Whether you’re a Scuba diver or want to learn to dive there are many options: most fully crewed charter yachts offer Scuba diving or rendezvous diving. There are many yachts, listed below, that offer diving packages with all-inclusive rates including PFDs, regulator and tanks & refills. If you wish to do an occasional dive while visiting, there are several diving operators in the British Virgin Islands that offer rendezvous dives and resort courses.

The BVI is a world class scuba diving destination. The diversity of dive sites and its location is what makes the area special. Besides having one of the world’s most spectacular wrecks, the RMS Rhone, (rated in the top five in the world by Skin Diver magazine) the BVI has pinnacles, coral gardens, walls, caves and grottoes. And the locations are such that often you can drift dive. Using the wind driven current you can glide slowly over beautiful reefs and underwater scenes without expending any energy and thus getting great value out of your tank of air.

The site called ‘Alice in Wonderland’ on the south side of Ginger Island allows for an east to west drift over a well populated and beautiful coral garden with unusual giant mushroom corals (hence the name). There is nearly always a good dive site. When the north shore is untenable because of winter swells, sites south of Tortola, Ginger, Norman and Peter are usually fine. Randy Keil ( Peter Island Divers) , long time BVI scuba instructor, attributes the BVI’s success as a sport diving location to exactly these two blessings – location and diversity of sites.

The Rhone for example is a superlative dive because of the situation of the wreck. The aft end including the giant propeller are in about 30 feet. The bow section and forward mast are in 80 feet. The remainder of the ship and associated bits and pieces are all between these two depths. And the wreck lies adjacent to a relatively quiet anchorage on the western end of Salt Island. Having been blown ashore during the last half of a terrible hurricane in 1867 when fierce south westerly winds caught the ship unaware, she lies in mostly calm waters in the lee of the easterly trades. In short, if the Almighty had wanted to bestow on the BVI a perfect dive location, he could hardly have picked a better spot.

Just to mention, the wreck of the Rhone has been lying in its final resting place for 140 years. A myriad of fish call it home – from schools of snapper, grunts and porgies to a giant green moray eel that seems happy living in the condenser. From giant sponges and waving sea fans and gorgonians to bright gold elkhorn coral, this underwater spectacle is a diver’s dream.