Little Cayman Beach Resort - questions

[Damselfish]

It's just playing the odds. My favorite time is late April-early June. But I've been there once in October and twice in December and always had pretty good weather. And a friend went late November and never saw the sun.

 

[caymaniac]

Ive been in October and late Mar., early April. My best day for viz ever was on a Easter Sunday probably 7-8 yrs. ago, I'd say 200 ft. viz on Bloody Bay wall maybe more, it was incredible. I remember the DM said "it doesn't get any better than this". I hear all summer long it's good as long as there's no hurricanes around.

No, this is not the day but the viz was near 100 on this day:

 

[carriemak]

Pictures like these:
1:remind me why I love Little Cayman
and
2:make me want to return sooner than June.

 

[daniel1948]

Thanks to everyone above for the time-of-year recommendations. I've booked my winter get-aways now (Long Caye, Glover's Reef, Belize, with Slickrock in December; and Aqua Cat followed by Cape Eleuthera the last week of January and the first week of February) but I really want to go to LCBR. My next available time slot will be April, May, June.

Edit: I was confused when I posted my earlier post. I had a senior moment and was thinking of Cape Eleuthera (where I'll be in February) rather than LCBR, which this thread is about. Sorry.)

 

[nwflyboy]

Well, we'll be there in early March, and I'm expecting it to be good. :cool2:

 

[-hh]

During the winter months there is a higher chance to get winds from the north which can make it difficult or impossible to get to the Bloody Bay/Jacksion Bight dive sites, which are all on the north side.

The N winds shifted to the north after the cold front pushed TS "IDA" up the US East Cost roughly two weeks ago. As of last weekend, they had shifted around to the ENE ("Down the Slot"), permitting northside diving again...for awhile. In general, there will be weather from the north until the April timeframe.

Don't ever go in October. It is almost always windy and rainy. The weather then is so bad, in fact, that some of the resorts (e.g. Pirate's Point, Paradise Villas) shut down entirely during October. November can bring nice weather, or it can be rainy. And there was even one year I was there (1999?) when we noted that we had rain every single day during December. By January, though, the "dry season" has definitely started and you are unlikely to see any rain. The dry season lasts until mid-April, at which time the island begins to receive thunderstorms.

Fairly stiff SE winds and overnight rains are common in Late Sept/Early October, but taht puts the Northside thus in the lee (good for diving Bloody Bay) and the water's still warm while the heat in the air has subsided from scorching of July/August.

October is also the time that the flip-flops start for winter, and you can have true glass days at this time of year ("when the weather can't make up its mind") although July/August is better for that..I simply find that its just too dang hot.

My impression is that the visibility is poorer in summer, due to plankton bloom, than it is during the winter.

Spring kicks off with the annual visit of thimble jellies (sargassum sea current), and then there's calm waters which allow algae growth through the warmest months, which then in late Aug/early Sept you have the reef's annual sex night which clouds waters for a few weeks. It takes a couple of winter NorWester storms to agitate the algae off the reef (and cooler temperatures to reduce algae growth) to 'clean up' its appearance.

I never did any diving there during the summer months, though, so can't attest to it personally. I went there for 8 years from October - April/May/June, and didn't notice any pattern in visibility which was season-dependent other than the obvious. (Meaning, reduced visibility after high seas.)

Over the years, I've skipped Jan, Feb, March and August. One less obvious visibility factor is that swells from the Northwest can turn up sand in Jackson's even if the winds are from the south, trashing visibility at places like Eagle Ray Roundup and even Magic Roundabout.

Water temperature, as recorded on my Suunto, was always 81 until late December, then 79 until late January, then 77 from late January until early late February. After that, the temperature came back up quickly. The last few years, though, I have noticed warmer temperatures during the winter months. I don't think I've seen 77 there in several years now.

I've seen a similar warming trend ... and there's coral bleaching that has hit this year. My Suunto console was claiming 84F or 82F, but my Sensus Pro said 82F for the week of 8 Nov and 81F for last week. Roughly twenty years ago, I'd see 79F before the end of the first week of October, so I'd say that this year is now 2F warmer a good 4-5 weeks later in the season, although I do attribute part of this year's high temps to it being an El Nino year ... the same shearing winds that have prevented hurricane formation also means that these giant heat engines haven't been able to form to extract heat from the region to move it north, so the entire basin hasn't had its traditional mechanism to get rid of the solar energy.

As somebody else mentioned, cold fronts do move down during the winter months and can bring rough seas with the northerly winds. They don't last long: the longest stretch I found in my log book was 6 days where the boats could not get around the point to the north shore. (But if that 6 day stretch was your vacation, you would be kind of bummed about it!)

Just had a solid 10 days of N winds this month (approx 9 Nov - 19 Nov), but you're right: the weather trends don't usually last more than 5-6 days. This is why you should always make your dive trip vacations be at least 10 days long

The calmest seas are during the summer months, but from everything I've ever heard the diving is not as good then.

I've only had one trip in July, but I found the dive conditions great ... but simply just too miserably hot on land to do anything outside. That's why we've skipped August and our fall trips are no earlier than late September.

I'll be there mid-January through mid-February, so am looking forward to seeing the island again.

Give congratulations to Jason & Vickie...they tied the knot like ~4 weeks ago.


-hh

 

[nwflyboy]

When are the jellies there? We're going in early March...

 

[Drew Sailbum]

When are the jellies there? We're going in early March...

Thimble jellyfish typically pass through the Cayman Islands from late April to early June. Colloquially, prime season is Mother's Day to Father's Day. YMMV

 

[sport10010]

I have been there a number of times. Most recently last week. Other times in January, March, and February. We have had a great time each and every time. Yes the visiblity changes but I think it is more dependent on the weather than anything else. I think you should be pretty pleased with the place as long as a storm is not blowing.... Hard to beat the diving.