Cooper Island BVI

Cooper Island sits in the heart of the BVI’s Sir Francis Drake Channel — between Salt Island to the south and Ginger Island to the east — and is one of the quieter cruising stops once you’ve moved past the Tortola–Norman Island axis. The main anchorage is Manchioneel Bay on the western shore, where mooring balls managed by Cooper Island Beach Club hold around 30 boats. Anchoring is possible when moorings fill, but the Beach Club’s mooring system is the reliable plan.

Onshore, Cooper Island Beach Club has built a quiet reputation as one of the BVI’s standout eco-resorts — solar-powered, with a beach bar and restaurant that draws cruisers in for sunset, a coffee shop, and a rum bar stocked with one of the most extensive Caribbean rum collections you’ll find afloat or ashore. The bakery alone is worth the dinghy ride.

Snorkeling at Cistern Point off the south end is steady and accessible. The wreck of the RMS Rhone — just south at Salt Island — is one of the Caribbean’s iconic dive sites and easily reached from a Cooper Island base.

Below, ALL AT SEA’s editorial archive of Cooper Island coverage — anchorage notes, sustainability features on the Beach Club, dive logs from the Rhone, and the ongoing story of one of the BVI’s most thoughtfully run small-island stops — going back to 1993.