Wasini Channel

The narrow tidal channel between Wasini Island and the Kenyan mainland funnels enormous volumes of water with each tide, creating a natural pelagic highway where dolphins, turtles and occasional mantas ride the flow past sloping coral walls smothered in yellow and orange soft corals. The channel runs 3 to 22 m deep and the current — up to 2 knots at peak flow — brings consistently nutrient-rich water that feeds some of the lushest coral growth on the Kenyan coast. Timing the dive to the incoming tide lets divers drift effortlessly past Napoleon wrasse, eagle rays and resting blacktip reef sharks with almost no fin effort, the surrounding mangrove-fringed shoreline lending the site an otherworldly remoteness.