One of the things that drew us to Grenada was the Bianca C wreck. Being able to scuba dive on a sunken cruise ship is something you don’t get to do every day—unless you live in Grenada! In addition to wrecks, we found that there were some remarkable, healthy and colorful reefs, making for some wonderful diving. In our 5 days of diving we managed to get 4 wrecks in and have written them up here:
The Bianca C
They call this wreck the Titanic of the Caribbean and it is certainly a majestic wreck that lives up to its name. The 600-foot cruise ship owned by the Costa Line sank in 1961 after an explosion in the engine room set the ship on fire and turned it into an inferno.
Except for two souls, all were saved thanks to the help of the local people who rushed to the ship with their small boats to rescue the passengers before the Bianca sank. As a token of gratitude the Costa Line gave the local people a commemorative statue of The Christ of the Deep, which can be seen on the Carenage in St. George’s.
History tells us that this wasn’t the first time the ship sank. Yes that’s right—it sank twice! It was first sunk by German forces during WW2 and salvaged in 1946 before being refurbished as a cruise ship. Unsalvageable, it is now one of the top 100 dive sites in the world according to the latest issue (Jan-Feb 2018) of Sport Diver magazine.
Much of the wreck is below 100 feet, making this an advanced dive. Nitrox is also a must as with air one would barely have 10 minutes to see the huge wreck, while nitrox gave us over 20 minutes. Our dive master brought a pony bottle and we did an additional deep stop coming up.
Currents were quite strong and getting down to the wreck took some precise timing and positioning by the captain. He dropped us up current and we swam down at a rapid pace to get to 100 feet and meet up with the wreck. While we missed the swimming pool on the rear deck, we got down in time to see the tower and the impressive bow of the ship rising up from the deep.
You can drop down in the bow area for a closer look but the state of the wreck isn’t stable enough for penetration. It’s an eerie wreck and while our dive guide was ready to push down to 125 feet we didn’t want to test our limits while doing repetitive dive days. While we didn’t see much life on the wreck, the sheer size of it was impressive and certainly one we will remember.
We only had about 40 feet of visibility but I’ll bet that on better days when you can see more of the ship it is even more impressive. Some of the pictures we had seen on the web showed the full ship from the side, amazing.
The Shakem
This 160-foot cargo ship sank just off the coast of Grenada in 2001 while it was transporting cement. Rough seas shifted the cargo and led to its demise. It now lays upright and fully loaded with bags of cement in 100 feet of water creating nooks and crannies for all kinds of small creatures to find refuge. We saw cleaner shrimp and Arrow crabs among the crevices.
Qualified divers can 
penetrate certain areas including swimming along the outer deck passages but our dive guide warned us of silt so watch that your fins don’t stir up a mess for whoever is following you.
This wreck is also fairly deep and our divemaster made us do both a 30-foot 2-minute stop as well as a 3-minute stop at 15 feet due to our square dive profile around the wreck. We dropped to about 100 feet here and visibility was a decent 50 feet. The wreck had some amazing soft coral that literally gave it a sparking look like it was snow covered.
We made it around the wreck easily on one tank and current was manageable to get some good shots of resident barracudas and French angelfish.
The Rum Runner
This catamaran was most likely used as a day charter and the history on how and when it sunk is nebulous. The wreck itself isn’t very large, but the Windmill Shallows reef nearby is full life and makes for an interesting dive.
The catamaran dual hull frame is fairly intact and rests on a sandy bottom in 110 feet of water. It’s covered in corals and if you slow down and look carefully all kinds of small creatures can be spotted.
Lionfish seem to have adopted the wreck and while we were diving a couple of our fellow divers were hunting them. They are an invasive 
species in the Caribbean Sea and should be eliminated to help protect the indigenous species, which have been threatened by their presence. That said, I didn’t appreciate the guy shooting one just a few feet next to me while I was busy taking a photo of a shrimp!! He later apologized saying he thought I was moving away but all the same one has to be careful with those spear guns and lionfish pokers!
The Veronica L
This 130-foot freighter sits upright in 45 feet of water. It sank where the cruise port is and was subsequently moved to its current location.
The colorful wreck is covered in soft coral, sea fans and sponges. Marine life was prolific and made for a spectacular and scenic site. Divers can sink down into the open hold to get a closer look at the crane and other features on the ship. It’s also a great refuge from the currents, which we were fighting around the wreck! All divers can enjoy this shallow wreck.
There are many more wrecks to see and our outings got us just a small taste of what Grenada can offer. One area we missed out on was the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park. While it’s possible to snorkel or dive this shallow collection of statues, the currents and tides were not amenable during the week we were there. Perhaps an excursion from a cruise ship will give us that chance again in future…
On the Reef
The reefs are colorful, healthy and full of life and make for interesting dives.
See more photos on our Life on the Reef Gallery
Related post:
Scuba diving vacation at the True Blue Bay Resort in Grenada
Suggested post: