Category Archives: British Virgin Islands

British Virgin Islands, wide angle, wreaks

Reflections on the RMS Rhône wreck

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Silversides and glass fish near the propellers

The RMS Rhône dive is an iconic dive. It has a lot of history. It has an interesting story, and for a wreck that has been down for over 150 years it still has quite a bit of structure to see and photograph.

The first time I dove the Rhône, the weather was poor and getting in and out of the dingy was a real challenge. But once we got down below 15 feet the water was clear and the wreck was a lot of fun to explore. The wheel house was still intact and it still had a world class lobster living in it. Between 2010 and 2018 a hurricane went through BVI and damaged the wheelhouse and made it unsafe to enter, and did further damage to the rest of the remains of the wreck.

The last time I dove the Rhône, we had pretty good weather but the visibility was not quite as good, but still at least in the 80 foot range.

Part of the remains of the structure of the wreck

The remains of the wheelhouse, are not safe to go inside of today, but there are more schools of fish around the wreck site because no fishing was allowed in 2018.

Twisted ribs of the Rhone

If you were wondering how powerful the hurricane was that hit BVI, consider this this part of the Rhone was in about 90 feet of water. Twist iron ribs in 90 feet of water, that seems to me to be a lot of force.

The remnants of the checker board flooring with red rope sponges.

Grunts and snappers swimming around the condenser.

I’m hopeful to get back to the Rhone wreck again in 2022. If I could get enough dives on the wreck, I might even consider doing one of the dives as a macro dive because there do appear to be quite a few small critter that have taken up residence.

British Virgin Islands, wide angle

Have you been to the Cistern dive site in BVI?

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Megan exploring Cistern Point
Megan exploring Cistern Point

The first dive we did in British Virgin Islands (“BVI”) in 2018 was at the  Cistern point off of Cooper island. We dropped down behind the boat and swam to the mooring line.  We dropped to the bottom which was at 27 feet at the mooring ball.  The area around the mooring ball was mostly sand. It looked like the cat. 5 hurricane last year had beaten up most of the hard coral. But the hard coral is slowing making a come back.

The soft corals are ok, but a bit sparse. It was a sunny day to start, but later in the dive the sun started to go behind the clouds, meaning that I had to turn up the strobes a bit .  I found quite a few large lobsters in various overhangs. They looked to be in the 5 + pound range.

Megan diving with lobster
diver with lobster

There were several dips in the ocean floor. I dropped down to see the various animals hiding in the hole in the reef. The fish seem to be making a bit of a come back. We saw several scrawled file fish. I saw one queen trigger fish.  I saw quite a few box fish and one adult barracuda.  We saw three large tarpon near a cave mouth. Inside the cave were some silversides and there were two lion fish hunting the silversides.

Later in the dives we got reasonably close to the tarpon.

Three tarpon swimming over the reef
Three tarpon swimming over the reef; its actually 15 feet of fish:  3 X 5 foot tarpon

Late in the dive we found a turtle. I took quite a few shots of him and got a few with my daughter Megan in the picture.

Megan and the turtle
Megan and the turtle

Near the end of the dive we found one spotted moray who was pretty well hidden.

At the end of the dive an eagle ray that was easily 6 ft across came through the site. He was missing a tail.

A large eagle ray swimming away from us

I swam hard for both the turtle and the eagle ray.  The turtle wasn’t too hard to catch.   The ray was pretty fast and it was hard to get close to him.

I was a bit tired after the dive since the swim back to the boat was through some surge and the wind had picked up and was blowing us away from the boat.

The new housing and strobes worked well. I took over 200 images on the one hour long dive. Maximum depth was 42 feet. Viz was maybe 50-60 feet, less at the beginning and end of the dive. Better in the middle of the dive.

British Virgin Islands, wide angle, wreaks

Have you had a chance to dive the RMS Rhone?

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In the British Virgin Islands, in my mind there are two iconic dives.   The dive site known as the “Indians” is near a three rocky outcroppings that bear the name the Indians.  The aquatic life is about as close to an aquarium as I can remember diving.  Great variety and abundance of underwater life.  

But, the iconic dive in the BVI is the dive of the RMS Rhone.  When the ship sank only one porthole remained intact.

The magic port hole
The magic port hole

Nevertheless, the rest of the ship which has been submerged for more than a century is still in relatively good shape.  Here is a link to what I wrote about the dive of the Rhone several years ago.

 http://www.campbelljournal.com/rhone.html

I hope I get to go back to dive the Rhone again in the near future.  

British Virgin Islands, wide angle, wreaks

Do you like to dive wrecks?

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Airplane wreck in BVI
Although no longer aerodynamic, the airplane wreck is still a hit with divers in the BVI
Although no longer aerodynamic, the airplane wreck is still a hit with divers in the BVI

In the British Virgin Islands there are a number of wreck dives that are available. So why do a wreck dive? One of my reasons is that the wreck often serves as an artificial reef which attracts fish. The wreck also provides good structure for corals and sponges to take hold and grow. At the airplane wreck the fish life is fine, but the sponges that have started to grow on the plane are pretty colorful.

On our most recent trip to the BVI we dove the airplane wreck. It is in relatively shallow water, about 35 feet. When we were there the visibility was pretty poor because a storm had just gone through and stirred up all of the sediment. Nevertheless, for close focus wide angle photo’s the visibility was within acceptable limits as long as you were careful to keep the focus of the shot very tight and close.

In a prior trip to BVI, I was fortunate to dive the RMS Rhone. The Rhone was a packet ship that sank during a late season hurricane. She was thought to be unsinkable just like her sister ship the Titanic. You can read more of what I found on the Rhone in my journal which can be found here:

http://campbelljournal.com/rhone.html

Here is a link to video from the Kittiwake wreck dive: