Windward side of Roatan. Snorkeling/Diving.

[mow2000]

I'm thinking about renting a cottage on the south-west side of Roatan in late Feb or early March. Ideally I'd like to snorkel from this property (which is on a rocky shoreline and advertises that you can snorkel when conditions are good). I'd also like to do some diving possibly there and off the west end.

I'm having a little trouble getting a grasp of Roatan as far as ocean conditions go. Seems like from what I've read the windward side is the south side of the island (which seems unusual to me). I've also read that during the winter you can get a strong north wind and the south end of the island is very calm. Also seems that the north and west end have reef systems that might keep the water a little calmer whereas the southside just drops off. Aside from what I will be hearing from the people renting this cottage I was wondering if there were any opinions or experiences that anyone has to share?

Thanks.

 

[JDog]

Just got back on Saturday. The wind picked up every night we were there and came out of the southeast. They said this was how the wind blows most of the time. Had pretty good swell/wave conditions all week except for Wednesday night, it was quite the challenge getting back in the boat. We went for an ultra lite float plane ride on Friday, and the swells and waves looked almost identical flying from the north to the south side (via the eastern half of the island), we were staying at Fantasy Island which is on the south side.

 

[Doc]

The snorkeling, by deffinition of the underwater geography, will be better on the South Side of this long and narrow island.

The time of year that you are going- the weather should be equally pleasant on the North Side as well. Do some math, however.

When the battering storms arrive, they come from the North. That's why the North side lunderwater world looks like it does, compared to the lush and verdant South.

The North side can look u/w surprisingly like the Galapagos in some respects.

The South has reefs that break in 5 to 25 feet of water, then find a sand level at 90fsw. There is a lot of growth and nursery holes for critters in the brightly lit, calm shallows of the South side.

Real snorkelers rave about it.

 

[Dave C]

I was in Roatan on a snorkeling trip for 2 weeks in March this year. I, too, was perplexed when I read beforehand that the windward side of the island was the south. Most places in the Caribbean the NE trade winds predominate, so the northeast sides of islands are the windward. However, during the entire time I was in Roatan in March, the wind blew from the SE. On several days it was blowing so hard that it would have prevented snorkeling on the south shore, despite the fact that a protective reef was offshore. The water was just too churned up. I stayed on West Bay Beach and in West End, and conditions there were consistently millpond smooth for snorkeling. This part of the island appeared to me to be the most sheltered for snorkeling. Based on my experience (which admittedly is just one trip, but since my focus was snorkeling rather than diving perhaps I can provide better snorkeling advice), I think you would be risking some blow-out days for shore snorkeling if you rent a cabin on the south shore in March.

 

[Sunnylake]

I thought that the reef located in Halfmoon Bay, Westend Village was very easily accessible and sheltered- My wife, myself and my 7 year old daughter spent many an amazing hour exploring there. The bottom was on average about 5 to 15 ft deep so everything could be seen from the surface with a mask and snorkel. I towed my daughter around on an infatable mattress, we had a ball!! The reef starts fairly close to shore-and basically gets progressively more interesting and challenging as you move farther out to sea. A perfect introduction to diving for my little one.

 

[Bay Island Diver]

There seems to be a huge effort on this board to make the north side of roatan sound like the rough side but that is only the case in the rainy season months of November December and January. We had our first norther of this season last week and are expecting the next tomorrow! For the other NINE MONTHS of the year the south side is consistently rougher then the north with white caps on the waves regularly.

The marine life on both sides of the islands is very similar, in the 2000+ dives i have done on both sides of Roatan I have not seen the dramatic differences between north and south described by Roatanman.

 

[HowieDean]

We are also located on the North side of the island and I do agree that people are lead to beileve by some on this board that the North side is rougher
Again it can be in November/December/January and I think to be fair I think you would have to consider adding February to the list...

That being said on the bad days on the North Side although the water on South Side is going to be calmer - it's most likely going to be a rainy chilly day over there as well....

I try to tell people if they come that time of year to figure on loosing at least 1 dive day to be fair.........

I do think what most people miss is that Roatan makes a dog-leg as you get to what we call West End - If you sit on the Beach in West end you will be looking directly into the setting Sun and where I come from that's WEST not North - So even though we call it the North side it's not really facing North - the "Dog Leg" starts around Bay Island Beach Resort - So even on a Rough day the sea will be calmer in front of West End and get progresively ruffer as you head back toward Anthony's Key - we are located about a mile and a halve from West End the waves can be high enough that we can barely get our boats out of our cut - then turn and head towards West End and have just small rollers in front of West Bay.....

Now about the North and South side not being any different .. Well
lets talk about different.....

The Coral formations on the North Side and South Side are COMPLETELY Different - Like Roatan Man said the South Side has allot of soft coral - looks like an underwater forest almost - for that matter therer is a tremendous amount of differences in the reefs all over the island - The wall from the light house over to Key Hole is completely unique to it's self - I haven't seen the white rock with the littel "evergreen" looking trees on it anywhere else - The sannd shoots and sand patches from the Light house back to Half Moon Bay are completely different from the Walls that start at Half Moon and continue on for the next several miles - If you go about a half mile East of the Odessy, past "Double D" you can still see some pretty big animals - Eagle Rays - Sharks - Leather Back Turtels etc - Punta Gorta flats and channel are completely different - and Morat and Gator Nose and and and -

I guess what I'm trying to say is lets not get all caught up in our private intrests but instead try to let people know the facts and that North - South - East - West all have their own unique advantages / disadvantages and above all if you haven't seen it all you shurely haven't seen all there is to see

That's just my opinion I could be wrong.........