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.
