All shops are located at the harbor in Fort Bay, and will arrange for transportation to & from your hotel for diving. None offer E6 processing, but the owner of the Brigadoon Restaurant in Windwardside will often do a few rolls if there's time & fresh chemicals in stock. Best to call ahead. Also accommodating is the owner of the little grocery store in Windwardside, who was gracious enough to extend credit when I didnt have enough dinero to cover a bag of snacks (be prepared for sticker shock). BTW, dollars are widely accepted & English spoken everywhere.
During my brief stay, there were daytime temps in the mid-80s & nights in the mid-70s, modest humidity and sunny to partly cloudy skies, water temps of ~80 & vis up to 100+ on the best dives. Needless to say, this made it an even greater pleasure to hit what is arguably the some of best overall diving in the Caribbean. The 30+ dive sites around the island are rock & sand rather than true coral reef ala Coz, TCI, etc., and nearly all moored. Diving primarily takes place off the leeward, western side. While Saba is sometimes portrayed as a deep diving venue, there are scads of good midlevel and shallower sites to enjoy. If you want high voltage, deep seamount/pinnacle diving, it's definitely to be had once the dive op is confident of your skills. The Twilight Zone, Third Encounter, Outer Limits & Shark Shoals start at about 85'-90' and run to recreational limits & far beyond. As well as deep diving skills, you will also want to be comfortable with the blue water navigation needed to reach them. At Eye of the Needle, I had a companionable hawksbill turtle keep me oriented on the blue return to the surface. On the Eye I saw a couple of good sized Caribbean reef sharks, which I suspect are residents of the area, hunting at ~170. The multicolored coral & sponge are quite healthy & striking on this massive spire, and I easily made a number of turns around it before hitting my personal comfort max. Although I am not a photographer, this site hits me as quite photogenic.
Even given a recently refurbished 4-place chamber right at the pier in Fort Bay, you obviously cant do this kind of dive 3 times a day. It is therefore a felicitous coincidence that there are many shallower sites, mostly running very close to the western coast, including Diamond Rock, Diamond Bank & Man 'O War Shoals in the northwest. A number of the sites can be fully enjoyed as shallow as 20' with their turtles, small rays, eels and juvenile tropicals. The excellent Tent Reef area (good for multiple visits, including night dives), and Ladder Labyrinth & Hot Springs (milder versions of Dominicas Champagne were the sand bottom is warmed by remaining thermal activity), can be found in the southwest. Around toward the southeast are Hole in the Wall & Big Rock Market. Sites are from 5 to 30 minutes from the marina on the south coast, and most rides are only about 15 minutes. Of the sites, Diamond Rock holds a special place in my heart. A rough rock formation extending from about 80 to above the surface (where its coating of bird guanao makes it glitter in the sun, hence the name), it allows the diver to gradually spiral up it. Swept by a healthy current, every nook & cranny seems filed with life, with the chain of predators ranging all the way up to barracuda. A good location for eels of various sorts, and another site load with marco photo opportunities. In my experience, the chances of spotting seahorses in Saba are better than average for the greater Caribbean. Overall the u/w scene was remarkably healthy & robust, with few remnants of whatever silting, damaged biota or other havoc Lenny may have caused. I did not do any snorkeling at Torrens Point off Wells Bay this trip, but if the self-guided Edward S. Arnold Snorkeling Trail remains undamaged, Id recommend getting a waterproof map from your dive shop & asking them to drop you off there.
Accommodations include the upscale and pricey, like Willards & Queens Gardens
http://www.queensaba.com/ . Smaller, good value places include the recently renovated Julianas with a variety of rooms, two cottages & an excellent restaurant, and Cottage Club
http://www.cottage-club.com/ over in English Quarter which has 10 cottages fully equipped for cooking & dining in. All have pools. Saba Divers has spiffed up the basic old Scout's Place & offers some attractive packages. If you need to travel on a tight budget, then check out El Momo Guesthouse
http://www.elmomo.com/ up on Jimmys Hill, where chances are youll share a bathroom & shower with other cabins, and the refrigerator & honor bar in the main house. Owners Gied and Els are good folk.
For overall value & hospitality, I recommend one the cottages at Julianas
http://www.julianas-hotel.com/english/index_en.htm in Windwardside. She & her husband, Franklin, are about the nicest people youd want to meet & will do everything to make your trip a pleasant one. Additionally, I like the natty, bistro-like décor at the on-site Tropics Café, and the couple of times Ive eaten there the food has been scrumptious & reasonably priced by island standards. Ive also stayed a Willards
http://www.willardsofsaba.com/ , which I found over-priced and under staffed with expensive & marginal quality food. In addition to my room being an uphill schelp (some fancier units are at even higher elevation) from the main building, it was right across from the tennis court where folks tended to play very early in the morning. Not the fashion in which I care to be awoken. However, the place does have a beautiful view, and the main building has a homey feeling to parts of it. Hopefully, its previously distant management (Washington, DC) is much closer now & things have changed, but I'd verify that before spending the considerable money involved in a stay here.
Cuisine around the island, once you tire of the ubiquitous goat stew, includes pizza at Guido's, Chinese at Saba Chinese Bar & Restaurant, and some unusual dishes at the Mango Royale on-site at the Queen's Garden Resort. I found many menus to be monotonously similar, and the food just so-so. Restaurants stock limited quantities of food, so have your resort make reservations in the AM so they know what to expect. Don't miss the Swinging Doors, which has a bargain barbecue on Tues and Fri nights. Personally, I liked the place better when it was just a funky old bar.
If you can safely work it around your dive-to-altitude restrictions, make the trek up Mt. Scenery, the central volcanic peak rising to nearly 2,900'. It is a nice, albeit strenuous, hike when views are not obscured by mist. Needless to say, it is best to do this before rather than after a week of diving. There are other networks of trails around the island that are well worth doing. The vegetation took quite a hit from Hurricanes Gilbert & Lenny, but is making a comeback. If you want to make a leisurely half day of it, can hike up the Windwardside approach, then around a small path to the Queens Gardens for lunch or a drink by their very atmospheric pool. If you do it on a Sunday, check out the Steel Pan Brunch. For the more ardent trekkers, there are marked & unmarked paths all over the island, and I suspect you could spend several days hiking them.
In summary, Saba is a quaint, quiet, largely undeveloped island with excellent attitude & diving, but no beaches (dont even ask about Well's Bay Beach) & very little shopping or nightlife. If you need casinos, fancy restaurants, motorcycle rentals and broad expanses of beach, remain on St. Maarten, instead.
Stay golden.
DocVikingo
