Shelter-Less Saba

Until the early 1970's Saba was thoroughly inaccessible. Everything had to come and go via Ladder Bay. This extraordinary landing on the leeward shore provides scant shelter from ocean swells. Some 800 steps are cut in the rock. The steepness of the steps and their elevation can be appreciated by looking at the old customs house (pictured), which is only half way up.
Our Doyle sailing guide states: Like all good hidden kingdoms Saba doesn't come easily, and the cruising sailor who wishes to visit must be prepared to pay the price of frustration in the face of the elements. We visited in a "fresh" NE-E wind. We spent an uncomfortable night on a mooring ball off Saba's west coast. In the morning we thought we'd give the south shore anchorage (Fort Bay) a try. To our surprise it was even worse. Determined to see this unique island we hooked on to a mooring ball and made land.
With reports of increasing winds and warnings from the marine park, as well as our tour guide, of Saba's erratic sea and ground swells, we set sail at 1500 hours, with a 20+ knot wind on the nose for the shelter of St. Martin.
Sadly, we missed our chance to snorkel in Saba's marine park (considered the best in the Caribbean). This coupled with Saba's mystic will undoubtedly see us return.
Anchor to anchor - Saba to Simpson Bay, St. Martin - 25 miles (tacks not included) - 11 hours.

Saba "The Storybook Island" - Statistics/Enchantment

The facts about Saba are easy, the feeling of enchantment is more difficult to describe.
Imagine a fairytale picture of a forbidden land and you will see Saba.
In its mere 5 square miles it reaches a lofty height of 3,000 feet at Mt. Scenery.
Tall cliffs of red, pink and brown rise vertically from the sea.
Saba's 1200 residents are descendants of hardy Jamaican pirates (Dutch, Scottish, English & African). They are honest, industrious and cheerful folks with a strong sense of community. Their 2 spotlessly clean villages (Bottom & Windwardside) are home to many artisians whose crafts include Spanish "drawing thread handwork", blown glass jewelry, painting and pottery.
The "Saban cottages" are all identical - white washed with red roofs and green gingerbread trim.
Up until the 50's there were no roads on the island as Dutch engineers deemed that the steep terrain precluded the possibility of a road. Our tour guide, Garvin Hassell, told us how his Grandfather took a correspondence course in road building and together with the other Saban people, HAND-built the island's roads, over a 20 year period during the 40's and 50's. The resulting narrow roads wind up and down the steep mountain sides offering breathtaking views.
Imagine a land free of crime, almost no traffic, no pollution, impeccably clean, surrounded by a marine park that homes the Caribbean's best dive sites. The world is accessible to you and you to it but you set the terms and perimeters. A community where everyone co-exists in a peaceful tropical paradise.
Imagine Saba - a very unique, pristine gem - could this be the Caribbean's hidden Shangri-La?
"Once upon a time" is now - the enchanted isle is Saba - a real sleeping beauty.

Sea Star has Splashed

Our work was completed and we were ready to go back in the water one week after our return from Canada.
During that week we restored Sea Star's anti-fouling, her hull was washed and waxed, zincs were replaced as well as the packing in the stuffing box and her bilge was cleaned.
We were not familiar with the haul-out facilities in St. Martin when we pre-booked by phone, while in Trinidad. Upon our arrival we were surprised to find that Bobby's marina had 2 locations and we had booked ourselves in to their primarily commercial yard in Philipsburg, which is just down from the cruise ship dock.
While being "on the hard" was somewhat of a hardship for us due to mosquitoes, no refrigeration etc. we were in an excellent location for shopping as we were right in the hub of Philipsburg's extensive duty-free shopping area. This was perhaps what motivated Barry to get our "land" work done so quickly and we "splashed" into Grand Bay on January 11th, 2008.
While there, as we enjoyed our Sunday morning coffee, we were surprised by the St. Martin coast guard as they chose to board and inspect us.
This was a first for us but we happily passed their inspection.

Happy Holidays

We arrived back in snowy Ontario to find our home freshly redecorated and aglow with Christmas lights and warmth thanks to the hard work of our daughter Robin and son-in-law Matt. Three months earlier they took over as tenants from our daughter Susan and her friend Chris who had kindly rented and maintained our home for the previous 14 months. In September Susan, Chris and their dog Barkley headed off on their own adventure to Victoria, B.C.
We were thrilled that Susan was able to get the time off from her new employer to fly in and join us for the Christmas festivities.
This year we all got an early Christmas present when we heard the good news that our daughter Robin had secured her first full-time teaching position, to commence in January.
Although it was very cold and snowy while we were home Barry prided himself on never leaving 80 degree water (actually the hot-tub was 100 degrees plus).
This Christmas we felt truly blessed and cherished the time that we had together with our family and friends.

