September 4 to 11 2021

We are lucky enough to have dive friends. We met them in Turks and Caico in 2015 and we have gone on dive trips with them every year since, except last of course, because of the pandemic.

They like all inclusives, especially Club Med. In 2015 we went to Club Med because we wanted a cheap dive trip to Turks and Caicos. We had been there twice before, in 2005 and 2006, and wanted to dive there again.

We shared a table at Sharkey’s with Doug and Steph and have been diving with them yearly since.

Since we met our friends we have been alternating our dive vacations between Club Med Bahamas and Club Med Turks and Caicos except for in  2019 when we went to Bonaire.

The last time we met them in Turks and Caicos was 2017. The resort was run down, the shingles on the buildings were years past needing replacing. All of the buildings needed to be painted and most of the rooms needed to be renovated. Grace Bay restaurant (the main restaurant) was closed because of a grease fire. Compared to the Bahamas Club Med the food was terrible. Both our wives said they would never go back.

After a year of being locked down because of the pandemic all of us were willing to go anywhere. We decided to give T and C another chance and we were glad we did.

Getting There

The problem with going to the Caribbean from Minnesota is we have to take the first flight out of Minneapolis to make our connecting flight. We had a 5:15 am flight from MSP so we could make it to ATL for our flight to T and C. We had to leave our house at 3 am.

Turks and Caicos Covid Requirements

T and C required that we have an insurance policy that covers hospitalization and evacuation to the US. We panicked at first but discovered the policy was provided by Club Med.

The second hurdle was a tough one and the T and C government kept changing the requirements. They originally stated they wanted a signed letter from a doctor including the doctors license number. We requested them from our doctors and got the letters but they didn’t include the license number. Both my wife and I decided- screw em, they either take the letter or not. The T and C government changed the requirements several more times before we left.

 We got our negative covid tests within three days of departure and submitted our paperwork.

Our friends submitted their paperwork after we did and got the okay from the T and C government within a day. The night before we left, we went to bed without a reply.

We had to get up at three am to go to the airport. My wife woke up at 2 am and checked her email and her application was accepted. She woke me up, I checked my email, I knew one of my documents had originally been submitted incorrectly but the website wouldn’t let me resubmit.

I checked my email, as I expected, my application had been rejected. I resubmitted correctly but I didn’t have hope that it would be cleared in time to catch our flight. I showered, checked my email and I was accepted. We took our Uber to the airport.

Waiting for our connecting flight to T and C in ATL we head someone complaining about getting accepted  after we did.

I completely understand T and C’s need to make sure that their hospitals aren’t overrun with sick tourists and island citizens but I don’t understand why our friends application got processed long before ours. Regardless we were happy to be on vacation.

Club Med

The entire resort had been upgraded. The shingles that were falling off the roof the last time we were there had been replaced, the rooms had been renovated and the pool had been upgraded. Grace Bay restaurant was open but the other restaurant that required a reservation for dinner was closed. I think there weren’t enough guests to have both restaurants open. That was okay because the food at Grace Bay was much better than the last time we were here.

We requested a room close to the dive shop for simplicity. On days we were diving it was a short walk to the restaurant for breakfast and back to the dive shop.

On days when weren’t diving, we hung out at the pool, Sharleys or the ocean. Most days at the pool we were able to get the coveted area in the center of the pool. When they renovated the pool they created a walled walkway and seating area in the center of the pool.

It was a great place to hang out. If the sun became too much to handle we jumped over the wall and cooled off in the pool. We shared the area with a bachelorette party one day. They all met when they were getting their master’s degree. They were crazy people to hang around.

Sharkeys was a lot of fun as usual. They had great bands. The bartenders were noticeably nicer than the last time we were. Because of covid there were far fewer people at the resort than usual which meant that finding a place at the pool or Sharkeys was much easier.  

Diving

We discovered that the dive shop manager was Khinda. She managed the dive shop on San Salvador in the Bahamas when we were there. Diving was nice, the dive boat was about one third fulli.

I want to tell the story about the most interesting thing that happened. Most days it was the roughly the same group of people in the boat. We ended up diving with Cole several days. He appeared to be thirty something and I believe he said he was getting out of one of the branches of service.

He was going to hit 100 dives on one of our days of diving. The dive masters joked that he had to dive nude for the 100^th dive. We all laughed and didn’t think much more about it. As we suited up for our second dive of the day I heard a splash off the back of the boat. We looked up and I saw Cole climb back on board the boat naked. We laughed and said he is braver than we are.

Cole’s dive partner was a Canadian man who had been diving with us for several days. Our group consisted of them, Doug, Steph, Karen, me and our dive master.  Not too long into the dive I noticed that Cole didn’t have trunks on. I made sure not to swim below or behind him. I am not joking.

Towards the end of the dive a remora attached it’s self to Steph. It swam around her and her air tank, then it swam over to naked Cole. He was panicked, I noticed him swimming and holding his junk in his hand.

When we surfaced Cole was complaining that the remora bit his dick. I would be panicked if a fish went after my my junk too.

His naked dive created repercussions. Our dive master took the following day off and said he didn’t want Cole in his group.

The manager of Club Med talked to us to make sure we weren’t offended by Cole. We told him we are adults and we weren’t offended. He talked to Cole to make sure it wasn’t going to happen again.

No more nudity on the rest of the dives but the diving was still good. I guess we will always remember Cole and his 100th dive.

We had one of our best dive masters ever. Her name was Inman. She really like diving. Karen, I and our friends have good air consumption and we generally have half a tank left when we get back to the boat. Usually dive masters will let us poke around under the boat looking under rocks and reefs to see what we can find until our air gets low. Inman stayed down with us and brought us to her favorite places like the coral farm.

Sharks are the main reason we like diving in T and C. we see at least a couple every dive. We also enjoy the great visibility and almost no current.

Providenciales

We would usually do several activities off resort like the Fish Fry on Thursdays or we did did a tour on North Caicos one year. Because of the pandemic we were limited. We walked into town one day and checked out the shops but that was it for anything off the resort.

Recap

It was great to travel and scuba dive again even if cutting through the red tape to get to T and C was difficult.

Being at Club Med during a pandemic was actually enjoyable. The resort or the dive boat wasn’t crowded which made things more enjoyable. We only had to wear masks when inside or ordering at Sharkeys.

The updated resort was nice and the food was excellent. We are going back in 2022.