For sunset, we headed back around the northwest point, with a brief detour to Maho beach to experience the thrill of large jet aircraft passing just feet over your head or the sand blasting received as the engines rev up at departure.
Past the airport on the south side is Karakter's, a beach bar on Simpson Bay on a narrow strip of land between the airport and the water. The late afternoon crowd was lively and included talent from some of the local adult establishments. With planes taking off behind you and the water and sunset in front, this is a must visit spot.
Excitement and anticipation reigned Sunday morning as we awoke early and prepared for our trip to Saba for a couple of dives with Saba Deep. Catching the ferry (Edge II) about 9, we made the adventurous hour and 15 minute trip over as the seas started to build from the east. We were met by one of our dive guides, Mike, who transported our gear from the ferry dock to the dive boat, while we walked up to the shop. After a few introductions and some paperwork, including get our lunch order submitted to the restaurant above the shop, we walked down to the boat. Our gear had been set up, so after double checking everything, off we went. After a thorough boat/safety briefing and general "good diver behavior" sermon, we headed out. Given the ferry time over, we were joining for their 2nd and 3rd dives of the day.
The first dive site, Tent Reef, was spectacular. We got a site briefing on our ride out and were in our wetsuits ready to gear up and drop in when we hit the site. We had a bit of current that the crew did not seem to expect, so rather than a granny line we had to work our way to the down line from the mooring ball 30' or so in front of the bow. Waiting for the rest of the divers to assemble gave me an opportunity to relax and take in the coral heads around the drop zone. Our DM Gary and the rest of the crew assembled, we headed at 45 deg to the current and then slowly dropped over the wall, awed by the wall structure and dense life of sponges, gorgonians and fish - baslets, rock beauties, smooth trunkfish, honeycomb cowfish, queen angel, damsels, surgeons, parrots, wrasses and more. To our right, the wall continued its gradual descent into the dark blue of the deep, while a fantastic array of sea life surrounded us, scarcely noting our presence. As we started working back up the wall, Gary was motioning us to a coral head covered in sponges and fire coral. There, we waited in turn for views of the small, green longlure frogfish that had taken up residence. After snapping a couple pics, I started up again only to be waved over to a sea fan and its current inhabitant - a seahorse. What an awesome combo, and my first seahorse after almost 200 dives. From here we slowly worked back towards the boat, through a nice arch swimthrough, then finally to the safety stop as we passed a few lobster, squirrelfish and a scrawled filefish - current was strong enough at this point to have us flying like pennants from the line. It took a bit of work to get back to the towline and climb aboard.
A bit further northwest from Tent Reef, we dropped into our 2nd dive of the day at C Delight to virtually no current and an equally stunning site. A spur and groove formation with 15 to 20' or more of elevation from top to bottom, C Delight is a wonderland. Working our way through a school of tarpon, we hit bottom at 40' and slowly worked our way to 70' as we navigated a series of spurs and around a few coral heads covered in hard corals, sponges, gorgonians and soft corals. Fish life included the only 2 lionfish of our trip, plus large parrots (stoplight and princess), french and queen angels, a webbed burrfish, butterfly (foureye, banded and longsnout), hamlets, surgeons, tangs, sandperch, sharpnose puffers and others. It's the kind of site that makes you wish for gills. Another 51 minutes with a max depth of 75' and an easy swim back, our safety stop complete, we were aboard and headed back to lunch. The crew radioed in to have lunches started, and about 15 minutes later we were back at the dock.
I can now absolutely see why Saba gets a top 10 from so many folks. The combination of rock/reef structure, abundance and variety of marine life, and terrific visibility easily make this one of the best places we have ever dived. Add to that the great service from Cheri, Tony, Gary and Mike from Saba Deep and you have world class diving. I can't wait to go back.
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