Hauled for the holidays

In preparation for our trip home to Ontario for Christmas we had Sea Star hauled out at Bobby's Marina in Philipsburg, Sint Maarten.
It had been 18 months since she last left the water in Penetanguishene, Ontario. During that time over 5,000 miles have passed beneath her hull.
She will lay "on the hard" while we enjoy the holidays with family and friends.
Upon our return we will apply new anti-fouling paint to her bottom.

Riding the Waves

There's a unique form of surfing going on in Sint Maarten.
A fence at the incoming end of the airport's runway separates it from a small strip of beach which is crossed by a single lane road. The beach is bordered on both sides by cocktail bars.
As the planes make their approach spectators get the rush of standing mid-beach, directly in the planes path as it lands a short distance past the fence, but the real fun comes when the jets take off.
"Surfers" stand, holding on to the chain-link fence, facing directly in to the jet's path of exhaust. Since mountains face the pilots at the other end of the runway they have no choice but to start close to the fence for take off. As they fire-up to lift off into the trade winds the fence surfers fly, holding on for dear life until the jet moves along down the runway. A flurry of flying sand adds to the excitement.
The enthusiasm for this dangerous thrill may be fueled by the nearby bars.
When we visited St. Martin 10 years ago we heard a story of a small car that was flipped over by the force of the jet exhaust but it appears the surfers are still enjoying their sport.
What a rush!

Olga was Ugly

We shared our time in the Simpson Bay Lagoon, St. Martin with a most unwelcomed visitor - tropical storm "Olga".
Her arrival was most unexpected and late as hurricane season was "officially" over November 30th.
On December 11th, 2007 she reached tropical storm force a mere 20 miles north of our location. She was named and moved in with all her squalls and high winds in tow.
Her arrival transformed the lagoon into a virtual skating rink with anchored boats slip-sliding about as they fought to hold their position against storm force winds
(35-40+ knots) in the grass over mud bottom.
The VHF radio was abuzz with reports of boats adrift - rescue efforts were on-going.
We endured more than a week of winds blowing in the 25+ knot range and constant squalls passing with associated higher gusts (35-40 knots).
Even after Olga moved on she left a trail of squalls behind her that lasted for many days.
Can't say we were sorry to see her go.

Passages North - Everything went "just swell"

As we sailed north along the Windward and Leeward island chains from Grenada to St. Martin we made three passages of longer duration.
The first was from Bequia, past St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Martinique to arrive in Dominica. Anchor to anchor - 37 hours - 150 miles
Our headsail halyard broke during this passage. After our repair on route we were unable to get the genoa to unfurl. This along with the diminished wind resulted in an overall average speed of just over 4 knots.
Our next major passage was from Iles Des Saintes, past Guadeloupe and Montserrat to arrive in Nevis. Anchor to anchor - 2l hours - 96 miles
We enjoyed an excellent sail in good conditions but did experience some problems along the way. We continued to have difficulty with the head-sail halyard, were rained upon for awhile, ran over a fishnet in the dark, got "slightly" lost and regretably were unable to stop in Montserrat as the weather made the north anchorages unsuitable and the toxic ash spewing from the volcano made the south anchorage unthinkable!
From Nevis we made our final run to St. Martin in near perfect conditions. This was a most pleasant passage as we sailed in the daylight and enjoyed viewing the 6 islands surrounding us as they were all clearly visible for the whole day - Nevis, St. Christopher (St. Kitts), St. Barthelemy (St. Barts), St. Eustatius (Statia), Saba and St. Martin.
We had an absolutely amazing sail, averaging 6.6 knots, during which Barry sighted a marlin as it flew out of the water beside us.
We arrived in to Philipsburg, Sint Maarten to find 4 cruise ships at the dock as well as the 12 metre past America's cup contenders racing in the harbour. (Canada 1 and 2, True North and Stars and Stripes) It was a thrill to anchor beside them for the night.
During all of the passages we endured a relentless swell from the north-east.
We sighted many flying fish, some sadly up close as they landed on our deck. We had many dolphin sightings as well as porpoises and possibly a pilot whale. As well, at night we were awed by the green, glowing underwater fireworks (phosphorescence) created by the bioluminescent micro-organisms dynaflagellates in our wake.
All in all the sailing was fantastic and the adventure was great fun.

The Saintes

As if the surroundings weren't idyllic enough in the Saintes, it was a delight to watch the brightly coloured Hobie cats as they played amongst the islands.
In contrast were the huge outboards that we saw on some of the local boats. One boat (approximately 25') had 2 - 275 horse power motors on the back (as if one wouldn't be enough)!
Possibly commuting across the 9 mile open channel to Guadeloupe might require the need for so much horsepower.
We haven't seen so much power since Trinidad.