Purple Rain

The name describes the experience: for most of this gentle drift along the Molinere ridge line, creole wrasse fall past you in loose violet sheets, thousands of them streaming shoreward over the reef like weather moving through. Between showers, the slope offers honey-combed volcanic rock, sea plumes bending in the flow, and turtle encounters frequent enough to plan around. Guides drop divers up-current and let the reef scroll by for forty relaxed minutes, which makes Purple Rain the island's favorite interval between wreck dives, an antidote to the Bianca C's depth and gravity.

اللحظة التي جئت من أجلها: Sheets of creole wrasse, relaxed scrolling drift, regular turtles

التضاريس: Volcanic ridges and coral slope running parallel to shore

التيار: A steady lazy drift along the ridge line does the work.

المخاطر: Stay with the group in the drift; boat pickup is on a surface marker.