channel in the West Indies, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Caribbean Sea; it is 40 miles (65 km) wide and separates the British Virgin Islands (west) from the Leeward Islands (southeast). It has the greatest depth (more than 7,550 feet 【2,300 m】) of any channel in the eastern Caribbean. The passage is one of the two through which subsurface water enters the Caribbean (the other being the Windward Passage).