Roatan water temp Dec 11-18 ?

[divematt]

Does anyone have an accurate idea of the water temp in Roatan right now? Maybe someone who just came back or someone down there now reading this might have an idea? I wear a 3 mill down to 78 degrees, and a 5 mill from 77 down to 72. I'll be diving 3 to 4 times a day for a week. I've heard in Belize it's between 75 and 79 right now. I don't really want to take both suits.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[parrotheaddiver]

Hi Matt you may want to go to CoCo Views msg board and ask that question

http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/mb/ccv

a lot of members post when they are at CCV and of course when they return as well. That should give you a pretty acurate water temp.

 

[Doc]

Does anyone have an accurate idea of the water temp in Roatan right now?

PH'diver gives a good source that is current. Also look at http://www.docksidedivecenter.com/WeeklyLog.html which is indeed a 'weekly log' that this week shows a pretty consistent 78* (Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)

Here is an excellent moment for all Caribbean-Curious Weather-Watchers to watch over the next few days... it's a classic weather pattern that is developing!

Step 1: The Upper Midwest USA is flooded with cold Canadian arctic air pushing temps right at 0* or so.

Step 2: The Southern Midwest begins to get 32* low temps, freezes hit Texas, Sea Turtles get cold shock off of South Padre. Texans shown on TV News sliding around on something they put in drinks: ice.

Step 3: As this cold front pushes downward out of the USA, a "Norther" sets up and roars past Cozumel, Cancun, Belize and smacks hard into the exposed Northern & Western shores of the Bay Islands. Winds, waves and salt spray. Cooler ocean temps, as well.

Now that Hurricane season is over, and the Bay Islands are situated outside of the predictable tracks, all they suffered this year were spin off rains from the storms that roared thru to the North.

Now it is time for the next plague of the Western Caribbean, the Norther.

Oh boy. This will continue until February. So will threads similar to this.

 

[Bay Island Diver]

It is 80 degrees

 

[divematt]

PH'diver gives a good source that is current. Also look at http://www.docksidedivecenter.com/WeeklyLog.html which is indeed a 'weekly log' that this week shows a pretty consistent 78* (Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)

Here is an excellent moment for all Caribbean-Curious Weather-Watchers to watch over the next few days... it's a classic weather pattern that is developing!

Step 1: The Upper Midwest USA is flooded with cold Canadian arctic air pushing temps right at 0* or so.

Step 2: The Southern Midwest begins to get 32* low temps, freezes hit Texas, Sea Turtles get cold shock off of South Padre. Texans shown on TV News sliding around on something they put in drinks: ice.

Step 3: As this cold front pushes downward out of the USA, a "Norther" sets up and roars past Cozumel, Cancun, Belize and smacks hard into the exposed Northern & Western shores of the Bay Islands. Winds, waves and salt spray. Cooler ocean temps, as well.

Now that Hurricane season is over, and the Bay Islands are situated outside of the predictable tracks, all they suffered this year were spin off rains from the storms that roared thru to the North.

Now it is time for the next plague of the Western Caribbean, the Norther.

Oh boy. This will continue until February. So will threads similar to this.

RoatanMan,

Before I go out and spend a lot of time looking at the weather and try to predict what's going to happen down there, what are the odds that all of this "stuff" is going to happen next week? Also, what are the odds that the week will still be messy even with out the extremes that you predict?

Matt

 

[Doc]

RoatanMan,

Before I go out and spend a lot of time looking at the weather and try to predict what's going to happen down there, what are the odds that all of this "stuff" is going to happen next week? Also, what are the odds that the week will still be messy even with out the extremes that you predict?

Matt

Cold is supposed to envelop the Chicago Area.

You do the research. If it gets cold (freezing) in Texas, a day or two later the Western Caribbean will turn to puppy poop.

Look at this http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/78597?from=36hr_topnav_undeclared Looks good to go!

Dive ops on the North Side and West End will be scampering if it "goes South" (gets freezing)

Should be pretty passable, otherwise, but it depends on what blows up off the equator, the former hurricane track.

