Weather in Belize - Dec/Jan?

[Shasta_man]

Considering a week long catamaran charter (Katkandu) out to Lighthouse reef around Christmas.

They have compressor on board and divemaster captain. You can dive at will.

Trying to figure when to schedule this. Current thought is around Christmas to get max use out of vacation time.

What's the weather like and also anyone in Belize have experience with the boat, Katkandu?

Also considering February, as the precipitation graphs show less rain in belize city.

What's your experience? Thanks for your time.

 

[drbill]

Was in Belize Jan-Mar of this year. Quite possible to experience storms with strong winds during that period (at least this year). Temperatures are quite nice in between, but the wind can make it difficult to get out beyond the barrier reef. We very rarely missed Lighthouse Reef though on all the trips I made during that period.

Dr. Bill

 

[Gaz]

Considering a week long catamaran charter (Katkandu) out to Lighthouse reef around Christmas.

They have compressor on board and divemaster captain. You can dive at will.

Trying to figure when to schedule this. Current thought is around Christmas to get max use out of vacation time.

What's the weather like and also anyone in Belize have experience with the boat, Katkandu?

Also considering February, as the precipitation graphs show less rain in belize city.

What's your experience? Thanks for your time.

KATKANDU is a great catamaran and the food is delicious they serve on the boat.
They do have a compressor onboard but it is small and I do beleive they limit the number of dives you can do a day due to time contraints check with rick the captain and owner.
The boat travels at about 6-10 knotts, its a great trip and for a combination of diving and fishing, cruising vacation and seeing the atolls of Belize I think its a great choice.

Weather the past 2 christmas's has been aweful lots of rain and bad weather but I guess that can change i have had far more christmas's here where it was great weather.

Febuary will probably have rougher seas and more wind (which could be good for sailing, RIGHT) plus probably more sunshine.

if it were me I would choose febuary

have a great trip and tell Rick I said hi

Dive safe

Gaz

 

[Shasta_man]

So Gaz, when is a good time of year to get the best weather?

The resources I have only show Belize City weather, and show the lowest amount of rain in March/April. However, I don't know how the weather out at Lighthouse Reef would differ. I know it rains in the tropics but we were trying to get the least amount of rain and hopefully not the peak heat either.

Rain for a day is fine, rain for the whole trip isn't.

Also, are you aware of any other reputable boats that also provide diving from the boat itself? This is just my wife and I which should keep the compressor load low.

We took a sailboat charter, utilizing land based dive operators for the diving, in Fiji and it was fantastic. Completely relaxing experience. However, the weather did not cooperate. We did not want to repeat that.

KATKANDU is a great catamaran and the food is delicious they serve on the boat.
They do have a compressor onboard but it is small and I do beleive they limit the number of dives you can do a day due to time contraints check with rick the captain and owner.
The boat travels at about 6-10 knotts, its a great trip and for a combination of diving and fishing, cruising vacation and seeing the atolls of Belize I think its a great choice.

Weather the past 2 christmas's has been aweful lots of rain and bad weather but I guess that can change i have had far more christmas's here where it was great weather.

Febuary will probably have rougher seas and more wind (which could be good for sailing, RIGHT) plus probably more sunshine.

if it were me I would choose febuary

have a great trip and tell Rick I said hi

Dive safe

Gaz

 

[Hank49]

Was in Belize Jan-Mar of this year. Quite possible to experience storms with strong winds during that period (at least this year). Temperatures are quite nice in between, but the wind can make it difficult to get out beyond the barrier reef. We very rarely missed Lighthouse Reef though on all the trips I made during that period.Dr. Bill

It's usually blowing pretty stiff trades during those months. And, this last Dec/Jan was really cold. We monitor the temp daily here on the shrimp farm and our water temps averaged only 23.8C (74F) for all of Jan-Mar. That was down from 26.2C (79-80F) the previous two years for the same period. But even at that, it's way warmer than No Cal. brrrrr

 

[Gaz]

Personally I like the months of late April May June this is usually a very dry time of year and seas are genrally not as rough as march etc.

Of course weather is unpredictable but I like those months and they have proven reliable over the past years as a good bet

Gaz

 

[Shasta_man]

Many thanks for your prompt response as well as others comments. This info is invaluable.

Hmmm... we passed on a Costa Rican vacation in late May, opting for Fiji, because we thought it was the rainy season there. Maybe we were wrong.

Just an FYI, and you may have noticed it as well, but the weather is changing. Typical weather during the time we were in Fiji was supposed to sun and their dry season. It rained the majority of the time. Here in California, it is typically nice and warm. Here it is almost the end of July, and it is still relatively cold. It can get hot during the day, but cools down a lot at night. Is it temporary? Is it changing forever? Who knows, but it makes planning vacations difficult.
:11:

Personally I like the months of late April May June this is usually a very dry time of year and seas are genrally not as rough as march etc.

Of course weather is unpredictable but I like those months and they have proven reliable over the past years as a good bet

Gaz