The long palm-backed beach at the north-east end of Peter Island, a private island across the Sir Francis Drake Channel from Road Town in the British Virgin Islands — not the Deadman's Bays elsewhere in the Caribbean. The rebuilt Peter Island Resort lines the sand, its yacht club sits next door in Sprat Bay, and Dead Chest Island lies half a mile off. There is no road here from anywhere else: you come on the resort's ferry from Tortola, by water taxi or on your own boat.
The north-east end of Peter Island, British Virgin Islands — across the Sir Francis Drake Channel from Road Town, Tortola
Not to be confused with
Other Deadman's Bays and Deadman's Beaches round the Caribbean: this is the one on Peter Island, BVI
The beaches
Deadman's Beach along the bay — about half a kilometre on OpenStreetMap, a "mile-long crescent" to the resort; Little Deadman's at its east end; Honeymoon Beach in the cove beyond
Getting there
By boat only: the resort's ferry from its launch on Tortola, about 30 minutes; a water taxi from Red Hook, St. Thomas, 1 hour 15, the resort says; or your own boat
The island
Private, about 1,800 acres; Peter Island Resort is the only resort on it
The resort
Closed by Hurricane Irma in 2017, rebuilt and reopened in 2024, on its own account
Moorings
The Peter Island Yacht Club's balls in the bay; check-in after 1 pm, VHF 72
The shore
Public, like every BVI beach, the Minister for Natural Resources told the House of Assembly in 2023; the land and the facilities behind it are the resort's
Offshore
Dead Chest Island, an uninhabited National Park with dive and snorkel sites, half a mile to the north-east
The name
The resort's own story: pirates marooned on Dead Chest washed ashore here — a legend, like Dead Chest's own
Plan with VIslandGuide
Every tool for Deadman's Bay on VIslandGuide
The boats and the papers to get here, the week's wind and sea for an anchorage, the moorings, the dive sites off the bay, and the island around it — each one opens the full page.
Deadman's Bay from OpenStreetMap: the sand of Deadman's Beach, the two smaller beaches at the east end (Little Deadman's and Honeymoon Beach, named from the resort's own descriptions and its old island map), the resort's roads and tennis courts behind, the yacht club's piers in Sprat Bay over the low neck of land to the west, and Dead Chest Island off the point. Tap a pin for its section.
Getting there
How to get to Deadman's Bay
Deadman's Bay is on Peter Island, and Peter Island has no road, bridge or airport and no route in the public ferry timetables. Everyone arrives by sea. The resort's own way in is from Tortola: a taxi of about 20 minutes from Beef Island airport (EIS) to the Peter Island Ferry Launch, then a 30-minute crossing on the resort's ferry to its dock in Sprat Bay, next to the beach. The resort lists the ferry at $99 a person one way and $175 return, and arranges it with a booking; its ferry ticket is for the resort's guests and authorised visitors, so ask before you plan on it as a day trip.
From St. Thomas the resort points to private water taxis from Red Hook — 1 hour 15 minutes, it says — or a helicopter transfer of about 30 minutes. Sailors pick up one of the Peter Island Yacht Club's moorings in the bay or take a slip in Sprat Bay. Coming from the U.S. Virgin Islands is an international trip: Peter Island is not a port of entry, so a boat clears BVI customs on Tortola or Jost Van Dyke first, and everyone needs a passport.
Looking back at Peter Island over the wake of the boat to Tortola Photo: Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0
Book the ferry transfer with your room or your visit: the resort runs it to its own schedule from its own launch, not from Road Town's public ferry terminal.
The taxi from the airport or Road Town to the launch is an official fare — ask for the Peter Island Dock, and look it up in the fare calculator before you go.
Coming by water taxi or charter from St. Thomas or St. John, bring a passport and ask whether the price includes the BVI's entry fees.
Sailing in, call the yacht club on VHF 72 or 284.393.9250: mooring check-in is after 1 pm and check-out before 11 am.
Deadman's Bay: the public shore, the private island, and the boat over
Peter Island is privately owned and Peter Island Resort is the only business on it. The shore itself is a different matter: the BVI Minister for Natural Resources told the House of Assembly in March 2023 that all BVI beaches are public, and that the public has a right to the water and the shore of every beach up to the privately owned land. What the resort sells is everything behind and on top of that — the ferry, the loungers and cabanas, the water sports, the restaurants and, for boaters, the yacht club's moorings with its add-ons.
Published prices
The shore
Free
Resort ferry from Tortola, one way
$99 a person
Resort ferry from Tortola, return
$175 a person
Yacht club mooring ball
Not published — ask the yacht club
The ferry prices are on the resort's Getting Here page. The yacht club lists moorings in Deadman's Bay, Sprat Bay, White Bay, Key Bay and Little Harbour and "day boater access", but publishes no prices; its Yacht Club Experience — the pool, the sport courts, the Drunken Pelican and a shuttle to Little Deadman's Beach — is an add-on to a mooring and comes with an overnight slip.
