Bianca C - Wrecks — Southwest & St George's Harbour, Grenada

50m Max

15-30m Vis

boat

Site Overview

The Bianca C is the dive most people book Grenada for: a 600-foot Italian ocean liner that caught fire and sank in 1961 while in port, and today stands bolt upright on her keel with her masthead still rising toward recreational depth. Two enormous deckhouses, the bridge structure, deep stern gardens and a mast encrusted top-to-bottom; the wreck is a vertical reef, thick with coral, sponges and huge shoals of grunts and snapper, with groupers posted at every window. The main deck sits near 18-24 m and the keel at about 50 m — the classic picture-line route runs 25-35 m, making this a deep, advanced-profile dive. The site sits in Wrecks — Southwest & St George's Harbour, one of Grenada's core dive areas, with water at 26-29 °C and typical visibility of 15-30 m. She lies just off the harbour mouth at St George's — most boats reach her in 10-15 minutes from the southwest coast marinas. Few wrecks in the Caribbean match the scale of the Bianca C, and none matches her reputation — this is what wreck diving lists are measured against. 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.

Dive Briefing

“Descend along the anchor line to the deckhouse, then travel fore-to-aft along the port side at your agreed depth; most groups keep to the 30 m contour for the full wreck profile and save the shallow stern for the safety stop. Depth management: plan the dive to a maximum of 50 metres and turn early. The sheltered Caribbean side is usually glassy, while the Atlantic-facing south coast runs with the trade-wind current that makes its drift dives so special. Ascend the line in stages with a long safety stop among the shallow coral on the deck structures — expect multiple decompression stops if you go deep. This is an advanced-profile dive; newer divers should stay on the sheltered route and let the guide handle the deep line. Several of Grenada's best waters are protected - the Grand Anse Marine Protected Area, the south-coast preserves and Carriacou's Sandy Island/Oyster Bed MPA all use mooring buoys and small user fees to keep anchors off the coral. Local operators hold the final say on which sites run each day, because a shift in wind or swell can change conditions between two bays.”

Location

Bianca C and 4 nearby dive sites in Grenada.