Beckys Beautiful Bottom

The reef and wall on this site is “beautiful” according to divemaster Becky! Huge coral heads and barrel sponges line this wall, each containing a community of fish and creatures. This is a wonderful site for photographers who like shooting macro shots. You’ll find hermit crabs, pederson cleaning shrimp, and corkscrew anemones.

Boat Cove

The top of the wall is a sand plateau with small coral heads scattered about. This sandy area brings in many rays and flounders to keep an eye out for, as well as yellow coral shrimp. The reef on top of the wall has small clumps of staghorn coral and is home to grunts, snappers, groupers, rooster-tail conch, and many juvenile fish. This is a great fish-watching site.

Brandywine

The top of this dive site starts at 55 feet and drops down the sheer wall to about 120 feet. There are many sand chutes leading down to the wall creating overhangs for fish to hide in. Here you will find giant sea anemones, blue tangs, soft corals, tiger-tailed sea cucumbers, and white spotted filefish. Keep your eyes out for azure vase sponges as well along the wall and on top of the reef.

Coney Island

Don't be detered by the 'shallow' depth here. If you're looking for 'critters' this is your dive! A small, sloping mini wall in about 25 feet of water is home to several small caves and overhangs. This is a great place to find those elusive critters that like to hide in the shade, including the occasional Nurse Shark! Continuing out, a lush coral field is located in 40 ft of water, and is home to numerous fish, Southern Stingrays and eels. Also a good place to see Flying Guynards. Up on top of the wall, the depth gets as shallow as 5-15ft, but is one of the prettiest parts of the dive. Large 'sinkholes' here are home to Giant Sea Anemones, and the small critters that live in and around them. Bring your macro kit!

Devils Horn

An impressive site named for the large coral outcropping ('the horn') on the wall. This site starts in about 55 ft, with the top of the horn in approx 80 ft of water. The view as you round the top of the horn is usually spectacular, with many schooling fish congregating on the top of the out cropping. Back under the boat, keep an eye out for large Southern Stingrays, and beds of garden eels.

Driveway (aka Skislope)

Under the boat in about 40 feet of water lies a sand area with scattered coral heads leading into a sand chute that extends down through the reef from 50 feet to ledge at about 80-100 feet where the wall drops vertically to the depths. Marine life includes yellow-headed jawfish, golden-tailed morays, groupers, black durgons, and the ledge area features some excellent growth of plate and star corals. As many of the sites at West Caicos all along the wall divers will find black coral and purple tube sponges. You’ll commonly see a large school of blue tangs foraging for algae on the reeftop.

Drumbeat

A large sandy bowl, followed by a vertical drop off that starts around 80 ft, make for a dramatic dive here at the North end of West Caicos. The large sandy areas of littered with Garden Eels and Stingrays, and Reef Sharks are often found crusing the wall here.

Elephant Ear Canyon

Named for the largest known orange elephant ear sponge in the Turks and Caicos, nearly 11 feet in diameter, this site is a diver’s favorite! The top of the reef starts in 40-50 feet of water with scattered coral heads amongst sand chutes that extend down the reef. Divers often see garden eels, stingrays, & conch while finishing their dive under the boat.

Exploratory!

Drop an anchor and see whats there!

Fish Traps

Gully

The wall begins in about 50 feet and the top of the wall is a dense coral reef with many cleaning stations. The Gully gets its name from the cut in the reef that forms two distinct sections before dropping off vertically. We usually begin our dive swimming through this cut, dropping us onto the wall at 85 feet. The vertical wall here has many undercuts covered in sponges and black corals. Keep your eyes out for a rare glimpse of a redbanded lobster sitting in 70 feet of water.

Highway to Heaven

Located at the north end of West Caicos, the dive begins in 50–60 feet of water with a large colony of garden eels in the sand flat. This is one of the deeper dives with coral arches and swim-throughs around 80-100 feet. The site is popular because of the many stingrays that play in the sand and frequent shark sightings. You’ll also see a plaque at 85 feet designating a favorite dive site before heading back along the top of the reef where you’ll spot an old anchor resting on the bottom. Frequent sightings include scorpion fish, Atlantic spadefish, and large eagle rays.

Magic Mushroom

Named after the rock formation near West Caicos that is shaped just like a giant mushroom. The wall is buttressed with sand chutes covered with rope sponge and black coral leading down the wall. If doing this dive as a wall dive, look for the huge black coral tree at about 80-85 feet. On top of the wall, for a shallow 2nd dive, the large coral heads are home to numerous fish, eels, and conch.

Manta Arch

A lovely shallow spot up close the island of West Caicos, so named because our first dive there we had a Manta Ray swim by, and there is a lovely archway to swim through. Plenty of schooling fish, and generally the dive depth is between 15-35 feet in this area.

Ol' Man Jenkins

Good name for a mystery site...as in the Scooby Doo episodes that always involve a mysteries that ends with "Its Ol' Man Jenkins in the Shark Mask!".... You may have had to be there to see the humor in this :) Right, John, Ken, Steve, and Sarah?? :)

Pot of Gold

This anchor site at the North end of the Gully was aptly named, as one diver explained, for the myriad of rainbow colours in the fish and wall as you drop into the abyss! You might not find treasure of the metallic kind here, but this deep, sheer wall, is reward enough!

Rock Garden Interlude

A beautiful dive, just south of Boat Cove, where you'll find a sloping wall from 50-70 ft, before the vertical drop off begins. A great area for Reef Shark and Flying Gurnards.

Southwest Reef

This reef has a deeper wall beginning between 50-70 feet. The wall is vertical with enormous barrel sponge, deep water gorgonians and frequent sightings of shark and eagle ray.

Sunday Service

The top of the wall on this site has three sand chutes extending to the sloping wall. Lots of schools of small barracuda, squirrel fish, and yellow goat fish. You’ll also find several members of the hamlet family on this site as well.

The Chute

This dive, located just south of Boat Cove and north of Coney Island, is an anchoring location that boasts a nice sand chute, as the name suggests, that steps off of the wall and makes for a nice entry point. The large coral buttress directly south is a great congregating spot for Creole Wrasse, Blue Chromis, and Bermuda Chub, making for a nice view as you cruise the wall.

The Nursery

A shallow anchorage spot 20-40 feet close to the island of West Caicos. There are lots of schooling fish, and also due to its shallow depth there are a lot of juvenile fish here that we might not see out on our deeper reefs.

Whaleing Wall

This site we discovered 'by accident' in 2007 when we anchored in the vicinity north of Boat Cove, and encountered a Humpback Whale resting in the shallows. Even with out the marvelous mammal present, this is a nice site with a great wall, and numerous coral heads in the shallows.

Whiteface (aka The Anchor)

The name of this dive site has nothing to do with the underwater topography, but comes from the steep cliffs along the shoreline. Along the top of the wall is a particularly profuse reef with some impressive stands of pillar coral. The fish population includes barracuda, parrot fish, French angelfish, longsnout butterflyfish, and groupers. Just north of the mooring is a crack in the wall with a large anchor from the mid 1800's embedded at 70 feet. The wall is well undercut to a depth of about 100 feet. Keep your eyes out for the many white-spotted morays along this site.

Yankeetown

This site is named for the community that existed on West Caicos from the late 1800’s – 1920’s. There is stonework on West Caicos that marks this site! The top of the reef is in 50-55 feet and is fairly flat with scattered coral heads. Amongst these coral heads are large tube sponges, star coral, and plate corals along the wall. You’ll also find large Nassau Groupers, porcupinefish, honeycomb cowfish, puddinglifes, and trumpetfish.