 

[divematt]

So, what does it take to stop the diving? I can dive in rain, even if the lack of sun hurts the vis. But if it's windy, are they likely to stop diving on the south side where we'll be staying?

Thanks once again,
Matt

 

[Doc]

So, what does it take to stop the diving? I can dive in rain, even if the lack of sun hurts the vis. But if it's windy, are they likely to stop diving on the south side where we'll be staying? Matt

No, if you're on the S side, or if your North or West End Resort is set up to transport you to the South side, not ever much of an issue.

Know this, however: Your S side resort's performance is dependant upon the quality of their boats. The large Ai's... it's not an issue. Some small independents, well- look critically at the boats. My favorite South side Ai has "holes in the bottoms of their boats"... Moon wells that are 4x4' slots dead amidships with vertical ladders. They remain fairly easy egress no matter what the wave situation.

As far as North side dive ops that consistently will ferry passengers "around the horn" to bring them to the comparatively divable South side? AKR does this reliably, but they seem to have curtailed the niceties of the service where they would bus you the 10 minutes to a South side landing versus sending you on a memorable 45 (x2) minute boat ride, there and back.

The resort I stay at on the South side has such a good shore dive that quite often if the seas whip up, I'll just do that shore dive instead. You're right, viz can be twitchy, but what the heck- it's better than my first 300 logged dives in the Great Lakes area

A general set of rules for diving in rough water...

Approach the ladder with caution, and always watch the ladder. Due to extreme bouncing about, that bottom rung of ladder can plunge quickly up and down as much as 6 to 10 feet in water depth. It can do a Hannibal Lechter job on you very easily.

Await your pick-up (in the unlikely event of a drift dive, or at least a seperation recovery), or await "your turn" on the ladder while at 15fsw depth. Staying low does two things- less possibility of seasickness, and less likelihood of aspirating sea water whilst thrashing about on the surface.

Please do not be one of these saps who surface behind the boat and either drift off or hang desperately onto the tag line, thrashing and choking. Even if you are advanced enough to avoid the thrashing and choking part, the people who quietly wait their moment for exit at 15fsw are the smart ones.

Stay comfortable at depth, wait your free turn at the ladder. Your safety sausage does have 25 feet of line on it, of course, right? Hand it up to the Boatman. Current? Use the attached sausage cordage as a tag line tether if needbe... and if the boat supplies no tag line (another resort quality management issue).

All in all though, if you click on that weather link, it looks like next week the Western Caribbean will get a pass on a "Norther".

The fun thing about it though, is that when a Norther does hit and you are diving, you can imagine how your home in Houston might turn into a skating rink with the burst pipes when you get home. Northerners can look forward to their Roatan-rained-upon checked bags being frozen solid when they finally deplane in Minnesota.

 

[parrotheaddiver]

So, what does it take to stop the diving? I can dive in rain, even if the lack of sun hurts the vis. But if it's windy, are they likely to stop diving on the south side where we'll be staying?

Thanks once again,
Matt

In a word...HURRICANE...or at least at CCV if the seas are real high you can always shore dive. In Oct at the tail end of Wilma we were in 2-6ft seas one day and we went out in the boat yee haw...

 

[divematt]

Great,

I have no problem in 4-6 foot seas, I dive in them off of the coast of North Carolina all of the time. I just hope the boats at Fantasy Island Resort won't stop going out unless it's really bad. By the way, those great shore dives are near FIR also aren't they? Isn't Mary's Wall somewhere around there? I heard there's a plane and a wreck there. And if it's really really bad, what can you do on land, go eat or drink somewhere at the west end? I have no problem with that either.

Back to the wetsuit. If it doesn't go below 78 (water temp) I'm OK with the 3 mill. If it's 76 or 77, I'd rather take along the 5 as well. Heck, I'll just take them both. The problem is just that the 3mill is now comperssed down to maybe a 1 1/2 or 2 because it's an overused Henderson Hyperstrech. So I may have to raise my minimum temp on it until I get a new one and just wear the 5 mill!

Thanks,
Matt