havecarryonwilltravel

Our last day on Saba is a non dive day. Feels weird not to dive. We hike up to one to the hills for a view of Windwardside. The hike is up steep mossy steps in the forest, the view is wonderful.

We laze by the pool, nap, go “downtown” to settle our dive bill and do our shopping. Easy day.

As we sit outside the bakery eating lunch, I notice that almost every vehicle that passes by has scrapes on the side or corner of the vehicle. The roads here are so narrow and are bordered by stone or concrete walls, that it is easy to accidentally rub against them. Murray and I decide that if we were to drive here, we would choose the tiniest car available!

Saba is a very unique island. Living in a “mountain” setting but going down to the ocean every day to dive. We both have enjoyed our stay here and will one day return. Good bye Saba, until next time!

Another last day blog. It doesn’t matter how many time I travel, the last day is always a sad one. It seems as if we have been here always, the routine is easy, get up eat, dive, dive, back to base, shower and eat, do the blog, rest, eat, chat and sleep. How can this be bad??? Some might not like the simplicity but I can live with it. Tomorrow is a hike day, we will replace ‘hike’ for ‘dive’ on the routine, and see what that brings.

Regardless if the hike turns out, it is sad to finish diving. Our last two dives are just what we require. The first dive is one of the signiture dives on Saba, Diamond Rock. It is a deeper dive. Most of it is 85 ft. There are two coral pillars quite large in diameter with a ton of wildlife. Dive two is a repeat for Debbie and I, Tent Wall. I really like this dive too. The wall is interesting at any depth and off the end of the boat mooring there are several coral heads that house an abunance of things to look at. A prefect way to finish diving.

The climate here is such that we need tomorrow to dry our gear, so even though normally we would dive to the last day, because wet gear weighs a ton and we are slightly overweight as it is.

I really like the diving here. I learned to find a couple of new fish. Slender Filefish, he hides in very wavy golden colored coral. If you see him don’t take your eyes off him, just stare and wave at your buddy, if you blink he will disappear into the coral and you will not see it again. The other thing I find often is Fireworms. Have found them before but they are in abundence here. There is no too much unusual here but the diving is really consistant. On every dive site the reef is in good shape, there is lots of fishies, and tons of color. Two of the dives we had horrendous current but the others were peaceful, easy adventures.

We will be back underwater soon and we know the dates, so it is not overly depressing but as I said above, it is still sad to say good bye to our sea friends.

Interesting place this Saba. There is basically one road. From the north-east end of the island up to the top and down to the south-west side of the island.

There are a few branches of the main trunk but roads there are few and the roads are all very steep. The flattest is about 300 M across the saddle between two peaks in the village of Windwardside. The views from most places is stunning when you are not surrounded by clouds and moisture.

The days around here are quite calm. There is the occasional cooing of a dove or two and maybe a dog barking but both are rare. There are not too many cars but because there is only one road there is minor conjestion but that only means you may see three cars go by in a bunch. After darkness falls though is a different story. The sun goes behind the mountain and the tree frogs start to crock and creak and whistle. The noise constant and really quite loud. The symphony will continue all night. I suppose if you let it bother you it will but if you just let the random sounds become background, the white noise of it all is very soothing. This calm will soon be broken at dawn when the roosters start to tell you it is time to get up. Cock-a-doole-do is not a gentle way to be awoken but hell it’s daylight so you might a well get out of bed especially since the rooster will eventurally win the battle.

The folks here are all very friendly. Almost simple in that respect. They have absolutely no barriers that might inhibit a stop in the middle of the street conversation. We know absolutely no one yet anyone yet everyone we meet wants to know how are day is going, where we are from, how the diving is and what we think of the island.

Today is delivery day. There is a big ship moored at the dock and there is major hub bub off loading semi loads of goods and distributing them all over the island. Everyone waits in anticipation to see if what they have ordered from the mainland has arrive. It might be a new TV, a computer, something as utilitarian as a fridge, or it might be new car. If it is not on this boat, oh well, after all we are on island time. Maybe it will show up on next weeks boat.

Today after diving we are doing the shopping tour.  Beside the two grocery stores, a couple of dive shops, a hardware store, there are 5 tourist type shops. They sell Saba t shirt, shorts, souveniers of all kinds, a small bit of fancy clothing, and some high end jewellery. Even though one of the stores is up a steep (22+%) side street it takes of all of 1 hour to complete our entire tour.

