Diving Guide
Grenada offers some spectacular diving — suitable for everyone from beginners to experienced divers. Advanced divers will find a lot of high-voltage diving opportunities. Most diving is conducted from boats and drift diving is standard fare throughout the Windwards. Dive operators typically use guides with surface marker buoys to lead groups. Because of the strong currents sometimes involved, I’d recommend carrying an inflatable surface tube, Dive Alert® audible signaling device or whistle, small signal strobe and reflector in your buoyancy compensator (BC) pocket for safety — just in case you get temporarily separated from your guide. Grenada does not have a recompression chamber; Trinidad and Barbados both have recompression facilities, about 30 minutes away by air ambulance. All members of the Grenada Scuba Diving Association have an emergency plan and oxygen on board their dive boats.
Dive sites on Grenada
Boss Reef
This is an extensive reef that reaches from the red buoy outside the harbor entrance towards Point Saline. There is a vast expanse of soft brown coral trees which form an "other-worldly" landscape. There are large shoals of tropical fish, often including clouds of blue creole wrasse. Lobsters can often be seen peeking from crevices.
Twin Wrecks
On this dive you will see the wrecks of the Veronica and the Jeannie S, which are just to the northwest of St. George’s Harbor entrance. The Veronica is a small, barge-like cargo vessel lying upright on the bottom in about 45 feet (14 m) of water. There is a crane on board with its derrick extending outwards, covered with colorful marine growth. The hold is open and you can swim around inside. The Jeannie S is a cargo vessel about 120 feet (36 m) in length, which sank recently and is still quite intact. You can see the radar console and instruments in the wheelhouse, and the radar scanner still turns freely. The wreck lies on its port side in about 50 feet (15 m) of water. You can swim around in the hold but some care is required, as the contents of the hold may not have fully settled. The two wrecks are within a five-minute swim of each other.
Molinere Reef
Molinere Reef is part of Grenada’s underwater marine park, which extends to Flamingo Bay and offers excellent diving for beginners and the more-experienced. The dive starts at 20 feet (6 m), and the reef leads to a wall that slopes down from 35 to 70 feet (11 to 21 m). Around the top of the reef there is a variety of tropical fish including yellow-headed and mottled jaw fish and spotted drums. A short distance away from the wall is the wreck of the Buccaneer, a steel schooner lying on its side in about 70 feet (21 m) of water.
Bianca C
Grenada’s most famous and spectacular dive. After catching fire in St. George’s harbor in 1961, she was towed out to sea by a British warship. During towing, she sank close to Whibbles Reef. The ship is encrusted with hydroids as well as black, hard and soft corals. There are schools of jacks and barracuda, and spotted eagle rays can sometimes be seen. The Bianca C is 600 feet (182 m) in length and lies in about 160 feet (48 m) of water, with its highest point at about 90 feet (27 m). The normal dive profile on the Bianca C is from 90 to 130 feet (27 to 39 m). This is an awe-inspiring dive, but due to the depth and the possibility of strong currents, it is only suitable for confident divers, and a checkout dive will normally be required.
Whibble Reef
This dive is generally the shallow leg of a multilevel dive from the Bianca C. Depths range from 60 to 100 feet (18 to 30 m). It is a drift dive for the advanced diver accustomed to dealing with strong current. The water carries you swiftly along the reef, with small sand sharks, barracuda and larger grouper browsing among the coral heads.
Shark Reef
Just off Glover Island, this is a reef abundant with all types of fishes and rays. On almost every trip, southern stingrays and juvenile nurse sharks are seen. A fun dive at 40 feet (12 m) with lots to see including a giraffe-shaped pillar coral.
