Cooper Island a great BVI sunset location

Cooper Island is a tiny private island nestled in-between Salt Island and Ginger Island in the British Virgin Islands. It has a small private resort on the Island with individual guest cottages and it’s famous bar and restaurant. Cooper Island Beach Club is a great location to watch the sunset down the Sir Francis Drake Channel. And as with most bars in the BVI it has its customary Happy Hour where you can enjoy rum punch and local beers. There is also a gift shop and dive shop on Cooper Island.

The main anchorage is directly in front of Cooper Island Beach Club Resort called Manchioneel Bay. It obtains its name from the poisonous Manchioneel Trees that used to line this pretty crescent shaped beach. The new owners of the resort removed all of these trees about 5 years ago and have replaced them with non-poisonous Sea Grapes. The anchorage here is full of mooring buoys because it is a recognised stop over for the bareboat fleet of charter yachts. So larger yachts have to anchor further out in deeper water. The seabed around the mooring field is covered in turtle weed, so you are often rewarded by turtles swimming around the yachts. This anchorage tends to be quite rolly. During the night when the current in-between Cooper Island and Salt Island changes direction you will find yourself broadside to the swell for an hour or so.

A good winter anchorage is found in Haulover Bay on the south side of Cooper Island, the topography here is rocky, but you can tuck in out of the swell and have a very settled night, providing that there is no south in the wind.

Snorkeling is great around Cooper Island. You have Cistern Point located directly to the south of Manchioneel Beach, and you also have Chromis Reef located to the south of Haulover Bay, both of these sites are full of reef fish with a rocky granite boulder topography. Do watch out for the current at both of these sites, it can be strong in-between these tiny islands. These sites are also dive sites, and around Cooper Island you also have Inganess Bay located south of Cistern Point, this 136 foot inter-island freighter was damaged in Hurricane Bertha in July 1996 and was then sunk in this location later that year to create an artificial reef. Wreck Alley located offshore from Red Bluff, where four boats were purposely sunk to create both a wreck and reef dive site. You also have Thumb Rock on the southwest tip of Cooper Island and Markoe Point on the southeast tip of Cooper Island.

You can visit Cooper Island whilst on a luxury crewed charter of the BVI’s aboard the beautiful monohull SY Pacific Wave. There’s no better way to visit all of the stunning BVI islands than on a BVI crewed yacht charter with owner operators Lynn and Mark.

Why not read more about our favorite anchorages around the British Virgin Islands, each island is totally unique and is waiting for you to explore them.