Grand Turk Island is the largest of the Turks Islands in Turks and Caicos. Despite that designation, Grand Turk is just 18 square kilometres, or just under seven square miles in area. As seen in some of the pictures below, from Deck 16 on the Ruby Princess, you can see clear across this flat Caribbean island.
Grand Turk Island
With just enough room at the cruise port for two ships, and ours being the only one that day, arriving in Grand Turk reminds me of ‘first positions’ in the Jim Carrey movie The Truman Show. The process of docking such a large ship takes a great deal of time. From the ship, you get to watch the southwest portion of the island come alive in preparation for the onslaught of tourists.
The above boats were all prepared to make some money off the approximately 3,000 tourists coming ashore.
A view across the lower portion of the island. The brown water is Hawkes Nest Salina. A salina is a salt pond and was used to harvest sea salt.
Looking north, I assume the burned out hull of a ship anchored on shore is meant to be sunk to provide reef habitat.
A look at the central portion of the island. In the middle is the Grand Turk Island Airport (there is a small plane landing on the runway). To reach the island by air from North America, one must fly into Providenciales, an island in the Caicos portion of Turks and Caicos. From Providenciales, you can take a small craft to Grand Turk.
To the left is Cockburn Town, the capital of Turks and Caicos. Most of the island’s 3,700 residents live in Cockburn Town.
A view from the cruise port beach with the Ruby Princess in the background. Unfortunately, on this day we lost a passenger to a heart attack while walking the wharf from the ship to shore.
The flag of Turks and Caicos. Turks and Caicos is a self-governed British Overseas Territory. The whole set of islands has a total population of less than 32,000.
On land, the tourist highlight of Grand Turk is the Margaritaville restaurant, bar and resort. Margaritaville is a Caribbean chain and the brain child of musician Jimmy Buffett.
A view of the cruise port beach at Grand Turk. This was with just one boat docked and near the end of the day. Having two ships in port would be much too crowded for my tastes.
This cannon is found just off shore from the cruise port beach. Although the area is littered with old artillery and ship wrecks, this one was undoubtedly planted. The dark water to the right is the dredged out area for the cruise ships. The water drops drastically at this point but so crystal clear that you never lose sight of the bottom.
There is no reef in this area but there is still plenty of aquatic life to see while snorkeling. Unfortunately, the area has some pretty strict security and one can’t stray far from the crowds.
I’ve done a fair amount of snorkeling in the Caribbean, mostly off the shores of Cuba. This was a new spectacle for me. It was a school of Caribbean reef squid that stayed safely ahead of us. I thought they were babies but apparently this is the adult size. The Reef Squid tops out in length at around eight inches and usually stays in groups of up to 30.
I apologize for the quality. We just couldn’t get very close before they’d rush ahead of us. Also, they sat over the deep water closer to the cruise ship, therefore the background was a dark blue.
Grand Turk HD Video
