Is last half of October too late?

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dampcooker

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I will have an opportunity to dive in north Sulawesi (or other places in Indonesia alternatively) between October 15-30 this year. Is this too late? Meaning - has the rainy season bad weather already closed in and wrecked the visibility? I seem to find mixed opinions, and it seems to be very region-related as to whether or not the visibility and weather will be OK until November 1 or not.

I dove in Bali a few years ago, and really enjoyed it - especially Tulamben. I would like to see Bunaken if at all possible. Unfortunately, this is my only travel window for that area this year.

Anyone with any experience or opinions?
 
Hello,

in most of the guide books you will read that the rainy season on North Sulawesi is somewhere between November and April. For this moment I wish it would be true ;-0) since we had some serious rain here last week.
Monsoen often has been translated by rain. Although it means season or wind. In general we are having the North West monsoen from October until April and the South East monsoen from April until October. This so called dry season July brought more rain than the complete so called rainy season. Same happened in 2007.
Further: the Kema/Bitung/Lembeh coast of North Sulawesi is getting 60% less rain than Manado. Most rain all year through in Tomohon.
Viz in Lembeh is less good in August and December

Best regards, Rob
 
Hello Indah,
Yes, within the last years there were sometimes very bad weather situations with continuing rain and even inundations even during the so-called dry season.
On the other hand you can have ideal weather during the rainy season. I have stayed from October 2003 until the end of January 2004 on Bunaken and the weather was only bad within the weeks around Christmas until after New Year. Then partly were rain and storm for days. I have witnessed a ferry (PUBLIC Boat) sinking in these days. Then however, at the rest of the time there were showers only at night, and during the day I enjoyed a marvellous sunshine. The water temperatures are anyway consistently around 28 °C throughout the year. Also the visibility for diving is usually good again when the sea has calmed down.
Within the years 2005 and 2006 I was diving on Bunaken in November and had during the whole month almost every day fine weather there. Read more about my experiences and about Dive Resorts here.

Also this year I will spend October and November on the island hoping for good conditions again. Don’t hesitate to visit Bunaken! It is a paradise.
Best regards
Klaus
 
Danke shon, Klaus! I will then plan on staying at one of the places in Bunaken for a week or so during late October with a sense that the weather and diving viz will probably be fine. Perhaps I'll see you there!
 
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