BVI Dive and Snorkel Sites

Three sea caves cut into the cliff at the mouth of the Bight. Pick up a parks mooring or dinghy round from the Bight and tie to the dinghy line. Snapper, sergeant majors and clouds of glassy sweepers, with orange cup coral on the walls, so take a torch. Be there before 9 am: by ten the day boats arrive. Surge gets into the caves in any swell.

Anchorage nearby: Privateer Bay

Four rock pinnacles just off Pelican Island and the best all-round snorkel in the territory. Only a handful of parks moorings and no anchoring, so arrive before noon or wait your turn. Snorkel the sunlit western side; divers circle the base past sea fans and a swim-through. Open to the north, so skip it in a winter ground swell.

A sloping reef off the south-west tip of Norman, sheltered in normal trades and a gentle first dive of the trip. Pick up a parks mooring or anchor in the sand clear of the reef. It is an easy dinghy ride round from the Bight. Angelfish, nurse sharks, morays, jawfish and stingrays in the sand. It gets surgy with poor visibility when a south or south-west swell is running.

Anchorage nearby: Privateer Bay

An offshore seamount a mile south of Norman with jacks, spadefish, barracuda and the chance of something big. Strong current, real depth and no shelter. This is a calm-weather summer dive with an operator, not something to try from a charter dinghy.

The Royal Mail steamer that went down in the 1867 hurricane and the most famous dive in the Caribbean. The bow lies in 80 feet; the stern, with its rudder and propeller, is in 15 to 30 feet and is a worthwhile snorkel in calm water. Parks moorings only, no anchoring anywhere in the park. Expect some current, and surge on the shallow stern in a winter swell. Light-wind mornings are best.

Anchorage nearby: Salt Pond Bay

The original floating bar, wrecked by Irma and sunk as a dive site in Key Bay on the south side of Peter Island, complete with pirate skeletons. Two white mooring balls on the site, with a link to pay or donate. Sheltered and diveable most of the year. Stay outside unless you are trained for wreck penetration: the silt lifts easily.

An open-water ridge south-west of Peter Island with big green morays, lobster and overhangs full of fairy basslets. No shelter at all, so it needs a calm day and slack current. Excellent at night with a guide.

Snorkel straight off the boat or the beach. Turtles graze the seagrass most days, tarpon patrol the edges and the rocky points at each end hold the fish. Watch for dinghy traffic, and expect some surge when the wind has north in it.

Anchorage nearby: Deadman’s Bay

Four narrow canyons on the south side of Dead Chest, their walls covered in orange, red and purple sponges and cup coral. Needs a flat day and bright sun: surge funnels through the canyons, and the site closes out whenever there is swell.

Anchorage nearby: Deadman’s Bay

A pinnacle between Dead Chest and Salt Island that never breaks the surface. Lobsters, morays, schools of yellow grunts and a small cave of glassy sweepers. Exposed, often undiveable, and the mooring is hard to pick up in any sea. A settled summer dive.

The rocky point at the south end of Manchioneel Bay: dinghy over from your mooring and tie to the dinghy line. Nurse sharks, tarpon, stingrays and turtles in easy depths. On Cooper’s sheltered side, so it works most of the season. Tow a marker if you dive it, because dinghies are constant.

Anchorage nearby: Hallovers Bay

Several ships sunk deliberately in a line off Cooper, sitting upright in 85 to 90 feet, with garden eels in the sand and eagle rays overhead. Usually diveable in normal trades. The depth, not the conditions, makes it an advanced dive.

Anchorage nearby: Hallovers Bay

A pinnacle between Cooper and Salt that disappears at high water, with one of the largest stands of pillar coral in the BVI. The current builds fast here. Dive it at slack water or not at all.

Anchorage nearby: Hallovers Bay

A sheer wall on the wild south-east corner of Cooper where swell boils against the cliff. Durgon, big snapper and grouper at the base. Open to every swell going: a settled summer day with an operator who can stay with the boat.

Giant mushroom-shaped coral heads on the south side of Ginger Island, some of the best hard coral in the territory, with eagle rays and the odd reef shark off the wall. Rolly on the surface in any swell. Most reliable in summer.

A series of coral terraces stepping down the south side of Ginger toward 100 feet. Healthy star and brain coral, tube sponges and barracuda. Exposed to swell and current, so pick a calm, clear summer day and watch your depth.

A small rocky point at the south end of Guana. In summer, huge balls of silversides pack in against the rocks and tarpon charge through them, with pelicans hitting the surface above your head. Parks day moorings. A north swell wraps round the point, so choose a calm day.

A sheltered reef between Great Camanoe and Scrub Island that works in almost any weather. Stingrays, turtles, garden eels and the odd barracuda. Clearest on the northern side. Watch for ferry and tender traffic to Scrub.

A shallow patch of reef in the channel between Marina Cay and Great Camanoe. Dinghy over from the Marina Cay mooring field. Turtles, blue tang and sergeant majors in clear, calm water: a good one for children and nervous swimmers.

Anchorage nearby: Marina Cay

Reef down both sides of the bay that you can snorkel from the beach or the boat, with turtles on the seagrass inshore and stingrays in the sand. Go before 11 am, before the trade wind chops it up. Not in a north swell, when you should not be in Brewers Bay at all.

Anchorage nearby: Brewers Bay

A 246 foot refrigerator ship sunk in open water several miles north of Tortola, and the only structure for miles, so it is mobbed by jacks, rays and sometimes sharks. Only reachable in flat-calm summer weather, and only with a dive operator.

Snorkel between the granite boulders from the Baths round to Devil’s Bay. The scenery is the point more than the fish. Swim in from the parks moorings: no dinghies on the beach. Surge between the rocks can be violent, and a red flag means stay out of the water.

Anchorage nearby: The Baths

On the south side of Great Dog, including the wreck of an aeroplane fuselage sunk for divers. Spotted drums, lobsters and grunts over healthy coral in easy depths.

A narrow vertical swim-through and an archway covered in sponges and cup coral at Great Dog. The best-known dive in the Dogs. It needs good buoyancy and a calm day: the chimney surges badly in any swell.

A box canyon on the north-west tip of George Dog where the surge carries you through: the ride is how it got the name. Good in calm summer weather, and hard work in a winter north swell. Take a torch for the overhangs.

A cavern on West Dog packed with glassy sweepers, with grouper and lobster inside and eagle rays passing the mouth. A quieter alternative when the Chimney moorings are full. Low swell only.

The exposed outer side of the Dogs, with barracuda, horse-eye jacks, tarpon and mackerel in strong, shifting current. Slack water, settled seas, and an operator.

A rock that just breaks the surface, swept by strong, variable current, with fire coral on top and schools of grunts and snapper below. A calm summer dive at slack water.

The north-west corner of Virgin Gorda. Snorkel the shallows along the point, or dive the ledges and swim-throughs below. Barracuda, rays, tarpon and jacks. Wide open to the north: poor and surgy in winter swells, lovely in summer.

Anchorage nearby: Long Bay

One of the few ships to survive Pearl Harbor, sunk off Long Bay in 2017 with an 80 foot steel kraken wrapped around her hull. Upright in under 60 feet and relatively sheltered. Stay outside the hull unless you are wreck trained: the metal is sharp.

Anchorage nearby: Long Bay

The reef that closes the north side of North Sound. Take the dinghy from Bitter End, Saba Rock or Prickly Pear and snorkel the calm inside edge: parrotfish, angelfish, turtles and lobster in shallow, clear water. The coral is very close to the surface, so float, do not stand.

Pinnacles east of Necker Island that stop just short of the surface, with schools of permit, jacks and big barracuda. Ripping current, no marker, and a rock that will take the bottom out of a boat. Operator only, in calm summer weather.

Eighteen miles of barrier reef with more than two hundred recorded wrecks. That is also the warning. Your charter contract almost certainly puts the reef off-limits to the boat, so go with a local guide from Setting Point. Lobster, turtles, rays and nurse sharks.

On the north shore of Anegada: take a taxi from Setting Point, not the boat. Snorkel from the beach to the reef for turtles, rays and nurse sharks. Best from late spring through summer when the north swell is down. There is a longshore current, so keep an eye on where you started.

Snorkel the reef that joins Sandy Spit to Green Cay straight from the beach. The outer, ocean side is where the life is, and also where the swell is. Calm, low-swell days only, and go early, before the day-charter boats.

Anchorage nearby: Sandy Spit

The reef that protects White Bay. Tarpon, parrotfish and the odd turtle, a swim from the Soggy Dollar. Best on calm summer mornings. In a winter north swell the surge breaks right over the reef and it is dangerous.

Anchorage nearby: White Bay

Not a reef at all: a natural rock pool on the north-east tip of Jost that foams like a hot tub when a north swell pushes through the gap. Dinghy to Foxy’s Taboo from the Little Jost moorings and walk twenty minutes. A moderate swell makes it fun. A big one can throw you into the rocks.

A sheltered wall off the south side of Jost with resident turtles and more than forty species of reef fish. Diveable in nearly any weather, so it is where the local dive shop goes when a north swell shuts everything else down.

A cavern and tunnel full of glassy sweepers and soldierfish, with tarpon schooling at the entrance. An overhead environment, so dive it with a guide. Surge makes the tunnel uncomfortable whenever there is north in the swell.

Two rock towers rising from 90 feet off the north shore of Jost, wrapped in silversides with tarpon, jacks and mackerel hunting through them. Bottom time is short at that depth. Summer and settled weather only.

Open water north of Green Cay, dived as a drift. This is where manta rays and eagle rays turn up, mostly between June and October. Entirely dependent on weather and season.

Anchorage nearby: Sandy Spit

An offshore rock west of Jost with caves and caverns, big Nassau and tiger grouper, hogfish and nurse sharks under the ledges, often in 100 foot visibility. Hard to reach and hard to moor. Settled weather, advanced divers, local guide.