Grenada....?? A few questions

[wgw04024]

Greetings! I've been looking for destinations for a winter 2016 trip, and Grenada popped up in a searches with wrecks/artificial reefs in mind. I see 10-14 wrecks there. A few questions..
1. How many or are any wrecks available via surface swim?
2. Best time of year for Grenada? The temp looks great year round, better vis at certain times?

We did Bonaire this year and had a good time. REally enjoyed the Hilma hooker wreck. Looks like alot of those types in Grenada.

Any other thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks!
Bill

 

[AdivingBel]

We are looking at a trip on the Mandalay (one of the now defunct Windjammer's) for 2016. It sails out of Grenada and does a one week loop through the Grenadines and Tobago Cays. We did several of these ships back in the 90's before they went belly up. A group has resurrected this ship and we are thinking of going and trying to mix some diving in with some of the local ops. Here's the website if you or any other scubaboarder's are interested. I'm looking into it in a preliminary fashion, but we had a great time on these boats back in the day.
Sail Windjammer Home

 

[JohnRom]

To answer your first question, unlike Bonaire the wrecks of Grenada are not shore accessible. When we were there over Christmas the temp and viz were good however I can not speak of other times.

 

[editmojo]

Did Grenada Last August. Temps were 82-84 F and vis was usually 40-70 feet. All the wrecks we did were boat dives. They are unmarked so you need a good guide or gps fix to find them. Also most were deep. The Bianca C starts at around 110 feet. But it was an impressive wreck. Shakum was at 100 ft a nice dive. There was a smaller wreck at about 60 ft. it was ok. Everyone says to do the Sculpture garden but it was pretty boring. Grenada is beautiful. Have fun.

 

[wgw04024]

Do the boat dive operators drop you right on the wrecks? Since umarked, I assume no buoy/anchor lines? Free ascent and descent? Seems like plenty of wrecks there to do two tanks every morning, then maybe a leisurely reef dive in the afternoon, or just tool around the island.

 

[witchieblackcat01]

When I went a couple of years back the boat stopped over the wreck and you went in negative and straight down. We never missed!

There are no shot lines.

 

[editmojo]

My experience was the same as witchieblackcat01. Fall off and head down. We had one miss on Shakem due to mild current and someone leaving their lead on the boat.

 

[wgw04024]

Is there any shore diving there? It looks like a fun place to hit once at least. I'm thinking two tanks every morning on a different wreck or wrecks. Would love to do leisurely shore dive in the afternoon if it's possible. Accomodations seem reasonable. How is the food on the island and things for non divers to do?

---------- Post added June 14th, 2015 at 11:13 AM ----------

Got an email saying no real shore diving in Grenada. Not a deal breaker.

 

[chillyinCanada]

What sort of things do your non-divers like to do?

There's nothing like Xelha or even a zipline, as far as I know but there are island tours and some historical tours. I found the island beautiful and the people to be open and friendly.

There are beautiful beaches a number of places.

I found the diving to be a very nice surprise. I'm not much for wrecks so the Bianca C didn't do it for me. She's big though and we dropped on her stern, swam almost the length of her and then hung in the current for a bit on her upper deck. At thst point, a large turtle swam right towards me and we were just starting to commune when the other divers noticed her. While they proceeded to send her on her way, three decent sized barracuda kept me company as we held our formation. That was fun. There was another much smaller wreck (can't recall name) that was an enjoyable
dive for me despite my ambivalence to a wreck itself. The fish were all over it with very large Angel fish playing peekaboo,seahorses and a plethora of other critters.

The statue park didn't do a thing for me either. But then, I'm that way. I like a reef to be a reef. Overall, a day of diving the marine park was very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to repeating it.

I'm returning late this fall. I feel that the diving has been overlooked in this area. Happily, not by me.

 

[maj2]

Our first trip to Grenada was 19 years ago (before I started diving) and we are finally getting back there at the end of July.
Looking forward to doing some diving this time around.

Also plan to spend some time hiking a bit at Grand Etang and some of the less visited waterfalls beyond Concord (eg Fontainebleu and Au Coin).

We also recall the people as being extremely friendly. Just avoid going into St Georges on days when any cruise ships are there. I remember one day on our first trip where we looked out from our balcony and commented "Wow... there are TWO cruises here today!" before trotting down to the bus stop for a ride into town. We lasted maybe 10 minutes before grabbing the next bus back to the hotel.