St. Croix

The island is dived by car as much as by boat. North-shore shops run guided dives straight off roadside entries, and plenty of divers rent tanks, drive to a beach and go in on their own. Boats leave Christiansted and the Salt River marina for the canyon, Buck Island and the Butler Bay wrecks. Frederiksted Pier is entered from the beach beside it, usually with a guided night group, and it closes to divers when a cruise ship is alongside, so shops schedule around the ship calendar.

Everything sits within about a half-hour drive. Along the north coast the drop runs roughly parallel to the road, so separate entries reach different stretches of the same edge, each with its own swim out over shallow reef, sand chutes and coral fingers. Salt River cuts back into that shore as a gorge with a wall on either side, normally reached by boat. The west end is the opposite sort of dive: sheltered lee, dark sand, and structure that is mostly man-made.

The pier is what brings divers back. Working dock pilings, years of encrusting growth and a silty floor make an artificial habitat that behaves like a muck site, and most of what lives on it is small, well camouflaged and out after dark, so the night slot is the one to prioritise. You can shoot the drop wide-angle in the morning and go macro under the pilings the same night, and the two sit roughly twenty minutes apart by road.

It suits divers who like driving themselves around, photographers who want two disciplines on one trip, and anyone travelling with non-divers, since this is US territory with US currency, US phone service and no passport needed for arrivals from the mainland. Winter north swell can shut the north-shore entries for a day or two even inside the calm season, and the sheltered west end covers those days. Divers hunting pelagic action should temper their expectations.