A few months ago a woman died when her regulator started to free flow and  she panicked.   This was a preventable tragedy.   The divers were a young couple who had not been diving for a bit over two years and were anxious to get wet.   So when some friends called they grabbed their gear out of the garage and were off.   The dive went well until the lady’s regulator started to free flow.   She did not know how to breathe from a free flowing regulator.   Her buddy (husband) found her on the bottom and took her to the surface but she could not be revived.  

Preventions:  Number one is training.   You need to practice your diving skills such as buddy breathing,  getting to and using an alternate air source (yours or your buddy’s), emergency ascent, etc.  She had not done this.  

Number two:  This couple’s equipment had been stored

A small group of 8 friends, members of the Barracuda Dive Club, arrived in Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos Islands in late May 2009.  Phil & Grace Hampton, John & Melinda Tribe, Bob Sieck, Richard Schealer, Chuck Brown, and Terry Keeney were ready to see how the reefs had survived two tropical storms that had hit the islands hard last year. 

The total capacity of the boat is 20 guests.  In addition to the eight of us there were 3 others on board for a total of 11 passengers.  The crew of five took very good care of us during the week.  There was always a member of the crew in the water when we were diving and they were helpful in pointing out creatures we may not have seen.

The vessel’s itinerary starts with a day and a half at Provo’s Northwest Point, three days at West Caicos, followed by a day and a half at French Cay before returning to the Caicos Marina.

The reef damage from 2008 tropical storms Ike and Hanna seemed minimal.  There were some barrel sponges lying in the bottom in the 40 foot depth sector of the reef.  Some coral heads had also been toppled, but the most significant aspect was the sand that had been transported from the shallows to the reef, and a small increase in algae.  We saw sharks on almost every dive, some of which made close passes by the divers thus offering great chose-up photo opportunities.  Turtles were encountered on about half the dives.  There were queen, grey, rock beauty and French angel fish, large puffers, goliath grouper, as well as tiger and Nassau groupers, ocean and queen trigger, durgeons, garden eels, green and spotted morays.  We encountered a green moray on French Cay that was over 7 feet long.

One of the more unusual sightings was 3 coronet fish swimming together.  They ranged from 18 inches to 3 feet long.  Only a couple of guests saw eagle rays, but we saw a lot of grey rays.

What astonished most of us at first was the sighting of lionfish.  Three years ago lionfish were unknown this far