Saba

We ventured to the little visited (relative term here) island of Saba. It is an old volcano having last erupted 5,000 years ago. The island is small with about 1,500 people living on it, 400 of whom are students in the medical school. There are no beaches and other than the recently constructed small boat harbor on the southern end. Until the southern harbor was built access to the island was via a stone stairway carved into one of the cliffs. Larger vessels would anchor offshore, send in their tenders that would come within 50 feet or so of shore and then people standing in the water would hand goods to land and then carry them up the staircase that rises about 1,500 feet.

The anchorages around Saba are nearly all untenable and unfortunately we had a north swell running during our visit of about 8 feet which made the calmest anchorage on the north west side more like a roller coaster as we hung on to our bunks to stay in them. The first day there we did an island tour visiting all the different villages and getting a bit of history on the island. On the second day we hiked to the top of Mt. Scenery, about 3,000 feet, which happens to be the highest peak in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The buildings on the island are all picture postcard perfect with red roofs, white washed buildings and green/or blue trim. Extremely friendly people and the cheapest food and drink we have found in the Caribbean.

The roughness of the anchorages chased us away though, but with a great couple of days on an unforgettable island.

A sad note on departing was another family tried to land at the aforementioned old staircase but because of the north swell running were upended with the father/husband hitting his head and being seriously injured, ultimately requiring a medical flight out to St. Martin. We do not know the outcome as we left the same day as the accident but are wishing them well.

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