his dive story / 36

13 August 2012

This past Sunday’s dive was by far one of the better dives I’ve had so far. I can finally check off my list the hammerhead. It was at Northwest Point and I was coming up from 42m to the reef wall at 30m when from a distance, I saw a shape of a shark that I figured was just another reef shark so I was preparing to ignore it… :) then I noticed that it had a strange head, that of a hammerhead!! Quick, my mind was flashing..take a pic or video it…at the very last second, I decided to video it and it was a good thing as the typically skittish hammerhead swam by really fast and I caught it!!! Yeahhhh man! Finally!

The other shark I saw was a nurse at a dive site called Two Steps. I had seen this one before at the same location but this time, it had sadly a fishing hook line and weight on its mouth… it was dangling it around and making clanking noises when it brushed against hard corals…I hope the hook falls off soon. When I first saw it, it was next to a huge lobster that appeared to be guarding it! How funny… Enjoy – James

See al diving posts HERE.

pretty pictures

31 July 2012

3 Comments

laura and rodrigo are such a gorgeous couple! they live here in provo and recently had their family photo session at the beach.

the pictures literally made my jaw drop! i specially like this one of their son maddox – he will be a heart breaker for sure!

i find these images amazing and truly show the feeling of turks and caicos – the light, the sea, the beach…

i see so many engagement and photo sessions around the web, but really, we live in the best setting to have them done.

wouldn’t it be awesome to book a session on your next visit to the island? i say totally worth it – sure want to have our’s done some day soon!

THANKS laura for sharing your pretty pictures!

ps – don’t these portuguese golden earrings look perfect on her?

images by james roy, from paradise photography

contact him on info@myparadisephoto.com or 649.232.7776

one more week

30 July 2012

1 Comment

oh my, this was a busy weekend. we had a really nice dinner with friends – HERE – we all love this place and agreed we wouldn’t survive on island without it! it was funny because we realized half of us on our table were portuguese :) it is nice to feel a little closer to home.

then, on saturday, i went to lemon’s summer party, and i tell you, they really know how to through a party, everyone was there and it was lot’s of fun. if you’re on island visiting, make sure you check out lemon’s facebook page for any parties.

i’m now on my final countdown for my vacation, i leave in a week, so i’m working hard on the exercising and tanning – and online shopping too!

i hope you have a great week ahead!

photo found here

turks and caicos through your eyes

28 July 2012

2 Comments

i always love seeing turks and caicos through other peoples’ eyes, i love it when we have friends over and they get excited with views i might take for granted. perhaps there is a lot that i am missing.

my jaw dropped when i found bea’s blog, la tartine gourmand. i almost can’t believe her pictures of our islands – is this really where i live!?

check out her gorgeous pictures and head over here to read more on her family vacation in turks and caicos, their stay in long bay area and visit to north caicos government farm, plus a delicious eggplant recipe she made after visiting the farm!

his dive story

25 July 2012

1 Comment

The island experienced a boating accident a few months back and many resorts started to request to have swim buoys installed in front of their resorts and fix, if needed, their boat lane markers. For those not from the TCI, as part of the deficit containment initiative, the government earlier in the year had slashed many workers from various agencies, one being the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR) which was eventually merged with the Department of Environment and Maritime Affairs. Under DEMA, there exist a shortage of resources both in man power and equipment. At the Grace Bay Club where I work, we recognized this issue and decided to purchase our own buoys and boat lane markers with the help of Vikram, our project manager, to help DEMA but more importantly to help protect our guests and local residents who come to the public beach in front of our resort.

With the help of Provo’s Zero Tolerance Committee under Mike Bookalam, Caribbean Security Services (Mr. Simmons of CSS), Beaches Resort (for the tanks and dive gears), and of course DEMA (Paul Dickenson), we started the project. Evan,our beach supervisor, and I volunteered to help as the job requires at least 5 individuals as you will see from the video. 3 in the water and 2 on the surface including the boat captain. it’s tedious and time consuming work….

Drilling in front of Grace Bay Beach is not so easy as there is a rock plate underneath and sometimes will not go all the way in. It was a hit and miss case many times as we were looking around for what we think is soft sand to drill. My responsibility was to maintain the buoyancy of the lift bag as it holds the machine afloat and release the air as needed to apply downward pressure as we are drilling. Of course, I had to make sure the machine does it drop on Paul!

While doing this, in between breaks, I was able to dive around and saw some nice and big starfish… Paul and I also saw something that we will most likely never see again any time soon…while we were drilling, we saw a big crab run towards the pin and suddenly grab something from underneath the sand. We both followed it and realized that it was a mother crab taking its young away from the drilling to safety. We stopped drilling and I followed her to video her with her baby. Enjoy it!