RMS Rhone & Salt Island · British Virgin Islands · Reef · Cave & cavern
Painted Walls
Sponge-painted canyons and an archway into a shallow pool
Area photo: Gareth Richards · CC BY 3.0
A set of canyons in the rock off Dead Chest Island, their walls covered in soft sponges that read as splashed colour once a torch is on them. The dive stays inside 12 m, and the third canyon ends at an archway that can be swum through into a shallow pool on a calm day. Local operators rate it beginner level.
Where it is and how deep
18.3617° N, 64.5603° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The site is a set of canyons cut into the rock, and the dive runs along them one at a time rather than crossing open reef. The walls are covered in soft sponges whose colour only comes up under a light, so a torch matters on this dive; the operator who runs it tells you to bring one. Nothing on the dive is deeper than 12 m, which keeps the profile flat from start to finish.
The third canyon is the one to save. At the end of it there is an archway, and on a calm day you can swim through it into a shallow pool on the other side; with any surge running, the sensible call is to look through and turn back. Depth never becomes the limiting factor on this dive — the tank ends before the profile does. Local operators rate the site beginner level.
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.
Sources
- Dive Sites — Sail Caribbean Divers
- Dive Sites — Sail Caribbean Divers
- OpenStreetMap Nominatim: Dead Chest Island — OpenStreetMap
In The Logbook
- What is surge in diving, and how deep it goesOcean science · 8 min read
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