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Anchorage· St John· Virgin Islands (BVI, USVI and Spanish Virgins)

Coral Bay Anchorage

18° 20.6′ N · 64° 42.7′ W

The island's old harbor and its laid-back east-end village: a narrow, reef-fringed inner arm (Coral Harbor) full of liveaboard boats, with Skinny Legs, a dinghy dock and a small grocery ashore.

British Virgin IslandsUS Virgin IslandsSpanish Virgins

Practical

Position is the GNIS point for Coral Harbor, the northwest arm of Coral Bay. Coast Pilot 5 (2026): Coral Harbor is narrow, and its deep water is restricted to a width of 100 yards or less by shoals from the sides and head; the entrance channel is marked by private buoys; the anchorage is smooth in ordinary winds but is a lee shore and suits only small vessels; a small-boat wharf with 3 ft alongside is at the head. In Coral Bay the range of tide is about 1 ft and there is no current inside the bay. Lagoon Point, the south entrance point of Coral Harbor, is fringed by a coral reef 200 yards wide, bare at low water. Coral Bay's inner harbor is a working, liveaboard harbor rather than a park mooring field: many balls are private and not for day use (Lime Out, 2026), anchor in sand only, never seagrass or coral, and keep wakes down. Do not anchor in the Saunders Gut area, which has a thriving seagrass bed (Lime Out). The harbor sits outside the national park's mooring system, so no NPS fee applies here; Hurricane Hole to the east is part of the Coral Reef National Monument, where anchoring is prohibited. Approach via the Coral Bay entrance, keeping clear of Eagle Shoal.

Best for

A local-flavour anchorage with Skinny Legs and Lime Out nearby

Season

Year-round; protected from the trades, open to the south in tropical systems

Nearby