Yards are not the quite the same as they are in our home town. They are more ‘natural’. The ‘grass’ is a cover of green plant material not the ubquitous carpet of fine bladed green material as it would be in the northern climes. On our way up to the jewellery store we walked by a fellow cutting his lawn, Saba style.

If you want to ‘get away from it all’ Saba is a place to do it. There is not much to do here, you can dive and you can hike but for the most part you ‘chill’. There are not hoards of tourist types and the whole place is laid back. You can come to Saba rest up and go home without any of the built up tension you arrived with.

Trunkfish are one of our favourite fishes. They are triangular in cross section, spotted and have big eyes and cute lips. They search for food by blowing on the sand and then gobble up lunch. This is what an adult looks like…..

We are always in search of juveniles. They juvenile trunkfish is very special as it looks like a dice. They are hard to find because they are so tiny and they flit around under neath corals, never staying still long enough to be spotted.

Today, K makes the big find and spots one on our second dive. He is gorgeous! I take six photos hoping that one comes out clear and recognizable. If you look closely you can see his eye and his nose.

Isn’t he cute! What a find!

Today we are headed to the dive site Saba is famous for, the Pinnicles. Most of the sites are close to shore and within 10 minutes boat ride from the harbour. Today we travel 11 minutes and we are maybe a kilometer where the water meets the land. More in the “middle” of the ocean but hardly.

The test rope is dropped over the edge and things look like a go. The current is hardly moving. We are set to go to the mooring point at 90 ft. and proceed down to 110 ft. our maximum depth. As this is deep and there are quite a few of us we are to descend together. In tight fomation we follow the mooring line headed for our destination. At 70 ft. we encounter a bit of resistance, by the time we hit 90 ft. we are making no headway what so ever. Kicking harder and more determined gets us to the coral head but it is tough work and at 90 ft. air in the tank is drained very fast. Does’t look like this dive will be very long. A, the dive master makes an executive decision and we abort the dive. All present and accounted for except 2. Every one is quite pragmatic about the whole thing. Still we are missing 2. At the surface we spot the two missing folks at the next mooring bouy. All is good and chalk up another interesting experience.

The next dive is on the side of the island considered to be “rough”. The surface is a bit choppy but underneath is as smooth as silk. There is no current and only on the safety stop do we fell any surge.  A relaxing dive, very different than our first one.

Debbie and I do a third dive today, “Hot Springs”. Another relaxing dive with no current and plenty of sealife – turtle, crabs, lobster, lionfish, damselfish and cowfish. The second two dives definately make up for the first dive.

You never know what you are going to run into and it is OK to mess with extreme conditions at 50 ft. but at 90 with a variety of folks with different skill levels it is a great call to abort the dive. Life is full of suprizes and it is good when all turns out well, all the divers end up back on the boat and everyone of us will learn from our experience.

The colours are remarkable underwater. From far away the pinnacles at the dive site called Man o’ War are dark looming shapes with monochromatic colouring. Get within a couple of feet, the colours pop out and they are fantastic.

Bright reds, oranges, yellows and greens fill my camera lens. When looking out towards the deep, blue is the predominant colour.

The fish are every colour combination. Black and yellow, black and white, green and orange, silver and yellow, black and neon blue.

The corals and sponges are crisp yellows, burnt orange, gold, mauve.

A colourful day.

Murray and I enjoy seeking out miniature creatures under the waves. It takes some practise, patience and moving very slowly to spot them. Here is some of the tiny wild life we discovered today.

Yellowline Arrow Crab

These tiny creatures move about and carry on while we photo and video them.

Lettuce Leaf Slug

Hermit Crab inside his home

This hermit crab climbed out from the rim of this sponge and down the side. Perhaps going to meet his crab friends for beer and pizza?

Anemome with shrimp inhabitants

Inside this anenome there are a number tiny tiny shrimp living. They are dark red and white and only about a half inch long. As the aanenome moves in the surge, we spy the creatures deep inside their home.

Today brought many miniature creatures. Wonder what tomorrow bring bring?

The second day of diving is always much better than the first day. The morning nerves are gone that appear on that first morning. Our breathing is more relaxed, our buoyancy is almost back to where it was when we left Kona in November.

We are finding the unusual fish we love to discover.

We are taking more photos. And, sometimes, trying to be arty doing so.

We are enjoying the colours, corals, crustaceans and comraderie of fellow divers. A good second day.