Turks & Cacos
 

Would like to know if May has calm waters for snorkeling off Smith Reef. Is this the best area to snorkel from the beach? Would like to stay in rental close
to a beach so we can just walk out from beach house and snorkel. Thanks

you'll want to put this on the Caribbean forum. you're on Mexico/Central America :-)

Usually yes, but with weather so crazy lately everywhere, who knows?

Smiths is a really active reef with good numbers of resident and transient sea life. Just be careful not to drift too far out I to the channel which services Turtle Cove. Some of the boaters in the area have either had too much to drink or simply don’t give a damn about other sea users. They will approach the marina entrance at very high speeds with no chance of seeing snorkelers.

To to find the best section of Smiths, walk towards the point and swim straight towards the main red channel marker. The reef starts around 100 yards out. Really good Elkhorn here.

Theres a great section towards the entrance to the marina which huge Grouper hang around. I have seen a Tiger shark here just be aware.

If you can secure accommodation with beach walk in access then you very lucky.

The weather is up down and around, the the past February has been poor in the TCI/ Bahamas. This year it’s been perfect.

May any should be perfect but who knows these days.

Thank you for the good advice on Smith Reef. I am wondering if staying at Grace Bay would be better and a safer area to snorkel.

There's walk-in snorkeling on Grace Bay just in front of SOMEWHERE CAFE, which is next to the WINDSONG RESORT. It's often very crowded, but you can sometimes find fewer people if you go first thing in the morning.

Just a FYI: Weather has not been good last three times we've gone to T &C, including January of this year and late April in 2017. We love T &C and have been going there for about eight years, but weather in the islands has been atypical almost everywhere lately. So who knows what May will bring?