Saba!!

http://www.caribbeanislands.us/saba.htm

We left St. Barts right after getting fuel at the 0730 fuel dock opening.  The sail to saba was fast and fun!  full main and we poled out the 110% jib surfing down waves the whole way!!  Areyto required atention at the helm the whole time.  Antention Andrew gave her for nearly the entire 28 nm passage!  Capt Rico only assisted for part of the time.  The rest of the time I napped and took pictures!  Saba is awesome!  I've started to include the links above so that I can avoid having to provide alot of the basic information about each island.  Also, there are good links should anyone have the interest and time to further research any island of interest.  Having said that, Saba is not a place to go if the weather is bad.  It is literally one giant rock with really no harbor.  The weather was nice while we were there but the anchorage is still open to the full ocean swell.  So... It was very rolly at night and we needed to self medicate with a healthy ration of Cruzan in the evenings so we would fall asleep.  We landed the dingy at the base of the "ladder" in ladder bay.  This is where the original Sabaians had to off load any cargo coming into the island.  Interesting and historic.  We proceeded to hike all the way up to the top of Saba (~2800') and back down.  It was quite a bit of hiking and walking although also a really great way to see the island!  We did two dives.  One about 80' around a pinacle called diamond rock and another about 40' - 60' onto a reef filled with more life than I've ever seen diving before!  Groupers, rays, turtles, snapper, angle fish, barracuda, crazy sponges, coral, and reef organisms!!  It was like being in a National Geographic documentary!  Sorry, no underwater pictures.  :-(

Action shot tiding up the boat leaving St. Barts!

Coming into Saba HOT!!!

Its a big mountain!!  Lets walk up it!

The stairs (ladder) at ladder bay.  The little house is the old customs house an is about 1/3 the way up the ladder.  We were petty over any stairs for a while after visiting Saba.



Yellow and blue is in this spring.  Sabians are hip to it.




View of ladder bay from the old custom house.  Thats Areyto all the way to the left.



Sabaian house

Pool and little cottage at the eco lodge.  We had a delicous lunch here of seared tuna.  yum!



Sauna at the eco lodge




The fat bunny that eats all the crops in the eco lodges garden.  It was FAT!



A little trail near the eco lodge

A slide at the eco lodge.  The Sabians used to use it to decend the 2000 feet down from the town to the sea.  It was put out of comission shortly after being built due to an epidemic of "rug burn" on the island.

This house was along one of the trails we hiked.  Not particularly close to any roads...  :-)

Andrew, you don't think that leaf is a little over kill for the job its doing?

On the trail to the top of Saba.  Maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up.  Lots of steps!

Looking down into ladder bay from the top of Saba (Mt. Scenery).  Areyto is the little boat in the middle of the two others.

Next Stop....  The oil hub of the Caribbean and some American history in Statia!!!  See you there!