Saba and Sint Maarten

October 7-17, 2023

Saba

If you want to see amazing pictures, check out Mike's album for this trip. He has some incredible shots. I look at these and it's hard to believe it was the same dives!

Saba. This little island was actually on my list of places to visit not for scuba diving, but because it had the shortest commercial runway in the world. Then coincidentally, as I was planning for an autumn trip, I saw that my local dive shop, Diventures, was heading there in October, I figured this was a great chance to a two-for-one!

The resort, Juliana's Hotel, was a cute little hotel on Windward side, and the food at the various restaurants was all excellent. I really couldn't ask for more. Traveling with a group always has its pros and cons. For someone who travels solo, I like being on my own schedule and kind of doing whatever I want when I want to, but on the "pro" side, everything on this trip was basically taken care of. I didn't have to worry about meals, or transport, or anything. Just go with the flow. Although my "flow" on this trip would be diving, diving, and more diving. The "group" trip was for 12 dives (five 2-tanks, plus one afternoon, and a night dive). Yeah, I ended up with 19. I dove every afternoon, plus a black water dive, plus Mike and I went on Friday morning as well (the only two from Diventures did). I was talking about how after that Friday morning dive, it would only be like 18 hours till we flew, and one of the regulars joked: the plane only goes up a couple thousand feet... so about the same as the hotel.

As for the diving. Hmm. It was "okay", that's the best I can say. The week before this trip, Saba had hurricane pass by. This really churned up the oceans, so visibility wasn't great, and everything was covered in silt. On each successive day of diving, you could see the water quality getting better. The structure of the reefs and dives was good and the pinnacles would have been amazing if not for the lack of visibility. I felt Saba had a lot of potential that I didn't get to witness. A shame really. (The week after we left, another hurricane passed by, so I guess I need to count myself lucky there.)

Some notable dives:

Man, I love when the water is warm enough to skip the wetsuit! Sadly, before the first dive, I broke a fin strap, so was using rental fins the entire trip. They were ok, but I did just a couple of spots rubbed raw.
During the night dive we had some very large tarpon hanging out with us. Having large fish circling nearby in the dark was kind of crazy. When I first spotted them it was a shock, but after that it was fine.
My first black water dive. Like the rest of the week, there was a lot of muck in the water, so it was still very cool, but could have been better. But at least if I go on another, I'll know what to expect and what to look for!
The first time I came up to the wrong boat! At the tail end of the dive, Rob, Jared, and I were following Josef, a Saba dive guide. He popped up saw "the boat" and headed to it and we just kept following. After quite a bit of finning, we were all thinking "This seems REALLY far". Otto, captain on the other boat, was laughing so hard when we came up. Josef didn't realize both SeaSabas boats were close-by. I'm not sure Otto will ever let him live it down.
On the final day, Mike and I went out for the morning dive. Apparently the currents and chop around the airport makes it unsuitable for diving, but everything was perfectly calm that day, so we dove near the airport. Some of the best visibility and diving of the whole week in my opinion. Richard, the dive guide, also filled a ZooKeeper to the brim with lionfish!
I have video (not posted) of me dropping my camera. I thought I lost it then Vicky saw it, so I swam down to 104' to go get it... whoops.

Anyway, a great time with a fun group from across the country (mostly Michigan and Georgia). Other than better visibility, I couldn't ask for more.

Sint Maarten

So rather than just heading home from Saba, I decided to take a couple days and relax on Sint Maarten. I figured I was already there, so why not. So the first thing that hit me after being on Saba for a week: being at sea level it was 10-degrees warmer than Saba, and much higher humidity. It was brutal out. The second thing I would find out: being off-season and with no cruise ships in port, Philipsburg was a ghost town! I had planned to do the "Flying Dutchman", the steepest zip-line in the Caribbean, but it was closed for maintenance! Half the places in Philipsburg were closed. I went to the (famous) Dutch Blonde Beach Bar to have a Dutch Blonde ale, their microbrew, and they were out until the next shipment. So looking at it one way, the Sint Maarten portion of the trip was kind of a bust. A combination of timing, and lack of motivation on my part really.

On the other hand, it was very relaxed and I reveled in my beach time. The Divi Little Bay Beach Resort was nice, although the rooms were a little dated, but the beach itself was beautiful and calm. I should have rented some snorkeling gear, cause they had some good looking snorkeling spots nearby. I did manage to get out to Maho Beach, the famous spot where the jets come in right over your head, which was fun.