Up and Into the Volcano

We requested taxi driver Eddie from our previous visit to Saba - he's from one of the old families on the island. He was waiting for us on the dock early the next morning. We were all blurry eyed a bit due to the increasingly rough seas during the night. After the morning's weather report we knew conditions were deteriorating and we would have to leave by 1 PM. This unhappily would cut short our plans for the day. We would still climb the volcano but couldn't do more sightseeing and have lunch there.
The drive was beautiful and rather hair raising. Hair pin turns, a very narrow road that drops off a thousand feet straight down, all contributed to a carnival ride experience at times.
Eddie left us at the start of the trail and we were quickly off. Unlike the more barren hills near the sea we were now in the rain forest and jungle. Vegetation crowded up to the edge of the mostly concrete path or in most cases steps straight up. Up and back should take us three hours we were told, so we'd have a little time afterwards for seeing Windwardside, the small village near there. Eddie would pick us up at noon for the trip back.
The kids were off like a shot but I'm going to admit that I was comparitively slow. In fact I had a hard time. I've been having health problems and haven't been eating much. More on this in a separate blog later. The scenery however both distant and close up was spectacular. We didn't see the kids until the top of the mountain by which time they'd already explored the three different paths that lead to view points from the edge of the old crater.
Two covered benches allow for a civilized rest on the way up but there are lots of boulders for a quick stop. At the top the views are outstanding. You can judge this yourself in some of the photos here but take my word for it, the reality is much better. And, everything is so green and sparkling. Last time we did this hike it was more mysterious as there was fog which parted now and then to reveal the views but this time the air was crystal clear. Shadows from the few clouds created darker patches of soft blue on the ocean. We hated to leave the top but our chariot awaited below!
After a quick walk around the picturesque village (oh we wish we could have spent more time!) it was back to the boat. The wind and waves had increased considerably and our little dinghy managed to get us back (but not keep us dry). Now our problem was where to go. Or rather where we could go in any degree of comfort. We all wanted to head for St. Bart's or at least Iles Forchue and we started out pointed in that direction, but the wind, waves and current didn't agree. It was clear we'd be bashing up against all three and unable to use our sails if we went that direction. So we changed our heading reluctantly to port and went back to St. Martin. After one night there we were able to sail with a better angle up to the Isles Forchue - more to come in the next blog entry!

Saba, a Caribbean Shangrala

Scott and I spent two nights at Saba our first trip through the Eastern Caribbean and it has remained one of our favorite islands. It is unlike any other island! See our previous blog entry for a lot more historical information about the island. But I will add or repeat a few facts here. Saba has 5 sq. miles of land and it's volcano Mt. Scenery is the highest point in the Kingdown of the Netherlands. It has 1350 residents and 300 medical students when the Saba University of Medicine is in session. There is a lot of new home construction on the island, possibly second homes for off islanders. As a result there appear to be a lot of new residents, mostly young couples with children. Many of them were playing and swimming down at the landing when we arrived.
Our first afternoon we checked into the country (pretty easy as they are associated with St. Martin, part of the Netherlands Antilles as is St. Eustatious (Stacia), Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba. Saba has chosen to become part of the Netherlands and is scheduled to do so this October. Some of their leaders have been trying to have it both ways recently but I believe that due to their hesitancy to give up power. Eighty six percent of the population voted to join Holland.
We first organized our trip the following day. As we planned to hike the volcano we arranged a taxi to take us up to the trail head and back. Scott and I were familiar with the steep roads and trails from our last trip. The volcano is over 3,000 feet high and feels pretty much straight up so starting higher up is GOOD. After that we started out up the road to the first community of Bottom. Pink flowers cascaded down the hills in the protected valley where the road climbs, but above that they appear desolate where they are exposed to the ocean wind. Goats, chickens and roosters scramble all over.
The road is an engineering marvel all built by islanders and designed by a local man. It corkscrews up the hill with lots of tight turns. After only about 20 minutes a car stopped to offer us a ride. Scott and I took it and the kids were then able to run up (well not quite but they were moving a lot faster than us). Once they joined us we wandered all over looking at the charming homes, streets and alleys. Farther from the ocean the hills are covered with vegetation and short trees. It's a jungle up there!
A beautiful Catholic church was decorated with murals around the alter featuring obviously local people depicted along with religious scenes. For example in the picture on the left look for the two charming children taking their first communion on the right above the arched door. All three of the villages are hobbit like cute. Most of the homes are white with red roofs and many with green trim. Everyone has a garden. All too soon the sun started to set and we walked down the road. Again in two groups we dinghied back to our boat for dinner.
The next day we'll be climbing the volcano, but for that, check out the next blog!

St. Martin; Sean & Courtney arrive

We arrived in St. Martin's with plenty of time before Sean and Courtney's arrival. Our good friends Linda and Ed (shown here below right) were there on "Dreamtime" already. It had been years since we've seen them and had been planning to get together for some time so it was a lovely reunion.

