There's been a fair number of posts in the Bay Islands subforum lately - nice to see. It looks a number of SB members are heading this way over the next few months.
I had to be on Roatan for a one-day seminar and since that involves a day of travel on either side anyway we decided to extend it for some "island time" and for me to sneak in a few dives. Since it really wasn't a dive trip I didn't want to tag this as a "Trip Report", but I thought it might be useful to briefly post some of the conditions for those coming this way (or for in future years someone wonders what January diving in the Bay Islands is like)
Weather
Some really strong winds out of the SW the day we arrived shut diving down for the entire island. They also caused the RTB airport to issue a ground stop for a couple of hours - at least that was cleared before the big flights from the States were landing; only local/regional flights (like ours) were affected. Seas stayed quite choppy for the next couple of days; the operation we use canceled their dives for both of them (meaning three in a row - very unusual for them with no tropical storm in the area). Spatterings of rain every day, although my last diving day was beautiful, typical Roatan weather.
Water temps (my DC is set to metric and doesn't give decimals, with apologies to all you Imperial types - I'll give the calc'd Fahrenheit numbers, rounded)
Jan 26: 28C / 82F for both dives on south side (near Dixon Cove / Mahogany Bay)
Jan 27: 27C / 81F for dives in West End / West Bay
Visibility
Fair on the south side, approaching middlin' in West End, good in West Bay at the West End Wall
Sand flea report (everything even resembling a Bay Islands trip report on SB should probably include this; likely it's the number one question asked about them!
)
Totally a non-issue for us, both in our "real" trip in December and this short visit. We didn't even apply bug spray once this time. Granted we didn't spend much time on the beach due to the weather, but some years we have gotten bitten up just walking on the beach, never mind sunbathing.
I left the title of this thread generic in case anyone else thinks it might be useful to post conditions from their trips here for future reference.
PS: Just realized re-reading this that "I had to be on Roatan" sounds pretty funny in retrospect. Oh poor me, I "had" to be on a tropical island which happens to also be a diving mecca...
I had to be on Roatan for a one-day seminar and since that involves a day of travel on either side anyway we decided to extend it for some "island time" and for me to sneak in a few dives. Since it really wasn't a dive trip I didn't want to tag this as a "Trip Report", but I thought it might be useful to briefly post some of the conditions for those coming this way (or for in future years someone wonders what January diving in the Bay Islands is like)
Weather
Some really strong winds out of the SW the day we arrived shut diving down for the entire island. They also caused the RTB airport to issue a ground stop for a couple of hours - at least that was cleared before the big flights from the States were landing; only local/regional flights (like ours) were affected. Seas stayed quite choppy for the next couple of days; the operation we use canceled their dives for both of them (meaning three in a row - very unusual for them with no tropical storm in the area). Spatterings of rain every day, although my last diving day was beautiful, typical Roatan weather.
Water temps (my DC is set to metric and doesn't give decimals, with apologies to all you Imperial types - I'll give the calc'd Fahrenheit numbers, rounded)
Jan 26: 28C / 82F for both dives on south side (near Dixon Cove / Mahogany Bay)
Jan 27: 27C / 81F for dives in West End / West Bay
Visibility
Fair on the south side, approaching middlin' in West End, good in West Bay at the West End Wall
Sand flea report (everything even resembling a Bay Islands trip report on SB should probably include this; likely it's the number one question asked about them!
)Totally a non-issue for us, both in our "real" trip in December and this short visit. We didn't even apply bug spray once this time. Granted we didn't spend much time on the beach due to the weather, but some years we have gotten bitten up just walking on the beach, never mind sunbathing.
I left the title of this thread generic in case anyone else thinks it might be useful to post conditions from their trips here for future reference.
PS: Just realized re-reading this that "I had to be on Roatan" sounds pretty funny in retrospect. Oh poor me, I "had" to be on a tropical island which happens to also be a diving mecca...
and suppuration! Unbearable, not just itchy but deeply painful, not to mention unsightly! So gross.
