We sailed to Saba from St. Barths in January 2023. It was a straight downwind saill averaging 13 knots of windspeed and 3-foot swells. Our sail was pretty uneventful, other than having our dinghy yanked off our boat and having to rescue it at sea.
Any reading into Saba ahead of time will warn you of the rolling anchorage, so we decided to opt for an Airbnb for the two nights we would be staying here. It was our first time staying off the boat since November, and with how things had gone the last two weeks, we were definitely ready for some time away. We picked up one of the two first-come, first-serve mooring balls outside of Fort Bay, which are yellow with a blue stripe. While this side of the island was more protected from the swell, it was still very rolly. Thankfully, the mooring ball seemed to be in good shape and long enough to handle the wave size (unlike Marigot Bay in St. Martin). We let out a decent amount of line for both of our mooring lines and made sure there were even. This is not news to most cruisers, but you should always make sure to use two separate mooring lines that each connect to its own bow cleat. Check out our post about St. Martin if you want to learn why.
We were pretty nervous leaving Après Sail in such an unprotected mooring field, but we had faith in the mooring ball. Only our fridge and anchor light was left on, and we were curious to see how our batteries would handle the time away and not having much sun to power the solar.
Immigration and the Port Authority were still in their office, but the Customs agent was not there. We handled all we could for checking in and called one of the taxi driver numbers listed in the building. Cuchi picked us up promptly and took us up the crazy steep roads to our Airbnb in Windward. Our Airbnb was called Athlea’s Cottage and hosted by Jeffrey, who was very helpful in sharing recommendations for dinner as well as history about the island. We spent some time walking around the Windward, checking out the local jewelry and souvenirs as well as scheduling a scuba dive for the next day. Saba is well-known for its many dive spots around the island and is therefore frequented by several divers who spend a week here to visit as many as possible. We only had one full day here, so one dive would have to do.
We went to the Tropics in Juliana’s Hotel for happy hour. We had delicious coconut shrimp and cheap beers. Our bill was only $14! We then went to dinner at Brigadoon and had an amazing meal. There was a wide selection, so we ordered the locally caught lionfish, thai shrimp noodles, TJ’s Che-vre Normandy, and corn chowder soup. On our way home, we picked up some Ben & Jerry’s at the little market. We spent the rest of the night eating our ice cream and watching Netflix on a reliable signal.
The next morning, we woke up early to hike Mount Scenery, which is technically the tallest mountain in the entire Netherlands Kingdom. There are 1,064 steps if I remember correctly, and they are STEEP! It was pretty cloudy during our hike, which I am guessing is why it’s called the Cloud Forest, so we did not get to see any crazy views. We still loved the scenery and the lush tropical plants. We saw a cute cow and a few roosters, who seem to be everywhere in the Carribean. We don’t get to hike or walk around too much, so our legs were definitely shaking on our descent back down. It took us a little over 2 hours total, but we imagine if it was clear we would have spent more time at the top.
When we made it back down the mountain, we stopped at Saba Snack for some breakfast since it seemed to be the only thing open. I ordered a burrito while Roman ordered a bacon and egg sandwich. In all honesty, we did not love our meal and did not feel a need to come back to this one. We went back to the Airbnb and took a much-deserved nap until our dive.
Sea Saba has a retail store in Windward, so we met there to be picked up by the free taxi service that drives the divers down and back from Fort Bay. Roman tried stopping at customs before the dive (and afterward), and the customs agent was not in. We were able to rent all equipment from the dive shop and were in a group of about 10 divers and 2 masters. My o-ring blew on the boat, and one of the dive masters fixed it quickly for me. I was a little nervous after that since this was my first time diving not being in a course with a lot of direct attention, but I knew I would have to get used to this for diving in the future.
The dive spot we went to was called Tent Rock. It was about 40 meters deep and we spent about 35 minutes in the water. I did not like how big the group was, as it seemed like some of the people had no awareness of others and would kick and float on top of you without even knowing. Roman and I stayed in the back and had a lovely time checking out the colorful coral and huge fish. We saw a black grouper, tons of massive yellowfin tunas, two sea turtles, and plenty of other exotic fish. If we were staying longer, we would have done way more dives if the sea life was like this. It was amazing to see such a healthy underwater environment.
We stopped at Island Flavors in The Bottom on our way up the hill for a salad and Mexican sandwich, which were pretty yummy. We were just starting to walk up the hill when one of the dive masters who also works at the Port Authority drove by and offered us a ride to Windward. He was super nice and friendly!
For dinner, we went back to Juliana’s Hotel to have dinner and happy hour at the Tropics. Dinner was delightful. We had some lobster escargot for an appetizer, delicious pasta for our main course, and finished it off with a delicious brownie.
The next morning, we met our pre-arranged taxi driver at 7:30 and he drove us down to Fort Bay. We had been told that the customs agent would be there at 8 am, but he did not show up until 9:30 am. Roman dropped me off at the boat to get the engine running and start charging our batteries, which had fallen to 80%. I was so happy that we had not been on the boat for those two days, because the rocking threatened to cause seasickness pretty quickly. Nothing had fallen or broken while we had been gone, which was a relief to come back to. After successfully accomplishing the daunting task of taking our outboard off the dinghy, we were on our way toward Statia.
We would definitely come back to Saba someday, but probably not on our own boat. We were lucky to have picked up one of the two available moorings, but the fact that it is unprotected and not able to be seen from the main villages is scary. However, we loved the friendly people, safe environment, tropical greenery, and delicious dinner food. It’ll be interesting to see how Saba changes by the time we come next!
