Buck Island, the little one of Virgin Islands of United States, lies South of St Thomas. It is a lovely get away from the city like environment of the main island and Charlotte Amalie.
Overnight stay on Little Bucket Island is not allowed, neither you’re allowed to anchor. There are maintained moorings for public use, with allowance for two hours stay.
Worth for a day trip and stop over for a dive and little walk on the island!
Check the vessel size restrictions for mooring balls around the island!
We did these next mentioned two dives around Little Buck Island from 40ft monohull, in early April. Water temperature was around 27 C°, visibility around 15 metres.
Buck Island West Point
18°16.735’N 64°53.69’W
Anchor:
Closest over night stay spot is in the large anchorage area around Water island (just South of St Thomas and North West from Little Bucket Island) as moorings at Little Bucket Island are for two hours visits only and over night stays are prohibited.
You’ll find Crown Bay Marina if in need of docking facilities, and large anchorage on the North and West side of Water island. A few moorings also available. It is a popular area and you’ll find traffic with other vessels and tenders. Ruyter Bay, Elephant Bay, and Druif Bay are all lovely spots to drop your anchor offering different shelter and vibe around, and obviously different distance for facilities on the main island.
Good holding in various depths, shelter from E, SE in Anchorage. Be careful with shallows and unmarked reefs around Water Island
I choose Water Island and surroundings for the overnight stay for these dive sites as you’ll reach them with down wind sail. The entrance channel to the anchorages and marinas in between Water Island and Hassel Island, on the East side of Water Island is about 3 nm away from the Water island. It is a lovely sail, and we even saw whales on our way sailing in bewteen the islands! There are plenty more anchorages North East of Little Bucket Island, which I am writing about in another post!
Sail and Moor:
On the NW side of the Little Bucket Island, you’ll find a little stretched cove with a few moorings available. This site can get a little rocky and rolly!
There are Moorings available at the dive site. Local dive operations have the priority for these moorings, however, they are often available.
Approach moorings from North West / North and you’ll be clear from any reefs on the West tip of the island.
Dive:
You can descend directly from the boat as the moorings are conveniently placed very close to the top of the drop off, and have lots of corals and rock formations to look at while swimming to the start of the wall. Head North West, where you find the wall dropping down to 25meters depth. Swim along the wall and sandy bottom towards North East, until you see the wall turning to a slope, turn around making a square pattern dive.
We saw lots of different nudibranchs and sea slugs, shrimps, lobsters, jelly fish and big schools of Caribbean reef fish
Be careful with the current that runs to West. Avoid swimming directly to North!
Wreck
18°16.589’N 64°53.860’W
Anchor:
As mentioned above, seek overnight anchorage near Water Island, or around other spots around St Thomas. Overnight Stay on Little Bucket Island is prohibited.
Sail and moor:
Few mooring balls on the South side of the Western tip of the land in a cove. Crab a mooring ball and descend directly from the boat. The biggest Wreck is in the middle of the Bay, and all the other attractions are located close by this.
Dive:
Crab a mooring ball and descend directly from the boat. The biggest Wreck is in the middle of the Bay, lying in 13-17 meters depth. There are couple of other sunken constructions around the wreck, such as another boat in two halves, giving the site an interesting character and atmosphere. The whole area is well worth to explore, and swimming around is easy without having current around. little surge noticeable. After seeing enough wrecks, continue to explore sandy banks to the South and follow the wall along the coast of the Bay to East, South East. This is where we saw some bigger creatures. We saw huge Southern Stingrays, Reef Sharks, Nurse shark, and big schools of fish.
Ready for an adventurous dive exploring sunken boats?
Sailing Divers 
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