Which Island?

[KathyV]

June through November will be good for most places, but as @KathyV said, it is hurricane season. Bonaire and Curacao are not as susceptible to hurricanes as most of the other islands. I was in Turks & Caicos last November, and the water was great. It was a little disappointing that some of the places we liked were still closed due to hurricane damage, but I am sure that most things are open now. Kathy is right about Grace Bay beach. My friends have been there February and they said the water was too cold.

We were in St Lucia last month, and the water was spectacular. I only did two dives in St. Lucia, but Superman's Flight was one of the best dives I have done. Easy drift dive and the corals, sponges and fish life was just awesome. I thought it was much better than Grand Cayman (did ten dives there). The plus for Grand Cayman was Stingray City. I have done both the dive and the sand bar and both are worth your time. While I thought the corals in GCM were great, it just seemed devoid of reef fish.

Funny, but I would have said the exact opposite. We thought that St. Lucia was beautiful and the corals were lovely but they seemed overfished - lots of small animals but not many large fish. We described it as "a good environment for macrophotography."

The Caymans always seem quite fishy to us with lots of bigger animals like groupers, eels, rays, tarpons, turtles, barracudas, and some sharks - although it is not a fishy as Florida IMO.

Maybe it has something to do with season and water temp? We were in St. Lucia in the Spring and we usually go to Cayman in the Fall.

 

[jonhall]

Currently in Freeport diving with Grand Bahama Divers, which conveniently is located at the resort we are staying at, Ocean Reef Yacht Club. Will review later, but some quick info after 3 days of diving last week:

* The water temp isnt bad. Everyone on the boat got a good laugh when we compared temps after a dive - the range was 72-77º F. I.m going with 75º. I’m wearing my 3mm, one day wore a rash guard under it, with full foot fins and have been fine. Two breezy days, so 1 hour surface interval on boat was very cool while 3rd day had no wind and was perfect - water even seemed warmer. A few divers on boat wore shorties and one wore their swimsuit. You can see current pictures posted on their Facebook page.

* According to owners of dive shop, there are 13 moored sites, first come, first serve. Boats don’t go to Tiger Shark Beach on the West End and Theo’s wreck is not visited after the last hurricane (broken apart?) The most recent Scuba Diver magazine touts these as sites to dive.

*Reef and nurse sharks have been seen on each of our dives so far. The one glass bottom boat that goes out hourly chums the water. Some of the dive sites are nearby.

* There are a few land based activities/sites, beach clubs, and the Lucayan Marketplace which is a good hangout with several restaurants. We are close to a nice white sandy beach where you can walk out into the water for a pretty good distance. You could easily plan a week and stay busy. We are stretching it out to 2.

As some scattered thunderstorms have been around this past weekend, I am now sitting here waiting for an 8:30 AM call to see if the boat is going out today. If not, the sun is still shining (right now) and we will probably hit the Lucayan Caverns and Gold Rock Beach.