The law and the house rules
✓The water and the shore — "All BVI beaches are public," the Minister for Natural Resources told the House of Assembly on March 9, 2023; access must be provided even where a beach is linked to private property
✕The resort's land and facilities without a booking — the island is private: loungers, cabanas, water sports and the restaurants are for guests and those the resort or yacht club has booked
✓A passport — the resort requires one for everyone travelling to it, valid six months beyond the trip
✓Smoking only in designated areas — every room is non-smoking, the resort says
One long beach and two small ones, with the resort behind them and the yacht club round the corner in Sprat Bay. Everything for sale is the resort's; we found no public restroom, shop or lifeguard.
The main beach runs along the south side of the bay under coconut palms, about half a kilometre along the water on OpenStreetMap's outline (the resort calls it a mile-long crescent). The resort lists cabanas and a swim zone here, and a water sports pavilion a short walk from the lodge, open daily 7:30 am–4:30 pm, with stand-up paddleboards, kayaks and snorkel gear for its guests; it keeps the activities to the water between the beach and Dead Chest Island. The resort's roads and two tennis courts are behind the sand.
At the far east end of Deadman's Beach the resort names Little Deadman's Beach, with a swim zone, and beyond it Honeymoon Beach, a small cove with a cabana that guests can book for themselves. Little Deadman's is the beach the yacht club's shuttle runs to for its mooring and slip guests, and the resort's 2007 map called it the visitors' beach. The resort puts the Drake Steakhouse just steps away.
The balls in Deadman's Bay are the Peter Island Yacht Club's, run from its marina in Sprat Bay next door, with fuel, showers, laundry, trash, Wi-Fi, the Sea Chest shop and commissary, and slips for yachts up to 200 feet. Check in after 1 pm, out before 11 am; hail VHF 72 or call 284.393.9250. The bay opens to the east and north-east: in the usual trade wind it is a good day stop, but a strong easterly sends a chop in, and the quieter nights on Peter Island are in Great Harbour and Little Harbour.
The resort runs both. The Drake Steakhouse serves breakfast 7:30–10:30, lunch 11:30–3 and dinner 5:30–9:30, its bar 11 am–10:30 pm; the Drunken Pelican at the yacht club serves lunch 11:30–3, dinner 5:30–9:30 and pizza all day, its bar 11 am–10:30 pm — the hours on the resort's website in October 2026. Both take reservations and keep a dress code in the evening.
We found no published lifeguard service and no public restroom. The resort marks swim zones off the beaches; boats come and go in the bay to the moorings and the yacht club, so swim inside the zones and keep clear of the dinghy lanes. Bring water and shade if you come ashore off a boat.
The rocks at both ends of Deadman's Beach and round Little Deadman's have reef close in; our charter planner calls it a gentle reef off the beach ends in 5–15 feet. Out towards Dead Chest is deeper, and that is where the resort takes its guests snorkelling.
The small, treeless islet half a mile off the bay is an uninhabited National Park, with dive and snorkel sites along its cliffs — Painted Walls, long gullies cut into its point, is one of them. Its name comes with the story that Blackbeard marooned his crew there with a bottle of rum, but the earliest tellings are from the 20th century: it almost certainly grew from Stevenson's "fifteen men on a dead man's chest" in Treasure Island (1883), not the other way round.
From the west end by the resort to the rocks at Little Deadman's and back, under the palms the whole way. The card at the top of the page has today's sunrise and sunset.
The wreck of the RMS Rhone lies off Salt Island, the next island east. The Royal Mail steamer was at anchor off Peter Island when the hurricane of 1867 caught her; she ran for open sea and was driven onto the rocks. National Parks Trust day moorings only.
White Bay on the south side faces Norman Island; Great Harbour and Little Harbour on the north shore are the calm overnight anchorages; Key Bay has the sunken Willy T. The island guide has them all, with the map.
Everything to eat and drink on Peter Island is the resort's: the Drake Steakhouse by the beach and the Drunken Pelican at the yacht club in Sprat Bay, at the hours on the resort's website (October 2026: the Drake 7:30 am to 9:30 pm in three sittings, the Pelican 11:30 am to 9:30 pm, both bars 11 am to 10:30 pm). Book ahead, and if you are not staying, ask the resort or the yacht club before you come ashore for a meal.
There is no ATM on the island and nothing to buy beyond the yacht club's shop and commissary, so provision on Tortola, half an hour away.