We left Georgetown in the Bahamas together almost five years ago and sailed down the eastern Caribbean with them the first time. We had several days of visiting and then they came over for breakfast the first morning of Sean and Courtney's visit to meet them.
We anchored at Simpson's Bay on the dutch side just in front of the drawbridge to the Lagoon and then entered the next day.

We were in a line up of many boats, many of them super yachts (that's Heather skippering through the drawbridge above). The previous time we anchored in Marigot Bay on the French side, a cheaper alternative, but as Sean & Courtney were flying in to St. Maartin, we made the decision to pay up, about $70 including the bridge fees.
We anchored not far off the airport. During our whole time there we had many mostly short showers and a number of beautiful rainbows (see above left). Scott brought the dinghy into the Turtle Pier bar/restaurant and walked over to pick them up. It was an unusual experience for them to walk out of the airport with their baggage and into a dinghy!

Luckily it was a nice night and they were soon at the boat eating a good dinner. This was a four day holiday Easter weekend and we thought Customs & Immigration wouldn't be open so the next day we exited the drawbridge and anchored in Simpson Bay so we could swim and snorkel. The water wasn't very clear but we got to see quite a few fish and some fun squid! Of course our very pale guests slathered themselves with sun tan lotion but even that couldn't protect Sean totally. The curse of being a red head. Good news the next day when we found Customs open and were able to clear out. The anchor was right up and we were off.

We had planned to head to St. Bart's but the weather was looking so good as we set sail that we turned the wheel around and headed for Saba. Boats can only visit Saba when it's relatively calm as there is no protected harbor on the island. The land basically goes straight up from the ocean. Only about 30 years ago the islanders built a small protected landing

spot and built a road from there up to the four small villages; Bottom, Windwardside, Hells Gate and St. John's. Most visiting boats pick up one of the deep water moorings either off the landing or on the west side near the old customs house. Saba can be seen from St. Martin on a clear day

and it looks like you're going to get there any minute until you finally realize how tall and steep it is - and how far away. You can see the rugged cliffs here in the two photos. In the second look in the water on the left and see how small the super yacht looks in contrast. We anchored in the second area at first and in two shifts dinghied down

to the landing. This turned out to be a little too exciting! Going downwind wasn't too bad but the trip back was rough. By this time too the boat was bouncing around pretty wildly. We decided to move the boat down to the area off the landing site. Courtney and I waited on land while Scott and Sean went back to move the boat. There was only one mooring left and after they left we noticed two boats sailing over from Stacia. It was a race to the mooring.
We stared at the edge of the cliff willing "Scott Free" to show herself. The other boats were clearly winning. Oh no!
And then they passed the mooring by! Thank goodness they decided to check out the other moorings first - poor guys. Our men charged around the island (that's them passing the breakwater here) and grabbed that empty mooring. It was a much more protected spot and much closer for the dinghy.
More about Saba and the rest of our trip in another posting!

Hiking Saba and then on to St. Eustatius or Statia

The next morning, still at Saba, we arranged for taxi driver Eddie to pick us up at 8:30 AM at the dinghy landing. We started the hike up the old volcano, Scenery Mt., at 9:30 and visited all three viewing spots at the top and in the crater. The clouds parted long enough at each one - great luck. The flowers and vegetation were worth the trip alone. Some sections required ropes to help you climb up! In the pictures here you can see how spectacular the scenery is! Happily the dense vegetation and the clouds which hang over the summit most of the time kept the temperature down and our walk was very pleasantly cool. Pictures here show the trail with Scott and I, plus the views down to a boat traveling by and to Bottom,
one of the small villages on the island. Later we visited the charming museum detailing their history. Men on this island have sailed all over the world and many rose to captain their own ships. The women then and now made lace! Their beautiful lace pieces are famous and they're still tatting on today.


Our next island, Statia, was very attractive but not in the same league. It's a quiet rather sweet place and the walk up the volcano, called The Quill, was nice but very hot. It is drier and has less variety in it's vegetation until you get in the volcano itself and there are only a few distant views. This island has a big history however During the mid to late 1700s Statia was the
trade capital of the Indies. From one to two hundred sailing ships lay at anchor off the shore where a sea wall protected a long street of shops and warehouses. All this is gone now, destroyed by war and hurricanes. The beautifully paved roads leading down to the shore are still in perfect shape however and many of the walls higher up in the now existing town center. The snorkeling over the old sea wall, now under water, was excellent. The moorings at the town are rather open and we had lots of swells. This sets the boat rocking - an uncomfortable feeling. We set a stern anchor to face us into them and that really helped.
Several years ago rogue waves from a storm way across the Atlantic came suddenly in the middle of the night here and several boats out on these very moorings were thrown up onto the rocks in just minutes - a scary thought! We try not to dwell on stories like these and those of pirate incidents. The chances of this happening to us are about the same as an uncoming car on the highway crossing the medium strip and hitting you head on. What's the sense of worrying about that? Besides, see that rainbow over the island below - always a good sign!

