Rodney Bay & Pigeon Island - Northern Coast - Saint Lucia

About Rodney Bay & Pigeon Island - Northern Coast

The northern coast around Rodney Bay and the Pigeon Island causeway is Saint Lucia's most convenient diving and quietly its best for small stuff: eight sites within ten minutes of the marinas, ranging from the inverted 75-metre dredger Daini Koyomaru - the island's deepest, most advanced wreck - to sheltered reef nursery grounds where the Caribbean's rarest macro encounters are almost routine. Le Sport is the seahorse address, dwarf seahorses drifting in soft-coral gardens; La Roche's trenches hide lobsters the size of house cats; Bird's Rock and Berger Rock stack big schools, barracuda and passing eagle rays against volcanic outcrops; and the historic Pigeon Island itself wears a coral belt between its mooring buoys. British warships once sheltered in this landlocked bay, and the national landmark on the causeway still reads like an open-air museum - which makes the north the island's best region for divers whose partners would rather explore a fort than a beach bar. With the main dive shops, both airports' easiest access and the island's nightlife all on the doorstep, the north makes the perfect base for a first taste of Saint Lucia.

Highlights

• ✓Daini Koyomaru - a 75-metre Japanese dredger lying inverted at 10 to 33 metres, the north's advanced wreck
• ✓Le Sport - the island's most reliable seahorse ground, dwarf seahorses included
• ✓Pigeon Island National Landmark - coral belts around a historic 18th-century military islet
• ✓La Roche (Barrel of Beef) - trenches and valleys hiding enormous spiny lobsters
• ✓Bird's Rock & Berger Rock - outcrops of barracuda, parrotfish and drifting eagle rays
• ✓Saline Point & Smuggler's Cove - shallow, protected reefs purpose-built for beginners

Getting There

The north is the easy arrival: George F.L. Charles (SLU) airport sits 10 minutes from Rodney Bay, and Hewanorra (UVF) in the south is about two hours up the west coast. Dive boats launch from the Rodney Bay and Gros Islet marina fronts and from the Pigeon Island side of the causeway, reaching every site in five to ten minutes; shore entries serve Smuggler's Cove and the Saline Point reef. Most centres run free hotel pickup across the Gros Islet, Rodney Bay, Castries and Marigot corridors, so divers rarely touch transport at all.