On 7th June I travelled to the island of Saba about an hour and a half by boat from Sint Maarten. Travelled aboard the Dawn II, otherwise known as the Heineken boat for obvious reasons.
Dawn II, or the Heineken boat.
On a pretty rough crossing with waves breaking over the boat and running off the rear of the roof I put my backpack behind me to protect it from the water. Unfortunately I must have bounced against it rather hard as when I went to use it later I found that the screen had broken. That's two broken screens not, the one on my tablet that I managed to break at Gatwick and now the one on my brand new laptop. Just waiting for the third :-(
Had a couple of days diving with Saba Divers. First dive was off Diamond Rock, then a few more sites along the southern side of the island. Saw turtles, a shark, an eagle ray, a school of Tarpons amongst many other fish and plenty of coral although plenty of that was damaged due to the hurricane that passed through a few years ago. Takes a long time to recover but sea grass is growing back which is attracting the turtles and other larger marine life.
Diamond Rock, colour courtesy of the avian life.
Reef Shark
Turtle
Saba is an odd place. I is basically a large dead volcano, inactive for 5,000 years so not dead but just resting, in the middle of the sea. Steep cliffs all round. The only flat piece of land has the smallest airport in the world which is at the mercy of the weather. Many flights delayed or cancelled due to wind in the wrong direction, so I was told. Prior to the harbour at Fort bay being built all goods had to be brought to the landing jetty below the customs house and carried up the cliff by way of steps cut into the rocks.
Old Customs House and steps.
The other very odd thing is that ALL the buildings are white with red roofs. It is not a law or rule or any such thing BUT if you have a roof of a different colour you would be shunned by the population of the island, or so I was told by Eddie at the Swinging Door pub (very good ribs on Tuesday and Friday)
All the red roofs.
