Saba Recommendations

[sagibson]

I’ve seen people do day trips on Saba and fly back the same day but I personally would not. The dives do tend to be deeper than your average reef dives in the Caribbean and it’s not worth the risk for me. I don’t know how long your trip is but I’d encourage you to spend a couple days. The diving is great but the combination of diving and above the water is what makes it truly unique and awesome.

 

[Sauropod8]

Thanks for the replies, that's what I thought. We are on saba for 3 days and want to dive and hike. If our only option back to SXM is to fly then we will have to make that day the hiking day. I have no desire to be a guinea pig and ruin the rest of our holiday!

I didnt think a dive in the morning and fly back at 5pm was right, especially if something out of the ordinary happened on that dive then we would be stuck. It's a shame about the ferry timetables changing!
Thanks again

 

[sagibson]

Where are you staying for your 3 days? Come back and let us know how your trip went.

 

[Sauropod8]

Where are you staying for your 3 days? Come back and let us know how your trip went.

It's the 'expensive part' of our trip so we are staying at Juliana's. Fly over on Friday morning first thing and hoping to get a dive with Sea Saba Friday and Saturday. Then we hope to hike Mt Scenery before going back Sunday afternoon!

Thanks, will do!

 

[Mod63]

Just wanted some reassurance that people do this. Apparently the flight doesn't go over 12,000 feet and lasts 15 mins.

That should be 2000ft. There was a paper about Saba, diving and flying a couple of years ago, I'll try to find and post it.

 

[tursiops]

That should be 2000ft. There was a paper about Saba, diving and flying a couple of years ago, I'll try to find and post it.

2000 instead of 12000 COMPLETELY changes the picture.

Some of the information you need is in Tables 9-6 and 9-7 of the US Navy Diving Manual Version 7.

Example: you do one dive on the day that you fly, and it is the only dive within the 24h preceeding the flight. Assume the dive is on air, to 60 ft, for 60 mins. That puts you in Pressure Group (Table 9-7) K. According to Table 9-6, you should wait for 15h35min before ascending to 8000 ft.

The example assumes a square profile and air. A multilevel profile and Nitrox will make things better.

For 2000 ft, Table 9-6 says the wait-time is 2h3min.
In fact, if you can stay in PG J instead of K, the wait time is only 41mins.
and in PG I or below, there is NO proscribed wait time.
You can drop from K to I (in the example) by limiting your BT to 50 mins instead of 60 mins.
So, diving in the morning and flying in the afternoon (to 2000 ft) IS doable.

 

[Mod63]

not the full report, but an abstract D.A.N. Report - Saba

 

[tursiops]

not the full report, but an abstract D.A.N. Report - Saba

That is a self-serving report based on old information, from 1991.
Current recommendations are based on a 2002 DAN study, report from DEMA attached.
Also attached is the full DAN Workshop report, from 2004.

Also attached is a 2014 research study that looked at bubble scores -- notoriously hard to interpret -- prior to flying, after a 24h prefight SI.

 

[Sauropod8]

Oh wow, okay. Perhaps we are best to stick to hiking the day of our flight anyway but thankyou for the info!

 

[Spizeck]

I’ve seen people do day trips on Saba and fly back the same day but I personally would not. The dives do tend to be deeper than your average reef dives in the Caribbean and it’s not worth the risk for me. I don’t know how long your trip is but I’d encourage you to spend a couple days. The diving is great but the combination of diving and above the water is what makes it truly unique and awesome.

The flight to Sint Maarten after diving is no big deal. The hotels are only a few hundred feet lower than the airplane gets during it's 12 minute flight to Sint Maarten.