seen one barracuda as well as a pufferfish but I wasn't able to take a great picture without diving too far. So here's what I'd say if you come onto this cruise: If you're looking for a beautiful coral reef? Go to Princess Cays' snorkeling excursion. But if you're looking for fish interaction than come to Grand Turk's snorkeling excursion. Afterward, they sail to a small island so you can party, listen to music, and drink rum punch on the shore. It was really fun!
This is the last post for the Caribbean Cruise series, I truly hope you liked it and drop a like if you enjoyed them! Thanks so much for reading ^-^
Disclaimer: Pictures were taken by me on my iPhone or my AKASO V50 Pro Native (an off-brand GoPro) unless otherwise stated.
It sounds like you had a wonderful time! I did some scuba diving in Bonaire and I understand what you mean about the edge. That black abyss is rather scary. I remember one day looking out toward the Deep and seeing a 10 ft long tarpon swim past. It was awesome to see, but made me realize just how little I was! It is an amazing world on there.
It truly is! Almost as if the ocean is an entirely different world with unknown creatures, especially since 80% of the ocean is still unexplored. Thank you for reading and leaving a comment!
It really is a privilege to be down there and part of it for a while, isn't it?
I would think so! It's a miracle that not as many dangerous animals come up to the surface. I'm honestly terrified to know what types of large creatures could be below the depths of what we know, but of course, I'm curious as well x)
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