Traces of the Past

Last Updated on January 22, 2025 by Candice Landau

In 2022, the Managing Editor of Scuba Diving magazine asked if I wanted to head out on a trip to the Caribbean aboard Aggressor’s BVI liveaboard. The answer was an immediate “yes.” Of course, what followed in the week prior to the trip was intense worry over whether or not I’d be flying out into a hurricane. You can read my full story on Scuba Diving magazine online or in the digital version of the magazine. And you can keep scrolling to get some more behind-the-scenes insight into the trip!

Supplementary reading

If you’re heading to the British Virgin Islands on a dive trip and want to give your trip a little more texture and color, I highly recommend purchasing and reading the book The Law of Storms by Joan Martelli. It’s an excellent historical recounting of the sinking of RMS Rhone, my favorite dive in the BVI. It will bring the dive to life as well as some of the history of the area.

The other reading I’d recommend is the guidebook by Fodor’s Travel, U.S. & British Virgin Islands.

I had the Olympus TG-6 on this trip and a GoPro. How I wish I’d had my “real” camera back then. Luckily, however, we had a photographer onboard to take photos of us. I used some of them in the article (above you can see the shot of me wending through the remains of RMS Rhone.

I’ll have to share some more pictures from the actual land-based portion of the trip as I had a great tour of the island courtesy of the hotel receptionist’s friend. He drove me up and down the hills explaining what had happened during the last terrible hurricane and talking me through the history. It was the best tour imaginable. If I find his details, I’ll be sure to share them.

Outside of the Florida Keys, this was actually my first warm-water vacation in the Caribbean. I spent much of the time trying to learn the names of the fishes and species I was seeing; things that today are commonplace back then were as novel as a new toy.

Regardless, if you’re keen to explore BVI, I’d highly recommend a liveaboard for the best diving (I went with Aggressor) and then an additional few days on the island to dive with the local shop out of Road Town and to explore the beautiful beaches and hills.