How far is The Wall from the beach?

[Macleod518]

I've been wondering how far the wall is from the beach? I've seen people mention it's 50 meters off shore, while others say it's a 5-10 minute boat ride.

 

I'm just trying to determine if it is possible to swim there from the beach. My wife loves to snorkel but can't dive down 20-30ft. And from what i've heard, it you can't get down to the coral it's not the best excursion for you. So I'd rather not hire a boat if my wife won't get the full experience.

[Fourseventeen]

If your a darn good swimmer....have at it! lol. It all depends what beach your coming from. it could be a 5 min boat ride or it could be swimmable by a seasoned swimmer though im not sure I would suggest it with all the boat traffic in the beaches near the cruise pier.

[WillieD13]

For the most part the wall is about 400-600 yards out, and the water there is 30' deep give or take, depending on the tide and if you have swells or not. Even if you are an excellent swimmer, I would NOT recommend trying to reach the wall from the beach. If you do, at the very least, each person should have a decent sized, non-deflating raft. You will get tired, and 400 yards becomes a very long way if you are tired. Keep in mind, if there is a breeze, there may also be a current flowing in the wrong direction. If you want to see the wall, your life is worth the price of an excursion or boat rental. That being said, even though your wife may not be able to get all the way down, you can still see things pretty well from the surface, and if you take some fish food, the fish will come to you.

The picture below, was taken from the surface. I am near the bottom, which was about 30' down

 

P7120070 by WillieD13, on Flickr

 

As mentioned, the fish will come up to you.

 

P7120065 by WillieD13, on Flickr

[Fourseventeen]

yup gotta agree with the above poster...is your life worth the cost of a snorkel or dive excursion? Though I disagree with taking food to feed the fish...this throws off their natural insticts to hunt for food on their own. Let them feed themselves as they normally do and observe them in their natural state.

[Macleod518]

Thanks for the feedback. I know I'm a very strong swimmer, but my wife is average. Also, the boat traffic I didn't think about... An excursion it is!

 

Now it's time to find one of those. I've heard good things about Blue Water Divers. Time to research :)

[Fourseventeen]

Blue water is great! Only downside with them is you need to take a cab to get to their facility...or at least the last time we were there thats what we had to do. Also with their snorkeling tours they wont go out unless they have a minimum of 4 people. If you can deal with those 2 subjects then blue water will be your best bet without a doubt

[Friscorays]

You definitely need to take a cab out to Blue Water Divers. On the day I spent with them they were willing to go out with just me (doing a two tank dive) and my wife (snorkeling).

[sharks48]

I also recommend Blue Water Divers - they were fantastic. They wanted a group of four, so we got together with another couple via the Roll Call board for our cruise. Took a cab to BWD [i think it was $5 each] and we could have gotten them to take us back again, but our boat driver took us to shore very near the ship. Fantastic day!

[Mary Ellen1]

This is a pic that my niece took in Grand Turk (taken from the deck of the ship as we were docking). Where the water changes color is where The Wall is. You can see how it's fairly close to shore, but I agree with the previous posters that it's really too far & to risky to swim it. You can see some of the boat traffic in this picture.

 

Totally concur with the recommendations for Blue Water Divers. We had a great day with them. We lucked out, and were the only snorkelers that day, so we had a boat -- and Mitch -- to ourselves. There were divers who went out in another boat.