Underwater Sculpture Park. Grenada. A short video sketch. We’ve been meaning for ages to write about the underwater wonders of the Caribbean Sea and show you a little floating video, and now the moment of truth has arrived :).
The Underwater Sculpture Park was conceived as an alternative to coral reefs. The beaches and corals of the Caribbean Sea are the cherry on top of humanity’s collective dreams. But the lucky ones who make it to the reefs create such a powerful tide of hands touching, grabbing and prodding that soon there will be nothing left of the reefs themselves. And environmentalists became concerned.
In the early 2000s, British sculptor Jason Taylor decided to kill two birds with one stone: create another attraction on the seabed besides the corals, and fulfil the government’s objective of drawing tourists to Grenada, which had been hit by a hurricane—thus saving both the reefs and the Grenadian economy.
In 2006, on an unremarkable patch of sand with a less-than-outstanding coral reef, at a depth of around 3 metres, an entire commune of assorted people sprang up. Over the following 11 years, the Underwater Sculpture Park acquired new underwater residents, and now more than 60 concrete people are busy going about their business on the seabed. A fat man watches football on the telly, a cyclist hurries to the bakery, a journalist dashes off sensational stories... Dozens of statues attract coral-reef inhabitants and new tourists.
In 2010, the sculptor began creating a similar park off Cancún, Mexico, near Isla Mujeres. And now around 750,000 people a year come to gawp at this wonder. This summer, we were among them :). But for now—Grenada.
You can anchor near the park and spend a lovely night overlooking a picturesque village clambering up the steep green slopes. It’s best to head out to the reefs in the dinghy first thing in the morning, before the boats arrive from Grenada’s capital :). You can see that from the anchorage too. Incidentally, there are very few yachts here: apart from us, there was only one, while a second popped in for the night and, at dawn, sailed off somewhere towards the Sun.
So, let’s dive into the Underwater Sculpture Park, friends!