BVI dive spots

[briankinley2004]

We are renting a power cat in BVI this summer for 7 nights. This is an unguided trip and we set our own itinerary. Plan to dive every day and have been told we can moor on various dive spots during the day. We have a book that lists most sites in BVI and describes each for a dive briefing. Has anyone been diving in BVI and if so any recommendations on dive spots would be appreciated.

 

[CWC]

My girlfriend and I chartered a boat out of Road Town, Tortola for a week last September. The mooring buoys at the dive sites are color coded to indicate their intended use. You are supposed to only use the white buoys, which are intended for non-commercial use. The yellow buoys are reserved for commercial dive operations. We found that most of the dive sites that were listed in our guide book only had yellow buoys, meaning we were not supposed to use them. At the time of year we were there very few dive shops were operating, so we just tied up to the commercial buoys and risked getting a ticket. We never had a problem, but you might not be so lucky when you go.

You should make the Wreck of the Rhone a priority. It is one of the most popular dives in the BVI's, and is worth doing. It is popular enough that there were plenty of white buoys to moor on.

Another cool dive was The Playground, where we saw two eagle rays and a nurse shark. However, I think this was one of the sites that only had yellow buoys.

The wreck of the Chikuzen sounds like a great dive, but we couldn't find it. If you can get GPS coordinates ahead of time that would be a huge help.

 

[TSandM]

Although some of the photo links are broken, HERE is our trip report from a week spent diving off a sailboat in the BVI. My favorite site of all was the Chikuzen, but you can't always dive it, because it's very remote and exposed to the weather.

 

[diversteve]

Some not to miss:

Painted Walls off Dead Chest. Bring a light even in daytime.

The above mentioned Rhone. Two dives - many boats move between the moorings as the back is a considerable swim from the front.

Seal Dog Rock - it's really cool because it's the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other. Big fish come in and feed on the baitball - it's apparently been there every summer since before 2006 continuously. Someone here just posted they were in it recently. I liked the Chimney. Its a shallow dive but as you proceed up the walls of the canyon start to close together overhead eventually you come up against a wall with a crack in it to swim thru. Both are sites in the "Dogs"

There's a little wreck alley if that's of interest. There's 4 ships - 3 deliberately sunk in the last 25 years. The 4th - Inganess Bay - just happened to sink nearby.

We liked both Alice in Wonderland and Ginger Steps off Ginger Island. Brewers Bay West off north Tortola also. Dry Rocks East off Cooper Island but we had to try twice due to conditions to go there - and none of us are beginner divers. We also liked Invisibles off Virgin Gorda. We dove Coral Gardens/the plane wreck at night. The plane is really just a small passenger plane fuselage open to penetration.

If you're on the Virgin Gorda side, both of the DiveBVI shops - Yacht Harbor and Leverick Bay - are convenient for fills as the compressors are on the dock.

Stop at the Willy T for lunch. The legendary floating bar and restaurant | William Thornton And don't miss Foxy's or Soggy Dollar on Jost van Dyke. You're "required" to swim in to Soggy Dollar...LOL. Bomba's Shack on Tortola also throws an epic full moon party. The rich and famous often fly in or come over from Virgin Gorda or Necker Island for it.

 

[RJP]

While The Rhone is for certain a must-do dive it can get crowed. My suggestion would be to head there early and get a pre-breakfast dive in. Once the day boats from Tortola start showing up it can be a bit of a Charlie Foxtrot. Also, check the Tortola cruiseship schedule and stay away from the Rhone and more popular dive sites on that side of the island when there's 3000+ cruise passengers in town... a great many of them go diving.

 

[briankinley2004]

Thanks everyone for the help. We plan to plan our itinerary soon. Trip has been paid up and just counting down the days!

 

[ScubaERDoc]

Thanks for starting this thread briankinley2004. I wanted to revive this because my friends and I are renting a cat in the BVI from Moorings for a week (actually in a week from today!) for my bachelor party/week. Its a little intimidating as we have never done a private sailing trip before, although we are all experienced divers. Seems like there are really a lot of options for an itinerary! Were there any other sites out there that folks recommended?

 

[diversteve]

I can agree with 7/10 of these dives since we've done them. (The 3 we haven't, Chikuizen, Angelfish, Twin Towers) We tried for the Chikuizen but our captain could tell part of the way there it was going to be too rough so we turned back and dove a couple sites north of Tortola instead. I was told it's a long way and about the only thing diveable in the area. 10 Top Dive Sites in the BVI

This is not complete (there is diving off Jost Van Dyke) but one thing it makes clear is that more of the diving is either in the Dogs or in the islands south across the channel so I'd concentrate most of your days in those areas.

 

[Sieg@VU]

I have taken 14 groups to the BVI and have made many friends among the dive staff over the years. I wrote this article about dive sites in the BVI that you might find useful:

Best Dive Sites in British Virgin Islands | VisibilityUnlimited.com

 

[ScubaERDoc]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Here is a dive video I made from my bachelor party cat/dive week:

https://vimeo.com/131790291

[video=vimeo;131790291]https://vimeo.com/131790291[/video]