Diving

SABA Rain Forest

All diving starts at the harbor which is , to say the least, an exhilirating drive from the resort.

The airport is on the far northeast corner of the island with an incredible ‘road’ cutting back and forth across the slopes to get up to the resort. Then, it’s a hair raising run down the other side to get to the harbor. Just a note - the roads drawn on the map are NOT exxagerated - they really are that crazy. And remember - after the dives, you gotta get back up there!

The volcanic eruptions over 5000 years ago left Saba with a unique set of dive sites - the Pinnacles. This is what Saba diving is famous for. These huge spires of leftover lava rise out of the deep nutrient rich waters offshore to within 90 - 100 feet of the surface, and they abound with life due to the nutrient rich water boiling up out of the depths. I would love to show you all the marvelous photos of the pinnacles, but, unfortunately, not only was the water visibility about 20 feet the day we went, but that was the dive I was destined to have two camera malfunctions at the same time - both still and video! Needless to say, I was not the happiest camper on Saba that day. Due to the weather, that was our only shot at diving the pinnacles that week, so, guess I just gotta go back.

As I said previously, Saba has a very rocky and steep shoreline. This tends to carry on into the water giving limited areas for shallow diving. One of the prominent such areas is Man - O - War Point and Diamond Rock which lie very closely together but are two very distinctively different dives. By far, the favorite dive site for our group was Diamond Rock which we returned to three times during our stay. Diamond Rock is essentially a small pinnacle which sits in 80 feet of water and projects upward about 50 feet out of the water.




	The shallow reefs are all very similar with all the usual suspects lying about.

It’s unfortunate, but there is always some bad news these days. The area around Saba throughout the West Indies is experiencing a lot of bleaching of the coral. I heard all kinds of normal explanations for it from sewage runoff to global warming and everything in between. The coral polyps are seemingly quite healthy but they are all bleached out white. Nothing else in the food chain seems to be unhappy either. One of the possible causes is actually the underwater volcanic activity. Below is a photo of one of a multitude of patches of sand which have turned a brownish green from the algae growing in it. The algae is growing because of the very hot water and chemicals (notably sulphur) rising up through the seabed into the sand. If you stick your hand into the sand, you can not only feel the heat from below, but you can actually stick it in far enough to reach an uncomfortably hot layer. Just a reminder of how volcanic and fragile an area like Saba is.


	SABA Rain Forest