Is Roatan in October worth the trip?

[Rev. Blade]

Shore diving from FIBR could be quite limited, but understand- very few people shore dive. They are mostly "dropped" over the Prince Albert Wreck either by moored dive boat or taken out in the early evenings in a large rectangular pram workboat to do a backroll and in. Look at a Google Satellite image, it's a bit of a schlepp from the FIBR "shore dive gazebo" to the Wreck or the walls, and its all through the run-off murk from their dredged beach. They have an aircraft cable to guide you. Do not hurry through this siltated area- many exotic critters lurk for your amusement.[/U]

I suppose if I'd thought ask, they would have dropped us on the Prince Albert.

I was at Fantasy Island last September, and did 6 shore dives to the wreck, from the gazebo. It should take well under 15 minutes to swim each way, if moving casually (but consistently). Maybe only 6 or 7 minutes if you hustle a bit, but listen to RoatanMan.... Don't hustle, keep your eyes open. The cable is under about 30' of water, so you shouldn't be going through your gas all that fast. I did a "Poker Run" dive from the gazebo in 26 minutes. (That was the time to get out, find four divers to get a card from each, swim back, and the 3 minute stop at the end.) We didn't stay for any re-exploring on that dive, because we wanted to get back for the afternoon boat dive. (It took a few minutes to find the guys with cards. As RMan said, the vis isn't great next to the shore.)

If you do dive from the gazebo, and follow a line out, be sure to follow the line with floats hanging up from it every 20-40 feet or so! Just to the left of that line, at about a 20 degree angle to it, is another line that's laying in the sand. It's covered over in a few spots, but if you keep searching in the same heading you find it again... until it just ends out in the bay. One of the Fantasy Island regulars may be able to say for sure, but my guess is that it used to lead to the resort across the little bay. (CoCo View?)

I had a great time at Fantasy Island. 3 boat dives each day, shore diving if you want more. They had a deal for Nitrox that was $100 for the week. That's really a good deal, if you plan to dive a lot. They bank 32% Nitrox which limits your MOD a bit, but most of the sites stay above 100' anyway. The extra bottom time allowed (if your gas usage is fair), made it a great deal for me.

...and if you get to pick your dive master, Mark found a bunch of sea horses. I think we saw (he found) at least two each day, and we had two dives where he pointed out three on a dive. They are just crazy tough to find. My computer desktop image is a super clear shot of one that's actually bigger than lifesize on the monitor. (Since the horse was about 2" tall, that leaves a lot of reef in the picture.) I still need to point out the sea horse to some people!