Saba is the sort of island King Kong might live on. We are used to islands with a lot to do at sea level, but Saba’s hills rise precipitously from the sea and look impenetrable. There is one small stretch of sea-level living area on the south side of the island, but the ocean swell and rough seas make it untenable; therefore, we just stopped there for a short time to clear in and then made our way around to anchor in Ladder Baai (
N17 38.100 W63 15.360). Ladder Baai is so named because of the staircase, called “The Ladder”, which takes you 700’ up to a town called “The Bottom”. Why is a town perched atop a 700’ cliff called The Bottom, you ask? Probably because it is at the bottom of the 3000’ Mt. Scenic. Other than “The Bottom” there is another town on the island called “Windwardside”, which is on the windward side; there is a road which runs between the two called “The Road”. Things just don’t get any simpler, well, except for the years before the 1970s when all supplies to the island had to be brought up that darn ladder to The Bottom.
We arrived on Sunday, and were pleasantly surprised to find the harbormaster ready to clear us in and take our money and the national park office open and ready to take their share as well. We were anchored by 2pm and took our own stab at climbing that never ending staircase for some exceptional views. The Bottom is another friendly village with winding streets and red-roofed Victorian cottages…half the towns in the Caribbean are this West Indian style, but the Dutch influence seems to put the final touch on it with particularly clean and manicured domestic and public areas. Even the hotels here have the same quaint construction rather than looking like the overwhelming resorts on other islands. We came back down the ladder near sunset, the view taking our minds off our legs, which were quickly becoming noodles.
Monday’s hike ended up being a 7 hour trek on several hiking trails up to the top of Mt. Scenic. Mt Scenic is a cloud forest and it was very interesting to climb our way through the arid hills and the mossy bird-filled woodland to the moist and dark forest atop the mountain. The hiking trails are interesting as well; the trails are either typical dirt tracks through the woods but they can also be the old paved paths that folks used to get from town to town before The Road was built in the 1950s. Some of the paved trails appeared to be the only way to access some of the houses there. Paved or not, most of the trails were quite steep and a little tricky and we were happy we had our hiking boots and poles. We were pooped by the time we made our last steps down the ladder and ended the day relaxing in the water on our noodles (the pool toys, not our fatigued legs). We were so charmed by it we decided to stay for another day and spent Tuesday hiking, shopping, and just plain lounging around. We stayed one night too long; however, as we spent a sleepless night being rocked terribly by a relatively small ocean swell in windless conditions.
On Wednesday morning we were off on an exhilarating close hauled sail back to St. Martin for some requisite wifi access, blog publishing, long talks with home, and calm nights in the Lagoon. It is unfortunate we didn’t have time do any diving while we were in Saba, since that seems to be the main tourism industry in Saba. There are more dive operations there than any other island we’ve been to and I’m assuming that the diving must be brilliant. Well, I guess we have one more reason to return to the Caribbean again!
Saba is the sort of island King Kong might live on. We are used to islands with a lot to do at sea level, but Saba’s hills rise precipitously from the sea and look impenetrable. There is one small stretch of sea-level living area on the south side of the island, but the ocean swell and rough seas make it untenable; therefore, we just stopped there for a short time to clear in and then made our way around to anchor in Ladder Baai (N17 38.100 W63 15.360). Ladder Baai is so named because of the staircase, called “The Ladder”, which takes you 700’ up to a town called “The Bottom”. Why is a town perched atop a 700’ cliff called The Bottom, you ask? Probably because it is at the bottom of the 3000’ Mt. Scenic. Other than “The Bottom” there is another town on the island called “Windwardside”, which is on the windward side; there is a road which runs between the two called “The Road”. Things just don’t get any simpler, well, except for the years before the 1970s when all supplies to the island had to be brought up that darn ladder to The Bottom.
We arrived on Sunday, and were pleasantly surprised to find the harbormaster ready to clear us in and take our money and the national park office open and ready to take their share as well. We were anchored by 2pm and took our own stab at climbing that never ending staircase for some exceptional views. The Bottom is another friendly village with winding streets and red-roofed Victorian cottages…half the towns in the Caribbean are this West Indian style, but the Dutch influence seems to put the final touch on it with particularly clean and manicured domestic and public areas. Even the hotels here have the same quaint construction rather than looking like the overwhelming resorts on other islands. We came back down the ladder near sunset, the view taking our minds off our legs, which were quickly becoming noodles.
Monday’s hike ended up being a 7 hour trek on several hiking trails up to the top of Mt. Scenic. Mt Scenic is a cloud forest and it was very interesting to climb our way through the arid hills and the mossy bird-filled woodland to the moist and dark forest atop the mountain. The hiking trails are interesting as well; the trails are either typical dirt tracks through the woods but they can also be the old paved paths that folks used to get from town to town before The Road was built in the 1950s. Some of the paved trails appeared to be the only way to access some of the houses there. Paved or not, most of the trails were quite steep and a little tricky and we were happy we had our hiking boots and poles. We were pooped by the time we made our last steps down the ladder and ended the day relaxing in the water on our noodles (the pool toys, not our fatigued legs). We were so charmed by it we decided to stay for another day and spent Tuesday hiking, shopping, and just plain lounging around. We stayed one night too long; however, as we spent a sleepless night being rocked terribly by a relatively small ocean swell in windless conditions.
On Wednesday morning we were off on an exhilarating close hauled sail back to St. Martin for some requisite wifi access, blog publishing, long talks with home, and calm nights in the Lagoon. It is unfortunate we didn’t have time do any diving while we were in Saba, since that seems to be the main tourism industry in Saba. There are more dive operations there than any other island we’ve been to and I’m assuming that the diving must be brilliant. Well, I guess we have one more reason to return to the Caribbean again!
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