Page Contents
Cooper Island
Cooper Island Beach
Club
Ginger Island
Manchioneel Bay
Salt Island
Villas
Wreck of The Rhone
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COOPER
& SALT ISLANDS
Life in paradise:
Beach clubs and dive wrecks
 Cooper Island. A
tropical island out of a Hollywood script,
Cooper Island is surrounded by coral
reefs and dive sites.
Vegetation includes coconut palms, frangipani, tamarind, flamboyant, orchids,
and cactus. Here also
are hummingbirds, Anole lizards hermit crabs and a
variety of
wildlife.
Manchioneel
Bay. Known for the
tree with
poisonous, small green apples by that name,
Manchioneel Bay is formed by a beautiful
stretch of sand beach. The location of the Cooper Island
Beach Club, the bay is a popular
cruising destination for a day stop as well
as anchoring overnight, although patches of sea grass
may prevent firm holding. Also, moorings
are available (photo: Jere Lull).
The
sea grass
in Manchioneel Bay is interesting to snorkel. Look
for green turtles, sting and eagle rays and a large
Queen
Conch bed. Keep a lookout for
boat traffic. See the bay on
web cam.
Cooper Island
Beach Club.
This unique
and popular Club offers the quintessential
beach scene. Its restaurant is a great
spot for open-air dining looking out over the
boats at anchor. Try
their conch fritters, rotis, Angus burgers
for lunch and penne
 pasta
in Carbonara sauce and mahi-mahi baked in coconut lime sauce
for dinner.
The teak bar stools
and lounge furniture were made by
Arawak Interiors
using the wood from old Balinese fishing boats, when the club
was
re-modeled in 2009 (also see this
article).
The Seagrape Boutique
offers souvenirs and sundries including Cooper Island t-shirts, HIHO
items and handcrafted pieces by British jeweler Alex Monroe.
The
Cooper Island Beach Club has airy,
open plan accommodations
which are comfortable and affordable and include kitchenettes
housed in West Indian style dwellings (photo credit: Dawson
site).
 Villas.
The
Beach House below and
The
Hideaway on left, with the
great view to Manchioneel Bay, are affordable
villas on Cooper Island.
Formidable looking
boulders near the Beach Club ensure privacy,
but the not-so-bad climb really adds some fun to a
short-and-scenic stroll along the shore to reach the
villas.
In a modern
version of Robinson Crusoe, rain water is
collected in large cisterns and pumped by gasoline
engines to header tanks. Gas stoves empower fully
equipped kitchens and solar electric systems enable
lights, fans and hot water. All the essentials of
contemporary Caribbean civilization are here-- cassette/CD
players, charcoal grills and outdoor showers.
:)
 From
the Beach House's dock, snorkel the boulders
between the Bay and Point, and look for various sea
urchins and a large resident octopus
which favors Queen Conch handouts (see
report).
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Diving
and Snorkeling.
At the heart of a diving and snorkeling
paradise
formed by the line of small islands
marking the southern boundary of the Sir Francis
Drake Channel, Cooper Island, together with Salt
Island and Ginger Island on each side, has 11 of
the 50 or so best known sites in the BVI,
including the Wreck of The Rhone,
Alice in Wonderland and Cistern Point. |
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Cistern
Point extends as a
rocky
point and coral reef ridge
off Cooper Island and out to a rock by that name.
Both a great snorkeling site and
sensational
shallow dive site at the southern end of
Manchioneel Bay, Cistern Point has a
dinghy
mooring (a rope tied between two
moorings) easily accessible to boaters who want
to dinghy over. A great site for
freedivers
as well. Devil's
Kitchen, on
Cooper's windward side is a series of ridges with
chambers, caves and coral with
lots of lobsters, some morays, and even a shark
sighting possible. Other dive sites include the
Thumb
Rock, Markoe Point, and
the Pat and
Marie
L dive wrecks.
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Cistern
Point
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Cistern Point is noted for its
photogenic
ledges covered with brilliant corals,
flowing gorgonians (such as the sea rod
and sea fan seen here)
and abundant tropical fish often
in groups like grey snappers and blue
tang on top of the ridge (photo: Dawson
site).
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 Sail
Caribbean Divers has a dive operation
(and a nice boutique) shown at the left with
dive-lodging
packages with the Cooper Island Beach
Club. |
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Nearby
Ginger Island.
Located here is the mythical
Alice in Wonderland
dive site. Stands of mushroom-shaped coral
twice the size of a person
form a fantasy world of mazes, with blue cromis, butterfly fish,
and other exotic creatures flitting amidst a
magical scene of purple and
green seafans, pillar coral and gorgonians. See
ScubaMom's
map for exact location. |
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Black and white
vertically-striped sergeant
majors
swim amidst a riot of color! |
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 Salt Island.
Nearby Salt Island is named for its salt ponds, but is most famous
as the location of a ship wreck.
Also, Salt Island
tours are available from the Settlement at Salt
Island Bay to see the salt ponds, once an important
source of salt for the British Royal Navy. Here is an island recipe
for seasoned salt.
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One of the
most famous dive sites in the world, the
R.M.S Rhone (Royal Mail
Steamer) went down in 1867 in a hurricane off Salt Island (above
is the first complete photo of the bow section:
Jim Scheiner).
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Rhone lies on a reef
in 20-80 feet of water so diving to various depths or
snorkeling is optional.
National Parks Trust moorings are
available (anchoring is not permitted as the Rhone
is a national marine park) and, if none are available, anchor at
the Settlement or nearby Lee Bay and use the dingy mooring. |
The Rhone
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One of the first iron ships built,
The Rhone still had the graceful lines of a
sailing ship, while outfitted as a sail-steamer from the
early days of these ships (photo:
Rhone
Museum)
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 "Awash"
in schools of friendly fish, the Wreck of The Rhone is a great dive,
fully encrusted for over a century in corals and sponges.
 The bow,
pictured above, lies in about 70' of water. Support
beams for the horizontal deck lie on their sides--the
famous "Greek columns" so often photographed.
The Wreck of
The Rhone is most famous as the film site for the movie, "The Deep," starring
 Jacqueline Bisset. The hatch
which played a prominent role in the movie, makes an fabulous entry to this
"treasure
ship" for divers, who can transit the well-lit interior easily
(photo: Mainsail Yacht
Charters).
 The
stern has a massive propeller (15' across) that lies in 25' of water.
Her propeller is so enormous that it is more likely to be
recognized by a snorkeler from the surface than a diver up
close at depth due to
its huge size (photo:
UBS Dive Center).
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Diving and
Snorkeling. Off Salt Island is
Rhone Reef, Blonde Rock
and the colorful, current-bathed Vanishing
Rocks. Here French Grunts school in a
u-shaped tunnel at Blonde Rock (ScubaMom).
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