Off the grid: Turks & Caicos Family Vacation

Day 3

Alan and his brother headed off to dive 2 sites in the morning. Alan’s diving wish finally came true. He saw not one, not two, but THREE sharks. He also tested out a new underwater camera. So, we can believe him that he was super close to sharks – because there is video proof, ha. I can't quite yet figure out how to upload videos, I think the files are too big. To be continued...

Alan scuba diving

While the boys were off playing under the sea, us ladies went parasailing. Being suspended a hundred feet above creature-infested waters is not something I necessarily wanted to do…but since I am a good daughter-in-law, I agreed to it J

Post-parasailing cruise

By recommendation of our parasailing guide, we went to dinner at Mango Reef. There was an entire side of the menu dedicated just to Lobster (it’s in season). I think all 6 of us got lobster-something. I ordered open-faced lobster raviolis and Alan got Thai lobster curry.

Day 4

We kicked of the morning with a trip to downtown Grace Bay. There are a bunch of luxury shops, so we peeked in many of them. I even scored a new sunhat. We ate lunch at Tiki Hut in Turtle Cove. It was this great open-aired restaurant located on the harbor. I found it in my travel book that has proven to be very useful on this trip. I got mahi mahi tacos with mango coleslaw and a Madori margarita.

My slice of heaven - a new sunhat & a marg

Also in my quest to find a stellar snorkel spot on the island, we ventured to Smith’s Reef. You navigate through a neighborhood, and then park at one of the beach access points on Turtle Cove. Walk about 150 yards down the beach, and you find a stone marker that points out where you access the water to swim out to the reef. You have to swim about 50 feet off shore (a lil scary). But it was worth it. We snorkeled with schools of fish, giant pieces of coral, and a bunch of other underwater creatures.

Sun goddesses

The beach at Smiths Reef

We cooked a rockin dinner at the condo tonight. Pork chops w/ apples & pearl onions and cauliflower. And finished puzzle #1 of the trip J

Day 5

Ahhh, today was such a blast. We chartered a private fishing boat for half a day to take us deep sea fishing. It was action packed. We cruised 20 minutes off the coast. Right out of the gate, 2 fish bit our lines and Matt & Cassie jumped in the reel them in. We lost one, but captured the other. The guides connect you into this belt, but it is still really really hard to crank the reel. Holy cow, those fish are strong!

Fighting to reel in the fishys

In the end our final count was 3 Mahi-Mahi’s and 1 Grouper. All of us were soaked to the bone. The waves were SO big, and the boat would just crash into them and water would shoot straight at us. We just couldn’t even believe how wet we were getting! I kept saying it felt like I was on one of those water rides at Cedar Point and you just keep getting dripping wet over and over and over. About an hour left in the trip we drove with the waves to the marina - a much smoother ride. Ate some sandwiches & had some homemade rum punch. Alan’s parents were waiting for us at the dock and cheered when we screamed ‘we brought home dinner for tonight!!!’ The guides filleted the fish on the back of the boat and sent us home with piles and piles of mahi.