Above: the perfect place to spend an afternoon on Grace Bay Beach (CJ Photo)

By Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon
CJ Travel Editor

PROVIDENCIALES — I don’t know what they call these chairs. These short beach chairs that are so low-slung that your bum ends up just inches above the water.

But what I do know is that I love this one that I’m sitting on right now.

Positioned at the water’s edge in front of my hotel, Ocean Club West, it’s the perfect perch from which to appreciate Providenciales’ marquee strand, Grace Bay Beach.

Ensconced on my miniature throne, about midway along the 12-mile smile of bone-white sand, I’m hypnotized by the rhythmic succession of lacy scallops that rush to meet my toes.

I eagerly soak up the afternoon sun, its heat tempered by a gentle westward breeze. I tilt my head upward and watch clouds skid silently across the Turks and Caicos sky.

I breathe deeply, inhaling that distinctive and uniquely intoxicating scent of salt and sea air and suntan lotion that tells me I’m “home,” if not literally then figuratively.

It’s not my first time on Grace Bay but I marvel again that this beach, constantly rated one of the finest in the Caribbean, is so sparsely populated and so quiet.

There a half-dozen empty chaises between me and my neighbors.

Any footprints that may have marked the sandy promenade directly in front of me have long been washed away.

In fact, if it wasn’t for the occasional low murmur of voices and faint strains of soca coming from the catamaran in the distance I could easily believe I have this Paradise all to myself.

So I close my eyes and focus on the sublime pleasure of being here. Just me. On this beach. In this chair.