Snorkeling in St. Thomas and Grand Turk

[scubaran]

Here's a link to a video compilation of snorkeling at the wall in Grand Turk. It will give you a better idea of the depth:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI0Tas0LS5g

 

Hummm... nice video and it looks like you're a brave one with those baracudas. I was told by any old islander that if you want to swim up to a baracuda you swim in a lazy-U up to them starting facing them off about 4 feet, swim past them, then u-turn back along their sides. AND TO NEVER SWIM DIRECTLY AT THEIR MIDDLE as this is considered aggressive and they're more likely to attack. You came at them several times like that. They must have been full and lazy at the time. :p

 

Randall

[lawtyger]

I was told by any old islander that if you want to swim up to a baracuda you swim in a lazy-U up to them starting facing them off about 4 feet, swim past them, then u-turn back along their sides. AND TO NEVER SWIM DIRECTLY AT THEIR MIDDLE as this is considered aggressive and they're more likely to attack. You came at them several times like that. They must have been full and lazy at the time. :p

 

Randall

 

Now what fun would your method of approach be. . . not challenging at all :).

[scubaran]

Now what fun would your method of approach be. . . not challenging at all :).

 

Ahhh.... But I've swam with dozens of barracudas and still have all my digits and limbs. :p And yes, get certified. I'd get seasick diving up and down like you did in your pictures and videos. Snorkeling is like window shopping, you get to look in the window, maybe step inside quickly, but with diving you get to go through the racks and find the interesting things after several minutes of snooping around. :D

 

Randall

[disneygirlj]

The tours through Carnival seem kind of pricey for our group of beginners. When we went to Grand Cayman, we booked privately and had a great experience. Who can you book through for say a beginner family?

 

Also, this may seem funny to you pros -- but I've only snorkeled on top of the water. How do you dive down without taking in water?

 

Thank you!

[jessie073]

disneygirlj - We booked privately through Blue Water Divers for our snorkel tour in Grand Turk and really enjoyed it - Chris posted our pics above in this thread. We had some beginners in our group and they also enjoyed the tour and had no problems with the depth. I guess it just depends on how comfortable you feel personally in that depth of water. The only negative about Blue Water Divers is that you need to get your own group of at least 8 people together to ensure that you are on a "snorkel-only" tour and not on a boat with divers. We thought this might be a little difficult but were able to get the group of 8 together through our roll call. Once you get your group of 8 I'm sure they will pretty much take you where you feel comfortable.

 

As far as diving down, Chris and Scubaran may be able to give you some more info on regulating your ears etc. but basically to dive down you just need to hold your breath and go down. When you get back to the surface - blow hard through your mouth into your snorkel and you'll shoot all of the water in your snorkel out through the top then you can resume breathing as normal. You may want to try this is shallow water or a pool first because there is a bit of technique to it.

 

Hope that helps! :)

Jessie

[scubaran]

The tours through Carnival seem kind of pricey for our group of beginners. When we went to Grand Cayman, we booked privately and had a great experience. Who can you book through for say a beginner family?

 

Also, this may seem funny to you pros -- but I've only snorkeled on top of the water. How do you dive down without taking in water?

 

Thank you!

 

Hi,

 

On GT, with a beginner family you just might want to snorkel on the beach in front of the cruise dock. The water is shallow and, while not a lot of coral, the kid will love the "calm water" with few waves. As far as diving down, it's a combination of holding your breath, lightly sealing the snorkel with the tip of your tongue and leaving enough breath in your lungs to blow the water out of the 12 inch tube when you surface. For beginners I just suggest you take the snorkel out of your mouth, dive down like in a swimming pool, shake the water out of your snorkel when you surface and then put it back in. It's a lot easier that way and you don't end up "drinking" a lot of salt water. :D

 

Randall

[snorkle53]

Good info on how to dive down while snorkeling! Several of us have reserved a day pass at the Grand Turk Inn and can use thier facilities and can snorkel off the beach right there-that is in Cockburn town, on Grand Turk

 

The wall is 300 yard of shore or so. Some people say its ok to swim out there. others say it is too far and not completely safe with the boats in the area. Does anyone have info on snorkeling from this location or close to it?

[hmcare63]

We stopped in Grand Turk November 2007 and booked Power Snorkeling thru Carnival. Guide took us in from beach and went clear out to deep enough you could barely see anything. Was great, especially to be able to go so far out without worrying about being to tired to swim back to shore. Would powr snorkel anytime.:D

kim

[GophersMN]

We booked a snorkel outing with the cruise ship(RCL) while in St Thomas in Feb '09. They put us on a sail boat called Island Girl. I can't recommend this highly enough. I think they take a maximum of 6 people. There were only 4 when we went so the service was personal and fantastic. I think they have a website, just google yachtadventures. There is a 2 person crew. The assistant took photos thru out the excursion, even was in the water with us, showing us around and taking more photos. At the end of the excursion, he burned a CD of all the photos he took. Nice touch for a mere $15.....