RMS Rhone & Salt Island · British Virgin Islands · Reef
Alice in Wonderland
Coral ridges in north-south lines with sand lanes between
Area photo: Cayeldo · CC BY-SA 3.0
A coral reef off Ginger Island where the coral grows in ridges running north to south with channels of sand between them, in 15 to 18 metres of water. The layout does the navigating for you: follow a sand lane out, cross over and follow another one back. Depth barely changes across the site, which makes it a straightforward dive after something deeper.
Where it is and how deep
18.3840° N, 64.4720° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
Boats pick up the National Parks Trust mooring off Ginger Island and you drop onto a reef that is laid out for you. The coral grows in ridges running north to south with channels of sand between them, and depth across the site varies only between about 15 and 18 metres, so there is no long descent and very little depth management to do. Pick a sand lane, follow it, and the ridge on either side is the dive.
The usual pattern is to work out along one channel and come back along the next, which keeps you near the mooring and makes finding the line at the end easy. Orientation is the site's whole selling point. Because the profile is flat and shallow, bottom times run long, and the mooring sits a few hundred yards from Ginger Steps, Carval Rock and Dry Rocks East, so it pairs easily with any of them.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime |
Season follows RMS Rhone & Salt Island: Nov–Jun is calmest and clearest; Aug–Oct hurricane season brings swell that can close the exposed Rhone site entirely.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Alice in Wonderland?+
Depth varies between about 15 and 18 metres across the whole site, so it stays inside Open Water limits and gives long bottom times.
Sources
- Diving in the British Virgin Islands — Wikivoyage
- Ginger Island — Wikipedia
More dive sites in RMS Rhone & Salt Island
Reef
Sheltered canyons and ridges off the tip of Norman Island
Pinnacle
An amphitheatre of rock, ledges and swim-throughs to 18 m
Overhangs and a gentle slope in 6 to 15 m off Cooper Island
Reef
A rocky islet between Ginger and Cooper, sloping to 30 m
Wreck
A 1988 refrigeration ship at 23 m, a long run offshore
Reef
Pillar and black coral at 21 m with pelagics passing through
Wall
A three-step wall with different growth on every ledge
A reef the length of Ginger Island's calm north side
Similar dives elsewhere
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From 1.5 m to 18 m over coral, boulders and sand