Logistics & Nearby Stay

Getting to Atlantis Charters from New York City is most practical by car, with the drive to Atlantic Beach typically taking about nine to ten hours depending on traffic and stops. For divers coming from the Northeast, that makes Atlantis Charters a realistic road-trip destination for North Carolina wreck diving.

Halfway down, hunger kicked in, and a quick Yelp search led us to ZZQ Texas Craft BBQ in Richmond, Virginia, just a few minutes off I-95. It turned out to be a happy accident. If you’re making the drive from the New York area, it’s worth keeping in mind as a stop.

For this trip, I stayed in a shared Airbnb in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, with friends and fellow divers, just a few minutes from the Atlantis Charters dock. It worked well for a small dive group, with enough space for gear, camera equipment, and pre-dive preparation, and it was conveniently close to several restaurants and a large supermarket for stocking up before heading offshore.

Atlantis Charters is not a traditional dive shop, and it is not a liveaboard in the usual sense. It is a boat-based charter operation — divers board from the dock, explore offshore wrecks, and return to shore the same day. Staying in Atlantic Beach provided quick access to the boat while also serving as a comfortable base between dive days, making it a practical place to stay for anyone planning a trip with Atlantis Charters.

Dive Operation & Boat Setup

The Atlantis IV is a serious dive boat — 46 feet long, 16 feet wide, and built around the idea that the time between dives should be as comfortable as the dives themselves. The crew describes it as “civilized diving,” and that is an accurate summary.

The boat accommodates a small group of divers, keeping things intimate rather than crowded. Divers enter and exit via a diver-friendly ladder off the stern, and an experienced crew keeps the process moving efficiently. Once the boat is on site, the crew steps back, giving the dive team the freedom to explore the wreck and observe marine life independently.

The Atlantis IV is set up to handle a wide range of divers — single tank, doubles, and rebreather configurations are all welcome. Below deck, there are approximately six sleeping bunks, a clean head, and a fully air-conditioned salon and galley area complete with a refrigerator and microwave. Showers are available both in the head and on the dive deck, though on our trip everyone gravitated to the outdoor deck shower. Snacks, soda, and water are available on board, but in limited quantities. If you have specific food preferences or are planning for a long day offshore, it is best to bring your own provisions.

Diving & Marine Life

North Carolina’s “Graveyard of the Atlantic” is one of the most wreck-dense stretches of coastline in the world, and Atlantis Charters puts you directly in the middle of it. My primary reason for making the drive from New York was simple: sand tiger sharks. The wrecks delivered on every dive.

Sand tigers aggregate around these structures in impressive numbers, often resting motionless near the hull while the rest of the wreck buzzes with activity. Beyond the sharks, the wrecks support dense populations of marine life — a byproduct of decades of colonization on structures sitting in productive Atlantic waters.

One practical note: natural light is limited around these wrecks. Bring a video light or torch regardless of your camera setup. Wide-angle opportunities are abundant, and the scale of the wrecks and the shark encounters lend themselves to expansive compositions. Macro opportunities exist, but they are not the focus here. I shot with a GH5, 14–42mm lens, and a Nauticam WWL-1B, which handled the wide-angle wreck scenes well.

Atlantis Charters delivers exactly what it promises: direct access to some of the best wreck diving on the East Coast, run by a crew that keeps the experience comfortable without overcomplicating it. For any diver willing to make the drive, the sharks alone are worth the trip.