Low sun glittering on the water along the curve of Deadman's Beach, tyre marks on the raked sand and the hills under a stormy sky (November 2007) Photo: Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0
By the beach
The Drake SteakhouseBreakfast on the terrace, lunch on the terrace and by the pool, steak and seafood at dinner; a smarter dress code in the evening.
Sprat Bay
The Drunken PelicanThe yacht club's casual restaurant and bar: lunch, dinner, pizza all day.
Sea ChestThe yacht club's boutique and commissary.
Weather & sea
Deadman's Bay weather and the best time to go
Warm all year: highs in the mid-80s °F and a steady easterly trade wind, December to April the dry, busy sailing season and June to November hurricane season, with the peak from mid-August to mid-October. Our forecast feed has no point on Peter Island, so the forecast and sea temperatures here are read off Tortola, across the channel.
Deadman's Bay faces the Sir Francis Drake Channel, not the open Atlantic: our sea models treat it as sheltered from ocean swell, which rarely reaches it, but open to the east, so on a day of strong trades a chop runs into the bay. The /bvi-charter chart table has this week's wind and sea for the anchorages.
Daily-mean sea-surface temperature off Peter Island, averaged 2021–2024 (Open-Meteo marine reanalysis): warmest in Sep (86.3°F), coolest in Feb (79.3°F).
Live cameras
Is there a Deadman's Bay webcam?
No. There is no public live camera on Peter Island — not at Deadman's Bay, not at the yacht club — and we would rather say so than pass off a photo as live. The nearest live views in the BVI are at Cooper Island, a few miles east past Salt Island, and Scrub Island off Tortola's north-east tip.
Robert Louis Stevenson's song first appears in Treasure Island. The story that Blackbeard marooned his crew on Dead Chest, off this bay, is only recorded from the 20th century and is almost certainly folklore that grew from the book.
1968
A resort begins
A Norwegian buyer acquires Peter Island and begins building a resort, the resort's history page says; later in the 1970s Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos buy it and run it as a private island resort.
2007
The visitors' beach
The resort's painted island map of the time names Deadmans Beach, Honeymoon Beach and the "Little Deadmans Visitors Beach" round Deadmans Bay.
2017
Hurricane Irma
The resort closes with hurricane damage and begins what it calls a six-year project to rebuild.
2024
Reopened
The new Peter Island Resort opens, with its yacht club and marina in Sprat Bay and rooms along Deadman's Beach.
The resort's painted map of Peter Island as it hung in 2007, with Deadmans Beach, the Little Deadmans visitors' beach and Honeymoon Beach round Deadmans Bay, Sprat Bay and Cabey Point Photo: Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0A coconut palm leaning out over Deadman's Beach, a walker in a sun hat at the water's edge and the hill at the east end of the bay behind (November 2007) Photo: Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0
There are Deadman's Bays all over the Caribbean. This one is on Peter Island in the BVI, reached from Tortola — tell a water taxi or a charter captain that.
Arrange the boat first
There is no public ferry. Book the resort's ferry with your stay, a water taxi, or a mooring with the yacht club before you set out.
Call before you land
The shore is public, but the island and everything on it is the resort's. Hail the yacht club on VHF 72 and ask what is open to you that day.
Pick the bay for the wind
Deadman's Bay is open to the east: lovely by day, choppy in strong trades. Great Harbour and Little Harbour are the calmer nights.
Bring cash from Tortola
There is no ATM on Peter Island and nothing to buy beyond the yacht club's shop; the resort's front desk will advance up to $100 for a 5% fee.
Passport from the USVI
Coming from St. Thomas or St. John, every passenger needs a passport and the boat clears BVI customs at a port of entry first — Peter Island is not one.
On Peter Island in the British Virgin Islands, at the island's north-east end, across the Sir Francis Drake Channel from Road Town, Tortola. Dead Chest Island lies half a mile off the bay, and Sprat Bay, with the resort's yacht club, is next door to the west. It is not one of the other Deadman's Bays round the Caribbean.
How do you get to Deadman's Bay, Peter Island?
By boat only. The resort's way in is a taxi of about 20 minutes from Beef Island airport (EIS) on Tortola to the Peter Island Ferry Launch, then a 30-minute crossing on the resort's ferry ($99 one way, $175 return a person, on its website). From Red Hook on St. Thomas a private water taxi takes about 1 hour 15 minutes, the resort says. Sailors take one of the yacht club's moorings in the bay.
Is there a public ferry to Peter Island?
No. There is no Peter Island route in the public ferry timetables. The resort runs its own ferry from its launch on Tortola to its own schedule; its ticket is for resort guests and authorised visitors, so arrange it with the resort.
Is Deadman's Beach public?
