SCUBA Diving in late January in St. Thomas

[QueenTrident]

My DH is an advanced SCUBA diver and would like to go on a SCUBA excursion, but isn't sure of the water temperature in St. THomas/St. Maarten in late January.

Does anyone know if it's comfortable swimming/SCUBA weather? Will he need a wet suit? Can one be rented down there or does he have to bring his own (which may be too small for him now).

Thanks for any advice/guidance!

Jenn

 

[hydster]

We havent dove in St. Martin in January but we have dove in Nassau, Freeport, St. Lucia, Belize and Costa Rica during Jan and February and the water was cool but not freezing. I rented a shorty wetsuit through the dive operator and put it on top of my long wetsuit and was fine. I do get cold fairly easily though. I think it was an extra 5 dollars to rent the shorty wetsuits through each dive operator or at the most 10 dollars more. Usually they have equipment you can rent along with wetsuits, weights, bcd, mask, snorkel or fins. I looked at our dive logs for those times of the year and the water temp was between 80 - 83 degrees. Unless your husband is a bigger wussie than me (I highly doubt that) he should be just fine diving in January in St. Thomas or St. Martin. According to websites for General Diving in St. Martin the average water temp in January-February is 77 degrees for the lowest temp. They do recommend a wetsuit however. In St. Thomas the water is about 78 degrees according to Coki Beach Information. They suggest using a 2-3 mm wetsuit for the winter and they do rent shorties.

Hope that helps!
Heidi

Here are the 2 websites I found that information on:

http://www.cokidive.com/weather_page.htm

http://www.thescubashop.net/general.htm

 

[QueenTrident]

Wow! Thanks for the research and the sites. I always feel bad when someone else finds something I should have done.

Thanks again! I'll let him know (though, he is a bit of a wuss when it comes to cold .

Jenn

 

[hydster]

Nah dont feel badly at all about it! I am just sitting here with a sick child on my lap who wont let me put him down so it was a nice mental break for me!!

LOL at hubby being a wuss...I highly doubt he is worse than I am and I did survive it after much complaining to hubby during dives!

Heidi

 

[jrabbit]

We snorkeled in St. Johns in January and the water was a nice temperature. When we got to CC that was a different story. Noticeably cooler. Even with that we went snorkeling for a couple of hours.

 

[jlawall]

I agree that the water is alittle cool in the winter months especially in the Bahamas. In St. Thomas (FEb.) my DH and I were alittle chilled when we traveled there. I definitely would have a wet suit, especially if I was scuba diving.