This year we chose Grand Turk.

The Turks and Caicos are a small cluster of British protectorates between the tail bone of The Bahamas and Hispañola. Grand Turk is the capital of the group, but certainly not the most developed. With a population of less than 4,000, the island is only about seven miles long and a mile and a half wide.

Grand Turk may be reached by flying through Miami, Charlotte or Atlanta to Provodenciales (or Provo) and then taking an inter-island commuter flight to Grand Turk. But the airfares from these US airports can be pricey because a single airline in each market currently monopolizes the route to Provo. Our inter-island flight on Sky King was about a 20-minute hop on a comfortable 12-seater.

We dove with Oasis Divers and stayed in a comfortable one-bedroom "suite" at the quaint eight-room Island House.

What follows are thirty-some-odd pictures of the reefs, fishes and folks of this old-time Caribbean Island. There are "next" and "previous" links to the pictures after each caption, as well as links to other "unique" dive destinations at the bottom of the page. Finally, do pay attention, there is a quiz at the end.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. I sure enjoyed making them. I'd be interested in your comments, suggestions and/or corrections.

A note on technique: All the underwater images were made with Nikonos cameras and Fujichrome RDP 100 ASA slide film (except one borrowed roll of Kodak 100asa slide film). I used a 35mm lens with extension tubes for close ups, a 15mm lens for wider shots. All were lit with Ikelite undersea strobes.

The topside stuff was shot with a Nikon D100 digital and either a Nikkor 20mm lens for the wide shots or a Nikkor 80 - 200 zoom for the longer images.