Good Time to Dive North Carolina

[GreggS]

What time of year were these 3 trips? Dive shops are saying late June to August. My experience having grown up on the east coast (south eastern Penna.) is that very early Oct. has the most stable weather.

It really doesn't matter on the NC coast. We go to the Morehead City/Beaufort area every October for a 4 day weekend. Most of the time, it is really nice with warm temps (both air and water) and calm winds. In 2022 when we were down, it was cloudy with rain almost the whole time we were there. We did manage to get one charter in on Friday, although it was a little windy and the water was a bit choppy but not too bad. Saturday was rainy and miserable to be outdoors. Naturally, no boats went out that day.

My best friend used to have a house on the NC coast and he liked to deep sea fish. He and I and another guy went out about 50 miles one day to do some trolling for some game fish. When we got out there, it was relatively calm but seas were 1-3 feet. Not bad. However, by the time we got our lines out and everything set up to fish, the wind had picked up a little and seas had gone to 3-5 feet. We continued to fish for a little while and notice the waves had gone to 5-7 feet. We talked about how it was getting a little too rough and as far out as we were, decided to head back in. We had only been on our way back about 30 minutes (it took us 2½ hours to get out there) when we ran into a hell of a thunderstorm. Winds had picked up substantially and the seas had gone to 10-15 feet. It dang near beat us to death. From that point, it took us 4 hours to get back in to port. What was really worse than our situation was a fishing head boat that we were listening to on the marine radio that was headed in behind us but could only make about 5 knots due to the seas. That was about half the speed we could go.

Like I said earlier, I've had great dives from July-October. But anytime you schedule a charter on the NC coast, you just have to be aware that it may get blown out. In fact, we have a saying in North Carolina..."If you don't like the weather, wait a minute." It can change that quickly as illustrated by my experience above.

 

[Kensei]

In fact, we have a saying in North Carolina..."If you don't like the weather, wait a minute." It can change that quickly as illustrated by my experience above.

Thanks. I've lived in New Hampshire, Boston, NYC, Philadelphia and Washington DC. They all have the same saying.

 

[nippurmagnum]

I agree that late summer is best (generally). But diving conditions in NC are not just about wind and waves. Water temp, currents, and visibility are also huge factors. My first time out in NC about 10 years ago, I went on the Olympus boat, and seas were flat and the sun shone brightly, but at the dive sites (the Spar and the Papoose) there was zero visibility and the boat turned around without putting any divers in the water. It was a long boat ride back to shore, and a 6-hour drive back home, and I swore then that I'd never again try to dive NC.

Fortunately, I changed my mind. Since then, I've had good luck on about 13 out of 14 days that I tried to dive out of Morehead. At its best, it's really world class. On a single day, I dove down to the U-352 with a pod of dolphins (!), and with sand tiger sharks inside the Aeolus.

But conditions are fickle. Ideally, you'd be able to call the dive shops and ask how conditions have been in the last couple of days, and how they're looking or the couple of next days. But the dive shops in Morehead are notoriously reluctant to describe current conditions, much less to forecast how they might look in a couple of days.

 

[DiveProKoko]

Mid to late summer is probably your best chance. If you can do it with relatively short notice, use Windy or Predict Wind apps to look at the forecast and find a window.

 

[arew+4]

Plan a one week beach vacation in the Outer Banks, schedule all the land lubber diversions, but double book diving everyday.

I guess it's technically not the outer banks that far south, but Emerald Isle, and Atlantic Beach are very nice. And there are some reasonable VRBOs, especially after the kids go back to school. Just get vacation insurance because hurricanes.

 

[broncobowsher]

I agree that late summer is best (generally). But diving conditions in NC are not just about wind and waves. Water temp, currents, and visibility are also huge factors. My first time out in NC about 10 years ago, I went on the Olympus boat, and seas were flat and the sun shone brightly, but at the dive sites (the Spar and the Papoose) there was zero visibility and the boat turned around without putting any divers in the water. It was a long boat ride back to shore, and a 6-hour drive back home, and I swore then that I'd never again try to dive NC.

Fortunately, I changed my mind. Since then, I've had good luck on about 13 out of 14 days that I tried to dive out of Morehead. At its best, it's really world class. On a single day, I dove down to the U-352 with a pod of dolphins (!), and with sand tiger sharks inside the Aeolus.

But conditions are fickle. Ideally, you'd be able to call the dive shops and ask how conditions have been in the last couple of days, and how they're looking or the couple of next days. But the dive shops in Morehead are notoriously reluctant to describe current conditions, much less to forecast how they might look in a couple of days.

Was out in late summer 2019. I know a couple of sites we pulled up on they threw in the support diver to tie in. They popped out and got back on the boat and we left. Conditions were too bad. Couple miles away, it was good enough. The only really clear wreck we got was the U352. Crystal clear, perfect. Everyone wanted to stay and go again, but they pulled the line and left for another wreck. We were a bit disappointed that they pulled us off the wreck we were there to see, and perfect conditions, just to move to another wreck with only fair conditions.