Diving the Southwest Coast, Grenada

About Grenada – Southwest Coast (Caribbean Side)

The sheltered Caribbean-facing crescent from St George's north to Gouyave carries the heart of Grenada's diving: calm water most days of the year, a short boat to everything, and a concentration of walls, reef gardens, the world's first underwater sculpture park and the island's fishiest bays anywhere on the leeward coast. Grenada sits on the southern edge of the Caribbean plate, where a volcanic core and a shelf that drops away steeply from the southwest coast put walls, pinnacles and wrecks within a short boat ride of every base. Molinere Bay's sunken figures, the wrasse tornadoes of Flamingo Bay and the volcanic channels of Dragon Bay all sit within minutes of each other, so a two-tank day can pair an art dive with an icon and still be back for lunch. Shore-access dives at Purple Rain and Whibbles keep the coast affordable for divers without a boat booking, while the deep downscape of Grand Mal Wall and the fish-swamped channel of Rainbow Run reward the boats that push a little further north. Trade winds blow almost constant over the Caribbean, and it is their lulls and builds that set the daily diving schedule around Grenada. Water temperature stays in the high twenties year-round and the island sits outside the main hurricane belt, so the dive boats run twelve months a year.

Highlights

• ✓Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park - the world's first, and still the best
• ✓Flamingo Bay - the densest fish shoals on the main island
• ✓Dragon Bay - volcanic channels and a genuine wall at recreation depth
• ✓Grand Mal Wall - downscape blue off the Caribbean-side shelf edge
• ✓Happy Hill - the island's calm, shallow classroom bay

Getting There

Most visitors fly into Maurice Bishop International Airport at Point Salines, minutes along the coast road from every southwest base; the dive fleet launches from Grand Anse, Prickly Bay and the St George's-area moorings and reaches almost every site in 10-20 minutes. Operators run scheduled two-tank mornings and afternoon trips, and the whole coast is close enough that base choice is about hotels, not diving. The exposed Caribbean-side bays can build an afternoon chop, so the trade is to run the deeper and exposed sites early and save the sheltered bays for later. Shore-entry is genuinely viable at several points - Purple Rain off the Grand Anse/Gouyave road and the Happy Hill shore dive mean a diver with a taxi and a buddy can fill a day without booking a boat at all.