Praslin & La Digue · Seychelles · Pinnacle
Sister Bank
Giant granite boulders and swim-throughs, 35 minutes out
Area photo: Tobias Alt, Tobi 87 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Sister Bank is a set of giant granitic boulders standing out at sea, about 35 minutes by boat from the dive centre and one of the longer rides on the roster. Depth over the site varies from 15 to 25 m, and the gaps between the boulders open into swim-throughs that the dive is planned around. The run out depends on the sea conditions.
Where it is and how deep
4.2823° S, 55.8495° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The bank is made up of giant granitic boulders sitting out in the sea rather than against an island, and getting there is a run of roughly 35 minutes from the dive centre, longer or shorter with the sea conditions. Depth over the site varies from 15 to 25 m, so a dive can start deep enough to be worth the trip and finish shallow on the tops of the rock.
What the bank is dived for is the swim-throughs. The boulders lean on each other and leave gaps big enough to pass through, and a dive here is a sequence of those: in one side of the granite, out the other, working back up the pile as the tank goes down. There is no reef structure to follow, only rock, which keeps the navigation simple and the route flexible.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Good |
Season follows Praslin & La Digue: The southeast monsoon runs from May to September; the water is windiest and the visibility thinnest in July and August, while March, April and November log the clearest water.
Sources
- Sister Bank dive site — Scubago
More dive sites in Praslin & La Digue
Reef
Five minutes out, around 5 m, in a bay that stays calm
Pinnacle
Granite bank with whitetip, nurse and grey reef sharks
Pinnacle
Granite canyons in the channel between Praslin and La Digue
Pinnacle
Big granite passages, 20 minutes out from Praslin
Reef
A granite reef whose tallest boulder breaks the surface at low tide
Coral garden
A shallow coral reef five to ten minutes off Praslin
Drift
A granite drift with blacktip and whitetip reef sharks
Pinnacle
Granite boulders inside Curieuse Marine National Park
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