The shore is. The BVI Minister for Natural Resources told the House of Assembly in March 2023 that all BVI beaches are public and that the public has a right to the water and the shore up to the privately owned land. Peter Island itself is private, and the loungers, cabanas, water sports and restaurants are the resort's — check with the resort or the yacht club before you come ashore.
Can you visit Deadman's Bay for the day?
By boat, yes: the yacht club lists moorings in Deadman's Bay and day boater access, and its Yacht Club Experience add-on to a mooring includes the pool, the sport courts, the Drunken Pelican and a shuttle to Little Deadman's Beach. It publishes no prices, so ask on VHF 72 or at 284.393.9250. We found no day pass sold to visitors arriving without a boat.
Can you anchor or moor in Deadman's Bay?
The balls in the bay are the Peter Island Yacht Club's. Check in after 1 pm and leave before 11 am; the yacht club answers on VHF 72. Pick up a ball rather than anchor near the reef at the ends of the beach, and remember the bay is open to the east — in a strong easterly, Great Harbour or Little Harbour is the calmer night.
Is there snorkeling at Deadman's Bay?
Yes, on the reef and rocks at both ends of the beach, in shallow water, and further out towards Dead Chest Island, a National Park with dive sites along its cliffs. The resort lends its guests snorkel gear from the water sports pavilion, open daily 7:30 am to 4:30 pm.
Why is it called Deadman's Bay?
The resort's own story is that it was named for marooned pirates who washed ashore from Dead Chest Island, the islet off the bay, where Blackbeard is said to have left his crew. It is a legend: the earliest known tellings of the Dead Chest story are from the 20th century, and it almost certainly grew from the "dead man's chest" song in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883).
Are there restaurants at Deadman's Bay?
Two, both the resort's: the Drake Steakhouse by the beach (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and the Drunken Pelican at the yacht club in Sprat Bay (lunch, dinner and pizza all day). Their hours are on the resort's website; book ahead, and ask before you come ashore if you are not staying.
Is Peter Island Resort open?
Yes. The resort closed after Hurricane Irma in 2017 and reopened in 2024 after a rebuild, with its rooms along Deadman's Beach and the yacht club and marina in Sprat Bay.
Do you need a passport to go to Deadman's Bay from St. Thomas?
Yes. Peter Island is in the British Virgin Islands, so the trip is international: everyone needs a passport (the resort asks for one valid six months beyond the trip), and a boat from the U.S. Virgin Islands clears BVI customs at a port of entry on Tortola or Jost Van Dyke first.
Is there a Deadman's Bay webcam?
No public live camera we can embed. There is none on Peter Island; the nearest live views in the BVI are at Cooper Island and Scrub Island.
Photo & map credits
Deadman's Beach on Peter Island: a wide run of pale sand under coconut palms, white loungers in the shade and the beach curving away to a green headland (November 2007) — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Deadman's Beach under palms and thatched sunshades, loungers in the shade and the sand curving round to the hill at the east end of the bay (November 2007) — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
A coconut palm leaning out over Deadman's Beach, a walker in a sun hat at the water's edge and the hill at the east end of the bay behind (November 2007) — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Two people on loungers on Deadman's Beach, the sand running away along the bay under the palms to the hills (November 2007) — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
A walker on the wide sand of Deadman's Beach, palms and loungers on the left and the hill at the east end of the bay ahead (November 2007) — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Deadman's Beach from the hillside above the bay: the whole strip of sand under the palms, sailing dinghies pulled up and the wooded hill behind (November 2007) — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Low sun glittering on the water along the curve of Deadman's Beach, tyre marks on the raked sand and the hills under a stormy sky (November 2007) — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
A swimmer waist-deep off Deadman's Beach, looking out across the bay's moorings to the islands beyond (November 2007) — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
From the sand of Deadman's Beach out across the bay: mooring buoys, yachts on moorings off the point and Tortola's hills across the Sir Francis Drake Channel (November 2007) — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Honeymoon Beach, the small cove at the east end of Deadman's Bay: a strip of sand under scrub, a thatched shade and granite boulders at the point (November 2007) — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
The resort's painted map of Peter Island as it hung in 2007, with Deadmans Beach, the Little Deadmans visitors' beach and Honeymoon Beach round Deadmans Bay, Sprat Bay and Cabey Point — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Deadman's Bay from the hill above Sprat Bay: a small beach and the path in front, the long sweep of Deadman's Beach beyond and a catamaran on a mooring — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Two catamarans and a small sailboat on moorings off Deadman's Beach, with the beach and the hills of Peter Island behind — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Dead Chest Island seen from Peter Island over cactus and scrub, its pale cliff face to the sea and other islands on the horizon — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Looking back at Peter Island over the wake of the boat to Tortola — Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
Photo: Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0
