All activities / Scuba Diving / Molinere Bay
Scuba Diving in Molinere Bay
A sheltered bay on Grenada's leeward west coast, just north of St. George's, that holds the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park, the world's first underwater sculpture park. Its shallow reefs and the deeper wreck grounds offshore make this stretch of coast the heart of Grenadian diving, an easy boat ride from the Grand Anse and True Blue dive centres.
Why here
Molinere Bay is where two of the Caribbean's signature dives sit almost side by side. The Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park was created here in 2006 by Jason deCaires Taylor, the first of its kind in the world, sunk to help reefs recover after Hurricane Ivan tore through Grenada in 2004. Sixty-odd concrete figures rest between five and eight metres down, from the ring of children holding hands known as Vicissitudes to a man at a desk, now furred with coral and circled by fish, shallow enough that snorkellers see them too. A short boat ride away lies the Bianca C, a 180-metre Italian cruise liner that caught fire and sank in 1961, the largest shipwreck in the Caribbean and nicknamed the Titanic of the Caribbean. She sits in 30 to 50 metres for advanced divers, patrolled by eagle rays and barracuda. Grenada counts more than fifteen wrecks in all and calls itself the shipwreck capital of the Caribbean, with warm, clear water and reefs that see far fewer divers than the busier islands to the north.
Best months
Grenada dives year round, but the calmest, clearest water comes in the dry season from December to June, when visibility on the west-coast reefs regularly runs 20 to 30 metres. The sculpture park sits in shallow, sheltered water suitable for first dives and snorkellers, while the Bianca C is a deep drift dive exposed to current and reserved for divers with an Advanced certification and good buoyancy. Sea temperatures hold in the high twenties Celsius all year, so a 3mm wetsuit is plenty. West-coast sites are protected from the Atlantic swell that can build on the windward side.
Getting there & around
The dive centres sit on the south-west coast around Grand Anse Beach and True Blue Bay, ten to fifteen minutes from St. George's and about half an hour from Maurice Bishop International Airport. Boats reach the Molinere Sculpture Park in ten to fifteen minutes and the Bianca C in a little longer. Operators run two-tank morning trips, sculpture-park snorkel tours and full PADI and SSI course paths from first dive to instructor. Book the Bianca C ahead, since it runs on calm days and needs an Advanced card. English is the working language everywhere.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (2)
Aquanauts Grenada
OutfitterAquanauts Grenada is a family-owned dive centre based at the True Blue Bay Boutique Resort, run by owner Tom Geer with a local crew. SSI named it the number-one certifying training facility across the Americas and Caribbean, and it is a certified Diveheart adaptive-diving centre. Four purpose-built boats named Calypso, Salsa and Reggae among them reach more than fifty sites across six reef systems, from the Molinere Sculpture Park to the Bianca C wreck, with small guest-to-guide ratios.
Dive Grenada
OutfitterDive Grenada is a PADI 5-Star centre and BSAC resort on Grand Anse Beach, run hands-on by owners Allie and Neal. It has held a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for nine straight years and dives from a custom ten-metre fibreglass boat with twin 200hp engines. The house speciality dives are the Bianca C, the 180-metre Titanic of the Caribbean, and Jason deCaires Taylor's Molinere Sculpture Park, run in small groups with a focus on relaxed, well-briefed diving on Grenada's west coast.