Love wreck diving? Love diving in clear blue warm water? Then here are our top 5 wreck diving destinations in the Caribbean.

The Bahamas

Want to combine some wreck diving with seeing sharks up close? Then The Bahamas is the destination for you. The islands have both ancient and modern ship wrecks to explore on most of the islands. Some sunk for filming movies, some sunk to make artificial reefs, even a crashed plane in water shallow enough to snorkel.

Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas offer shark dives on two different wrecks that offer underwater photographers & divers to enjoy the best of both shark diving and wreck diving (and you can even do this at night!).

Still on our Bahamian Wreck Diving wish list is the SS Sapona off Bimini – a large wreck that lies part submerged which offers some amazing split-shot opportunities.

Barbados

The island of Barbados is popular with divers and snorkelers alike. Amazing beaches, great food and a friendly welcome are what you should expect. But it is below the waves that makes this island stand out from the crowd. Probably the most famous wreck of Barbados is the Stavronikita, a huge and fairly deep wreck that takes several dives to fully explore. Its structure is now covered in coral growth and plenty of marine life has made this artificial reef its home.

But our favourite wreck diving location on the island has to be Carlisle Bay, where several wreck have been sunk in a rough circle for both divers and snorkelers to explore. Turtles are plentiful in the bay and if you drift off the wrecks and onto the reefs you are sure to spot seahorses too. The wreck of the Bajan Queen offers divers the chance to explore inside a wreck, in shallow water, which is a real highlight. Carlisle Bay also makes a great night dive!

Cayman Islands

The most famous wreck in the Cayman Islands has to be the Kittiwake. This wreck used to stand upright but a powerful storm has since knocked it on its side. It is a big ship, sunk deliberately to make an artificial reef on a sandy seabed. It can take several dives to fully explore both the outside and inside the wreck. It is always an impressive dive.

However, sometimes it is the smaller wrecks like the Doc Poulson that can make for a magical dive, simply because of the abundant marine life that call this wreck home. Huge sponges adorn the bow and large green morays and lobster can be found in every crevice.

Grenada

Grenada is probably most famous for the wreck of the Bianca C. It also boasts being the wreck diving capital of the Caribbean, with a host of wrecks suitable for beginners right up to technical divers. Divers with a lust for rust flock here each year to spend their time underwater exploring the wrecks on offer. Our favourite wrecks included a small tug boat off Carriacou, with a perfect little wheel. The wreck was perfect for taking shot both into and out of the wheelhouse.

Off the main island of Grenada, our favourite wreck was actually the Veronica L. In the daytime the wreck was covered in schools of bright fish, sometimes so dense it was hard to see the structure of the ship. At night it is even more impressive, as the orange cup corals that cover one side come out and glow under torch light. Octopus and crustaceans came out to hunt. We could have done this dive every day and been happy.

St Eustatius

The island of St Eustatius, or Statia as it is locally known, sits between St Kitts and Saba. You might not have heard of it, but if you love Caribbean wreck diving then you should add it to your wish list. The diving is great and unhurried on this quiet island where you may only a couple of dive boats operate.

The biggest wreck is the Charlie Brown. This wreck is very dear to our hearts as we were part of the team that sank it when we lived and worked on the island. She lies in 30m of water and can be explored both inside and out.

A series of wrecks has also been sunk near to the harbour area. These were sunk as artificial reefs, initially to encourage fish into the area to help out the local fishermen, who are not allowed to fish in the marine park that surrounds the rest of the island. However, over time, these wreck also became stunning dives. At night huge sea turtles come to sleep here and make this a very special dive indeed.

There are even ancient wrecks to explore, with most of the structure now covered in coral and only the anchors remaining. Treasure is still found on these dives, but you cannot take it home with you – unless you are lucky enough to find a blue bead.

Our plan for 2021 is to visit the British Virgin Islands, as we hear this is a great destination for wreck diving too – watch this space…