Scuba Diving BVI Wrecks, Reefs & Pinnacles

Why dive here

Calm water, short hops

The British Virgin Islands sit east of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, spread around the Sir Francis Drake Channel. That channel is the secret to scuba diving in the BVI: the larger islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke and Anegada, plus dozens of smaller cays, break the Atlantic swell and leave sheltered water on their southern sides. Most dive sites are a 10 to 30 minute boat ride from wherever you are staying or anchored.

The diving is mostly in 30 to 90 feet of water over hard coral, boulders and sand, which suits new divers and photographers as much as experienced wreck divers. Sea fans, brain coral, sponges and big schools of grunts and snappers are everywhere, and turtles, eagle rays, nurse sharks and barracuda turn up often.

Start with our overview of the best BVI dive sites, or read on for the highlights. To learn who writes this guide and how, see about Scuba Diving BVI.

The headline dive

The RMS Rhone wreck

The Royal Mail steamer Rhone broke apart on the rocks off Salt Island in the hurricane of 29 October 1867. Its two halves lie in roughly 20 to 80 feet of water inside the Rhone Marine Park, and the wreck is the dive most visitors come to the BVI for: a giant bronze propeller, a coral-covered bow you can swim through and the history of one of the Caribbean's worst shipwrecks.

Our RMS Rhone wreck dive guide covers the history, the layout of the bow and stern, and how most boats run it as two dives. For more steel, see BVI wreck diving, from the Chikuzen to Cooper Island's Wreck Alley.