Saba, the self-dubbed "Unspoiled Queen of the Caribbean", is a tiny island at the top of the Windward Islands, east of Puerto Rico. It's very different from just about any Caribbean destination I've been to. There's very little tourism, probably because it has no beaches! Saba is basically one volcanic peak, which is the highest point in the Caribbean. It's populated (about 1,000 people) almost entirely by descendents of the original Dutch colonists, and is kept unbelievably quaint and clean. Saba is little-known as it is, but its diving is truly underrated; I experienced some of my most memorable dives here. The flight in is also very memorable, the flight path is directly into the side of the mountain with a sharp turn just before the (extremely short) runway! Most tourists.stay in the village of Windwardside, about halfway up the mountain. Most locals live in "The Bottom", a town at sea level on the western end of the island, which is also where dive boats depart from. Locals are fond of saying "It's better in the bottom!", ahem.
Once again my good friend Derek van Bever joined me on this trip. We stayed at a small inn called "Juliana's" (a nice enough place), and dove with Sea Saba, an excellent outfit.
There's virtually nothing to do in Saba topside except maybe climb to the top of the mountain, but underwater it's a different story. Plentiful critters both sessile and non-, large and small. Sharks, turtles, eels, octopi; dramatic dropoffs and topographies, really quite a nice spot by Caribbean standards. One of my best dives ever was a night dive at Tent Reef. Early in the dive, despite the glare of my dive light, I noticed a lot of bioluminescence going on in the water around me. I turned my light off, and - WOW! I was completely surrounded in every direction as far as I could see by twinkling strings of luminous jellyfish, about 6 - 12 inches long each. I've never seen anything like it anywhere. Derek and I sat down on the bottom and spent the rest of the dive sitting there in the dark with our lights off. On the ride back to the dock, Sue from Sea Saba served us Saba Spice, a delicious local specialty liqueur, and the crew turned off the boat lights so we could enjoy the star-filled sky. A magical evening. I really liked Saba.
Here are my dive log entries for the trip:
| Dive No. | Date | Dive Site | Max Depth | Bottom Time | Night? | Notes |
| 123 | 12/7/95 | Ladder Labyrinth | 79 | 0:52 | N | Usual carribean stuff, nice pillar coral. Coral-encrusted volcanic rock around sloping bottm. Big file, fat spotted moray. |
| 124 | 12/7/95 | Hole in the Corner | 79 | 0:56 | N | Around windward side due to unusually calm conditions. More interesting site than #123, steep wall up to shallows. Cool mottled cucumber, gorgeous turquoise honeycomb cow, big peacock, golden spotted moray, big school of blue tangs, some elkhorn |
| 125 | 12/8/95 | Core Gut | 108 | 0:50 | N | Trina - Canuck Nazi divemistress. Spectacular vertical/undercut wall from surface - 100'. Lots of tubeastrea, good growth & fish. D. saw small mantis shrimp. Lots of big files. |
| 126 | 12/8/95 | Tent Reef | 70 | 1:05 | N | Great site - walls, boulders, swim-throughs. Lush growth. Small turtle flushed out by Jim, master diver (not!), scorpion, drum. Divemaster Ben blew bubble rings(!) but vid bttry died. Bad ear pain after dive - must not do sawtooth profiles! |
| 127 | 12/9/95 | Third Encounter/Eye of the Needle | 105 | 0:32 | N | Incredible coral-encrusted pinnacle rising to 100' from 200'. After rounding pinnacle, swam over to wall & plateau. Video'd 6' shark cruising at end while ascending. Lectured by Ben on bottom time although I had lots of time on Suunto. |
| 128 | 12/9/95 | Man 'o War Shoals | 68 | 0:53 | N | Twin volcanic mounds on NW corner of Saba. Medium current *& poor viz. Two sharks near sandy bottm at start, video couldn't focus. Tons of fish, lots of sponges, coral, fans, etc. Strange blue crystalline coral. |
| 129 | 12/9/95 | Tent Reef | 51 | 0:58 | Y | Incredibly beautiful bioluminescent strings, 3 turtles, big scrawled filefish, tons of open tubeastrea. Light trouble - bad bttrys. Sue served Saba Spice subsequent to surfacing, drove back to dock w/boat lights off to enjoy stars - no moon. |
| 130 | 12/10/95 | Ted Ran Wall | 108 | 0:45 | N | Sheer wall 80-150', then huge sand bank sloping up. Nice to relax in sand at top of wall. Tried to blow rings, not too hard. Stingray in sand, trunkfish, zillions of garden eels. |
| 131 | 12/10/95 | Hot Springs | 62 | 0:46 | N | John D. & Tram with us. Students on last training dive w/Trina saw big shark. Relaxing combo of patch reef & boulders. Neat spiny puer, spotted drum, 2 turtles at end. |
| 132 | 12/11/95 | Twilight Zone | 105 | 0:36 | N | Painful pinkeye from yesterday cleared up just in time. Extraordinary seamount/pinnacle w/tons of swarming fish on top. 3 sharks cruising around us the whole dive. Big turtle under ledge at end. Many black jacks. Down to 3 mins no-deco. |
| 133 | 12/11/95 | Tent Wall Deep -> Ted Ran Wall | 72 | 1:03 | N | Nice drift in pretty strong current. Big 'cuda, great little turtle on top of wall @end. |