Hi allenwrench,
I spent 3 weeks on Saba in April 2007, staying at Scout's Place and diving with Saba Divers (
Saba Divers - Caribbean Diving and Scout's Place Hotel on Saba island : Your all-in-one resort on Saba in the Dutch Caribbean - Saba cottage rental! - Saba Divers und Scout's Place Hotel - Dive Saba, Saba Scuba Diving centre - tauchen und wohnen in d is the link to both). jefsan already explained how the diving works on Saba: You get a ride every morning from Scout's Place in the center of the lovely village of Windwardside to the harbor, can do 2 or even 3 dives per day by boat and get transfered back to the hotel.
I enjoyed Scout's Place a lot, I found especially the restaurant prices to be very reasonable compared to other locations; it was gorgeous to have breakfast overlooking the downward slope of the island and the sea; my room was very nice and clean; they had funny Karaoke events on Fridays that cheered up the whole crowd - small as Saba is, you meet the same people over and over again whereever you go to eat or have some drinks. A place I would definitely recommend.
Diving with Saba Divers was great: I liked their boats (not too big, so you don't go diving with a group of 20), dive briefings and guided tours were excellent; they offer Nitrox without extra charge if you are certified - especially for the "pinnacle" dives this is useful as the reef there starts only below 60ft, so you want to make sure you have some extended bottom time for stunning dives; the only thing you have to do yourself besides diving is to carry, rinse and hang up your wetsuit, everything else gets done by the instructors (they even set up your gear on the boat for you, which I personally don't like and didn't allow because I prefer to do it myself to feel comfortable; one word was enough and they let me do as I please). So also for the dive operation a big thumbs up!
The diving around Saba is very interesting - My favourite sites were Shark Shoal,Tent Reef, Man of War Shoal, Diamond Rock and the "pinnacles". I was deeply impressed of how many sharks I got to see on my dives; I've been to various places in the Caribbean and hardly ever saw sharks.
But if you go to Saba I recommend you reserve some of your time for one or the other really marvelous rain forest hikes you can do there! I saved this for the last day of my trip and would definitely do more if I travel to Saba again: The forests and landscapes you see are amazing, only the hikes are a bit exhausting because of long and steep ascents and descents around the Saba Mountain.
I hope this information helps you a bit, but whatever you do: Never let anyone catch your bubbles!
Greetings from Germany
Andreas
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