Tropical depression, Roatan

[Scott M]

So I see there is a Tropical Storm this week near Roatan turning into a Tropical Depression by end of the week and cleared out by Saturday. We will be flying in Saturday. Can we expect any residual problems (U/W or on land) because of the storm? This can not be good for Viz, I assume.

 

[Doc]

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bay-islands/252470-answers-about-rain-bay-islands.html#post3825856

 

[Isaac-1]

We are at Cocoview this week, leaving saturday, it has rained some almost every day, visibility earlier in the week was in the 50-60 ft range, today was the worst so far with vis around 25-30 ft at depth, and maybe 10-15 ft. near the surface where the fresh and salt water was mixing.

Ike

 

[robint]

We are at Cocoview this week, leaving saturday, it has rained some almost every day, visibility earlier in the week was in the 50-60 ft range, today was the worst so far with vis around 25-30 ft at depth, and maybe 10-15 ft. near the surface where the fresh and salt water was mixing.

Ike

thanks for letting us know what is going on there. With the webcams down, we can only watch the weather maps and it doesn't look very good. I am glad to hear you did get out to dive every day though.

This hurricane season has been terrible! Storms everywhere, and damage everywhere! This week even Bonaire got hit by the edge of TS Omar. :depressed:
Hopefully we have seen the end and will only sunny skies the rest of 2008.

robin

 

[Doc]

The OP question was a bit general- as different areas of Roatan suffer variously depending upon location.

With storms lashing the islands, the North side may be absolutely closed due to wave action- but after it's all over, the North & West water clarity returns to normal very quickly.

The South side is usually quite doable during most any storm. Boats go out and dives get made. The downside is the localized siltation off of FIBR's beach that can pretty well occlude the Channel during storms. Southern boat dives return to normal quickly just as the North Side does. It's Roatan's most popular shore dive, off of FIBR & CCV that suffers the greatest impact.

CoCoView diving? Instead of shore diving the Channel, turn hard left and do the CCV Wall or Newmans. Once you get outside of the two buoys shown below, it's good viz.

No one likes the Ocean all clouded-up and with a layer of fresh water- certainly not the critters!

Weather log: http://www.docksidedivecenter.com/WeeklyLog.html

Remember that Roatan is simply not known for it's visibility. There are many times when a night dive is perfectly acceptable when if you tried it in the daylight, you would label it as murky. It all depends upon how far away you are looking.

The interesting stuff is in the size range that you have to be within 10' to spot it anyway, and then get in closer for a better look. So, inherently, viz is not as big an issue as it may first seem.

No matter where you dive after a storm~ North side, South shore, Roatan, Belize or Cayman- the critters are going to be shy with all of that churn and cold fresh water.

 

[Isaac-1]

Visibility is much better today even though it rained a lot last night, we saw the sun for the first time in 3 days. There is some sort of local protest over electricity prices going on that is blocking the road in a number of places which has limited off site activities, yesterday Cocoview had to send a boat to town for supplies, hopefully it will be over before Saturday when it is time to go to the airport. One of the cruise ships passed up docking yesterday either due to the "storm" that missed us or the protests no one knows which.

 

[Scott M]

A lot of good info.

Question on winds, As we will be staying at FI which winds effect wave action the most for the sites they dive? As it looks right now it wil be a week of rain but not much we can do about that, right now I am just looking to prepare for what kind of boat rides we are going to be seeing while there.

And along those lines I am seeing waves from one of the weather services to be in the 4' to 7' range for at least a few days right now. 4' does not sound to bad but 7' can ruin a trip out real quick. Any info on what we can expect?

Thanks

 

[Isaac-1]

It was very flat here all week, seas at 1-2 feet one or two days wind gusts were mostly at night, maybe 15-20 mph. FI is next door to Cocociew (I can see it from where I am sitting, things have been very quiet there all week). I suspect the higher seas are on the north side.

Ike

 

[marcoa]

We did a couple of shore dives today. One from Channel Sport and the other at Flower's Bay. Our students and divers were happy, real happy with the dives.

Our bay, however, currently has terrible visibility. My Open Water Student did academics all day. We did manage to go visit her sister who is currently working towards her advanced course and whom was shore diving at Flower's Bay. We ate the fried chicken and the island style french fries they make at the spot. Umm good. We went over the RDP, No Air Can Be Bad, the Buddy System and many OW training issues right on the water. It's a tough job.

We have a couple of returning divers. They're back after a week of diving in Utila. Today we had a cook out for them. We're serious about diving and the safety of our divers, but we enjoy the company of our exceptional friends who visit us over and over.

Best of luck during your diving of the Bay Islands...

 

[EllaandGlenn]

Would be interested in knowing what condition Roatan is in following the tropical depression that devastated Honduras. Did it affect the reefs there or the island itself? We will be on a cruise stop there in January and are wondering what kind of snorkeling and diving there will be. Does anyone know how the snorkeling is (some of those going are not divers)?