Keyhole Pinnacles - Soufrière & the Pitons - Southwest Coast, Saint Lucia

Site Overview

The Keyhole Pinnacles are the most dramatic topography in the Soufriere Marine Management Area - four volcanic peaks that claw up from the deep until their summits sit just under the surface, then plunge back out of sight into blue, and a dive here means threading between them. This is the subaqueous twin of the Pitons above: the same raw volcanic stone furred in coral, the same sheer fall into open water, the same sense that the island did not stop growing when it met the sea. Coral-crusted flanks and deep chimneys drop away past 30 metres, saddles between the peaks funnel a soft current that drifts divers spire to spire, and the summits swarm with fish and hang with soft coral that pulses in the flow. Great clouds of barracuda and Spanish needle stand off the peaks, turtles cruise the walls, eagle rays loop the deeper edges, and on the right day a Caribbean reef shark patrols the blue beyond the far pinnacle. The clear water and high sun of the dry season throw the four peaks into silhouette against the deep, which is the shot the site exists to give. Because it is a vertical, exposed, current-funnelled dive with boat traffic right over shallow summits, the Pinnacles are run as an advanced profile - and for divers with the card and the buoyancy, they are the south coast at its most theatrical.