Both these islands are Dutch and pictures of the royal family decorate many homes. They are part of the Netherlands Antilles, part of a commenwealth group with Holland, Curacao, Bonaire and Saba. Recent votes were held in all of these countries and Statia, Saba and Bonaire decided to become part of Holland. Curacao voted to become independent like Aruba. Recently they've been reconsidering that opinion and may have another vote.

Saba

It was somewhat rolly on our mooring off Saba but not too bad. We got there late the first day and planed to check in with customs at the little harbor the next morning. We first tried to land our dinghy at Ladder Bay Beach, but couldn't see how steep it was, and when we landed, the waves crashed over the transom and swamped the boat.



Luckily Scott managed to push it beyond the waves and hold it there chest deep in water while I spent a half hour pumping the water out. Our outboard was OK thank goodness.
We were exhausted so we snorkeled around Wells Bay to recover and cool off - beautiful with caves and tunnels. - and after lunch went back to the harbor.

The road from there was hand-built and only finished in 1958 - like all the roads on Saba, it is very steep and narrow. People stopped and picked us up several times on our journey up through the small charming towns of Bottom and Windwardside. Two were medical students at the International School of Medicine, rated, we were told, fourth out of the 32 Medical schools in the Caribbean.
Imagine! We then walked all the way back to the landing, around 3 miles, mostly straight down, as it was late in the afternoon and there were very few cars. Our legs were protesting! The homes are almost all white with red roofs and with either green or soft red shutters and somewhat Victorian in style. We stopped at a small museum to pick up a trail map. We hoped to hike up to the top of the volcano and into the crater. The volunteer there suggested we have her husband, a cab driver, pick us up in the morning and take us to the trailhead, an excellent plan. More about the hike on our next posting!

St. Martin to Saba

We had great luck in the Anegada passage (the stretch of water between the British Virgin Islands and Saint Martin), sailing all the way. For a change our biggest problem was slowing the boat down so we didn't get there in the dark. The first part of our trip, down Drake's Passage between the Virgin islands to Virgin Gorda was one of the prettiest we've seen. We had our motor on 1/2 hour out of 20! During the night we talked to Dreamtime, Vagamundo, September Song and Evening Star. We anchored at Marigot Bay on the French side and it's lovely.

That first morning, still early, Scott was in heaven when he noticed our neighbors skinny dipping. His clothes were off in a flash and he was overboard!
Everything is colorful and combines the Caribbean and French culture to perfection. Our French is so rusty but unlike the Parisians, everyone is very kind and encouraging. An inlet with a small draw bridge leads into a huge totally protected lagoon. This picture shows a small marina with boats permenantly on the hard. Many had families and retired couples living on them. We went into the open air market Saturday morning, shopped and took lots of pictures. Clothing, fruits, vegetables, every kind of fresh spices in profusion, meat, fish, and unbelievable bread and pastries - all in very attractive and clean stalls along the waterfront. And the supermarket has a wall of cheeses, pates etc. that make picnics inevitable.

Sunday we rented a car for the day and circled the island. The weather wasn't great, mostly overcast, but our lunch at a beachside French resterant was fabulous! On another note, it's true that "naturalists" (nudists to us) are everywhere - including our own boat. We, of course, visited the nude beach after that wonderful lunch.


We also drove over to Philipsberg on the Dutch side of the island. There's a big difference between the two halfs. The Dutch side is packed with condos, high rise resorts and the capital city, although charming too, is frantically busy with tourists. The cruise ships land on this side!
As soon as the weather calmed down - it has been very squally - we headed southwest to Saba.The island is so small and yet so tall that it seemed to take forever to get there - we saw it from far away! We had an amazing time in Saba - this is my favorite island so far. It's a fantasy novel setting - a real Shangri-La. We spent two nights on a mooring at Wells Bay - gorgeous site, cliffs straight up around us. Saba is only 5 square mile but reaches 3000 feet. Houses perch in seemingly impossible positions on the edges of precipices. Until the early 40s Saba was almost inaccessible. Everything had to come and go via a set of 800 steps cut into the rock face.
Men stood chest deep in water to unload cargo, including a bishop and a piano (fun fact). In this last picture, especially if you double click on it to enlarge, the stairs run diagonally right about two thirds of the way below the white customs house, then drop straight down. That customs house is half way up the stairs! Until a small harbor was built in the 50's where you can land your dinghy, very few boats came there. Even today there are only five moorings in deep water off the island for cruisers. We tried to land our dinghy at that rocky beach shown in this picture but it was so steep the waves swamped it. Scott stood in that chest deep water holding the dinghy while I pumped out the water. It took a long time.

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