Reefwander
A Caribbean reef shark swims close over the reef with small fish around it off Roatán

Roatán · Honduras · Drift · Reef

Grape Escape

A shallow drift down a sand path scattered with wreck pieces

Area photo: William Eburn · CC BY 2.5

Grape Escape is a drift at the tip of West End, run over the reef at an average depth of about 12-14 m. The route to follow is a sandy path between coral walls, and scattered along it are the pieces of a wreck that has broken up completely - no hull to swim into, just fragments turning up in the sand as the current takes you past.

Where it is and how deep

Depth profile of Grape Escape: typical dive 12–14 m (40–46 ft) 18 m · Open Water30 m · Advanced40 m · Recreational limit12 m14 mtypical dive
Depths on a shared scale to 40 m (130 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

16.3117° N, 86.5944° WPublished position for this site.

The dive

This is an easy drift. You drop onto the reef at an average depth of about 12-14 m and let the water carry you, using the sandy path between the coral walls as the route. The depth barely changes over the course of the dive, which keeps the bottom time long and puts the attention on what is lying in the sand rather than on the computer.

The debris is the thing to watch for. The wreck has disintegrated completely, so what you get are pieces spread along the sandy path, passed one at a time as the drift moves you along and easy to swim over unnoticed if you are watching the coral walls instead. Treat it as a debris field rather than a wreck dive: there is no intact structure, just parts of a ship lying where the sand meets the reef.

Marine life and season

The sources we used don't single out particular species here.

Month-by-month season rating for Grape Escape
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
GoodGoodPrimePrimePrimePrimePrimePrimeGoodFairFairFair

Season follows Roatán: March to August is dry with the calmest seas; October to February is the rainy season, wettest in November and December.

Sources

  1. Grape Escape — Scubago

More dive sites in Roatán

Southern stingrays and spotted eagle rays hunting along the base of the wall

to 27 madvanced

A fast ride along the vertical drop-off at the island's exposed western tip

15–27 madvanced

Schooling horse-eye jacks above a wall where turtles graze

12–30 mintermediate

Reef top at 5 m, wall dropping to about 46 m off West End

5–46 madvanced

Cave & cavern

Exit a sand-chute tunnel through an opening in the vertical wall face

12–33 madvanced

Canyons and swim-throughs on a wall bottoming out at 16 m

to 16 mbeginner

A coral pillar standing in a square cut in the reef wall

7–18 mbeginner

Pinnacle

A coral spire off the wall, topping out at about 27 m

10–27 madvanced

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