Turks & Caicos · Turks & Caicos Islands · Wall · Reef
Whiteface
A well-undercut wall named for the white cliffs onshore
Area photo: SNORKELINGDIVES.COM · CC BY 2.0
The name has nothing to do with the underwater topography — it comes from the steep white cliffs along the shoreline. The wall is well undercut to a depth of about 30 m, the reef along its top is particularly profuse and carries impressive stands of pillar coral, and a large anchor sits embedded in a crack just north of the mooring.
Where it is and how deep
21.6664° N, 72.4497° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The name comes from the steep white cliffs along the shoreline rather than from anything underwater. West Caicos gives consistently good surface conditions and excellent visibility, and the wall here is well undercut, cut back beneath its own lip to a depth of about 30 m. Swim it with the overhang above you and open blue below and the shape of the undercut is obvious from the first few metres of the face.
Just north of the mooring is a crack in the wall with a large anchor embedded at about 21 m, which is the thing most divers come back to the boat talking about. Along the top of the wall is a particularly profuse reef with some impressive stands of pillar coral, and the fish population there includes barracuda, parrotfish, French angelfish and Nassau grouper. Save that shallow ground for the end of the dive.
Background
Just north of the mooring, a crack in the wall holds a large anchor embedded at about 21 m. No vessel name, date or circumstance is published for it — the operators who dive the site record only where it sits and how deep — so it stands as a landmark rather than a piece of documented history, fixing the northern end of a dive along a wall that is otherwise profuse reef above and undercut face below.
Marine life and season
- Barracuda
- Groupers
- Pristine corals
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Good | Good |
Season follows Turks & Caicos: January–April brings calm seas and the humpback whale migration through the Turks Island Passage; September–October is peak hurricane season.
Sources
- Dive Sites — Dive Provo — Dive Provo
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