What the St George’s Quay Can Take
The Port of St George’s is run by the Grenada Ports Authority, which also holds jurisdiction over Prickly Bay, St David’s, Grenville and Tyrrel Bay on Carriacou. The main quay runs 335 m long with 8.3 to 9.8 m of water alongside and a quay height between 2.1 and 2.7 m. A schooner berth of 76 m carries 5.5 m of depth for smaller regional craft. For a stone shipment the practical reading is simple. The berth is not the bottleneck, so your schedule is set by the carrier’s rotation and by how quickly your own paperwork comes together.
Handling Gear and Covered Space
Stone is dense cargo, and heavy-lift capacity is what separates a calm discharge from an anxious one. The terminal publishes its equipment list, and it repays a read before you commit to a sailing.
- Two reach stackers rated at 41 t and 45 t, either of which lifts a fully loaded stone container.
- One top lifter at 35 t, plus five terminal tractors for yard moves.
- Fourteen forklifts from 1 t to 6 t, the range that handles individual crates once a box is stripped.
- Four transit sheds totaling roughly 49,200 sq ft of covered floor.
- A container yard rated above 1,500 TEU, inside a terminal moving around 100,000 TEU a year.
Covered floor is the line most buyers skim past. Landing crates mid-season with nowhere dry to stage them costs you packaging and patience, even when the stone shrugs the weather off.
The Ocean Leg From Florida
Direct service exists, which is not true everywhere in the Eastern Caribbean. Tropical Shipping sails from the Port of Palm Beach and keeps a Grenada presence, with an office on Port Highway at Tanteen and agent operations on the Carenage. King Ocean also runs an Eastern Caribbean service. Before you fix a laying date, settle four things with whichever carrier you book.
- The genuine rotation for your booking week, because strings change from month to month.
- Whether that sailing runs straight through or calls elsewhere on the way down.
- The document cut-off measured against the sailing, not against the berthing.
- How much free time you have at the terminal before storage charges start running.
Why Grenville Is Not an Option
Builders on the Atlantic side often ask whether a container can be landed nearer to them. It cannot. The pier at Grenville carries only 3.0 m of depth at its head, vessels drawing more must anchor within the outer reefs, and pilotage is compulsory for anything above 150 grt. Grenville works for fishing boats and small cargo craft. A villa at Bathway or a terrace at La Sagesse still clears through St George’s and then travels by road. That single fact shapes how we crate, label and sequence cut stone shipped to Grenada, because the last few miles are the awkward ones.
Clearing, Then Collecting
Release is a paperwork event rather than a physical one. Declarations go in electronically through ASYCUDA World on the customs entry form, and they can be stored and assessed at any hour, so the real constraint is usually your document set rather than a counter opening. Have these ready before the vessel berths.
- A commercial invoice showing the value that duty will be assessed on.
- A packing list with crate weights, because the yard needs them to plan the lift.
- A bill of lading matching container and seal numbers exactly.
- Your broker’s details, or your own declarant registration if you intend to file directly.
The Road Leg Across the Island
Grenada is a steep volcanic island, and mileage is a poor proxy for difficulty. The honest questions are about the last few hundred feet of the journey, not the highway that precedes them.
- Can a full container reach the site, or does the load need breaking at a yard first?
- Is there hard standing that will carry a loaded forklift during the wet season?
- Who unloads, and with what: a truck-mounted crane, a telehandler, or hands and a pallet truck?
- Where do empty crates and cut banding go once the stone is stacked?
Settle those four before the box moves and the delivery becomes uneventful, which is the only kind of delivery day anyone should want.
Carriacou and Petite Martinique Are Separate Legs
These are distinct islands with distinct freight, and treating them as an extension of the mainland is the fastest way to strand a pallet. Tyrrel Bay is Carriacou’s only port, and the ferry dock sits at Hillsborough, roughly fifteen minutes by taxi from Tyrrel Bay and the Lauriston airstrip. The Osprey is a fast catamaran carrying passengers and light cargo only, running two round trips on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Palletized stone moves instead on a cargo vessel such as the Dolly C or the Tyrrel Bay Express, and that leg is booked separately. Arrange it when you book the ocean freight, never afterward.
Planning the Delivery Window
Sequence beats speed on an island job. Bring the stone in once the base is built and the site can genuinely receive it, rather than paying to hold crates while groundwork catches up. If you are staging a resort terrace at Grand Anse or a driveway at Lance aux Epines, work backward from the day the layer starts, then add slack for clearance. Talk to our Grenada supply desk early enough and the crates arrive in laying order, labeled by area, so nothing gets double handled on a narrow site. Book the sea leg, the clearance and the truck as one plan rather than three.