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PETER ISLAND
The elegant island resort

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PeterIsDeadmanBeachViewIcon2.jpg (4608 bytes) aClearGIF15h-15w.gif (829 bytes) Directly across the Sir Francis Drake Channel from Road Town, Peter Island is the home of the luxurious Peter Island Resort (495-2000), a fine upscale, newly renovated resort.
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Accommodations
Anchorages & Beaches
Dead Chest Island
Deadman's Bay
Diving & Snorkeling
Painted Walls
Sprat Bay
Tradewinds Restaurant

Peter Island, private and largely undeveloped, offers scenic walks to private beaches, dramatic views to outlying islands as well as activities and seclusion. PeterIslandSunriseIcon.jpg (3232 bytes)
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aClearGIF15h-15w.gif (829 bytes) Sprat Bay, popular with yachtsmen from around the world (with moorings, ice, water, fuel and showers available), is the water entrance to Peter Island. The Resort's land entrance is also shown here.

The ferry from Road Town (494-9647 schedule), free for those with dinner reservations, costs $14 per person each way. See Peter Island map and ferry routes.               

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The Silmaril (495-9225), a 41' sailing yacht pictured here at Sprat Bay, is available for various charters tailored to your needs from $95 each for 4-6 persons per day as well as part of Peter Island Resort's Ashore/ Afloat package.

DeadmansBeachIcon(JereLull).jpg (4864 bytes) Deadman's Bay, a gorgeous beach rated as one of world's ten most romantic beaches, sweeps along a mile-long crescent lined with coconut palms and seagrape trees. Couples love to stroll in the fading evening light (photo: Jere Lull).
The grassy bottom of Deadman's Bay that may make it difficult to set a hook is good for snorkeling the seagrass beds. Keep an eye out for the Green Sea Turtle foraging the Turtle Grass. Barbecues are often held with dancing on the beautiful beach. A steel drum band plays every Sunday with a West Indian brunch. Monday is "West Indian night" with moko jumbee dancers on stilts (hear Peter Island music). PeterIslandDeadmansBayViewIcon.jpg (7271 bytes)
A good day-anchorage (overnight as well if there is no northern swell), this is a yachtsman's favorite.
Also located on Deadman's Bay is a water sports center for guests, with complementary use of its windsurfers, sea kayaks, Hobies, lazers, sunfish and snorkeling gear. The Bay is great for sailing and snorkeling is good on both ends of the beach.
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The west side of Deadman's Bay, where the beach is inside the area marked off by the swimming area buoys, is for resort guests only.
Deadman's Beach Bar & Grill, the popular restaurant with good food pictured here, is located right in the middle of the famous beach. Try Bartender Flo's Mango Smoothie! aClearGIF15h-15w.gif (829 bytes) PeterIsDeadmanBeachBarIcon2.jpg (7378 bytes)
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Tradewinds   Restaurant. Well worth a special trip to the island, seabreezes and spectacular views enchance superb food. PeterIslandTradewindsIcon.jpg (8436 bytes)
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New settings of German china, French silverware and Italian crystal.

The masterful cuisine of Chef "Willo" Stout, a member of the gold medal winning BVI Culinary Team, combines indigenous elements with international influences, such as cinnamon-baked rack of lamb with plantains and artichokes or conch ravioli with banana-lemon chutney (featured on the 1998 BVI calendar).

DiningTourIcon.gif (3836 bytes)Heading a new wine room, Commander Sommelier Cotton has weekly tastings followed by a progressive "fusion" dinner matching the cuisine with an international selection of wines as well as other tastings such as Cuban cigars and Caribbean rums.

Drake's Channel Lounge has concoctions it's best to stay away from to avoid catching island fever, like the Mango Smoothie blended with ice cream, rum and coconut cream. You've been warned--the virulent stage is the moonlight madness, and it's contagious. :) PeterIslandDrakesChannelIcon.jpg (6798 bytes)

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Accommodations. Beach Front Suites, Ocean/Garden View Rooms, Hawk's Nest Villas and the Crow's Nest Villa are great places to stay on Peter Island. See Accommodations at Peter Island Resort.
PeterIslandWhiteBayIcon.jpg (10782 bytes)Anchorages and Beaches on Peter Island include protected overnight anchorages at Little Harbour and Great Harbour (good snorkeling but be sure to avoid the local fishermen) as well as Key Bay (with excellent snorkeling) and White Bay, so named for its long, sparkling white sand beach pictured here, both on the south coast of Peter Island. In Great Harbour, Callaloo at the Beach offers lunch and dinner.
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Activities and Facilities. Facilites include a fitness and massage therapy center, a beautiful pool, and an outstanding tennis program. Also, Peter Island features a botanist trail, salt ponds, palm forests, and a thached hut at Honeymoon Beach. Mountain bikes and courtesy vans are available for transportation. See map.
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Big Reef Bay has an exercise trial alongside its beach and foaming surf.

BaskinPeterIslandDiving.jpg (8044 bytes)Peter Island is at the center of diving and snorkeling heaven. Paradise Watersports offers dives, professional instruction, and the Aqua Adventures package.
Dive Sites. Peter Island has 30 dive sites within a 20 minute boat ride. Interestingly, the old Willie T floating bar/restaurant is near here. Dive down and have a "drink" at the underwater bar at the old Baltic Schooner--now you can jump off the roof with ease!

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Shark Point is an advanced dive site formed by Peter Island Bluff, the scenic overlook of the Loop trail, continuing underwater into a "crossroads" of pelagic (ocean roaming) and local sealife. Schools of horse-eyed jacks, butterflyfish, "clouds" of Bermuda chub, and even the rare shark intermingle along the current-swept rocky ridges (see story).

"Randy's Roundup"
Randy Keil
, divemaster and instructor par excellent at Peter Island, rounds up some large Grey Angelfish for the camera (see his Dive Adventures here).

Dive and learn to scuba with the best. At least try breathing underwater in a new marine world by taking the resort course.

Carrot Shoal, an open water formation, which gets its name from the fine branches of the legally protected black coral, which resemble lacey carrot tops, consists of rocky ledges that themselves resemble underwater train cars at a station platform.

Other Peter Island sites include Black Tip Reef, the Rhone Anchor (only), the dive wreck Fearless and Truck Reef, a collection of underwater cars and trucks.

 

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Juvenile
Blue Tang are pictured flitting over mounds of Starlet Fire Coral as sea fans and rod gorgonians gently wave in the light currents at Alice's Backside near Ginger Island.

Nearby Dead Chest Island, an uninhabited National Park, has three dive sites reached by dinghying over from Deadman's Bay. Coral Gardens, a friendly site for novices and snorkelers in very calm weather (but watch for boat traffic), gets its name from the many massive heads of brain, star and sheet corals resembling an acquatic garden. Dead Chest West, a series of discoveries, including an archway, caves, bowls and mazes.

PaintedWalls2Icon(ScubaMom).jpg (15746 bytes)Painted Walls. But the featured, top-ten attraction are those technicolor box canyons, Painted Walls. Spilling down a rocky ridge under the foaming surf into three canyons with absolutely vertical walls totally encrusted with sponges and cup corals brilliant with color and hiding flame scallops and Christmas tree worms (see report ). Excellent visibility and the explosion of color make Painted Walls perhaps the most photogenic BVI dive site. Avoid if the surge is strong (photo from ScubaMom).

PeterIslandPirateFlag.gif (6940 bytes) Dead Chest Island reputedly got its name when the notorious Blackbeard, after a mutiny, put 15 men ashore on this island with only a bottle of rum--hence the song: "15 men on a dead man's chest, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum." See Pirates & Privateers.

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