Wells Bay, Saba

The Doyle cruising guide puts the Leeward Islands into three categories: "The Renaissance Islands" (Anguilla, St. Maarten, St. Barths), "The Islands That Brush the Clouds" (Saba, Statia, St. Kitts/Nevis, Montserrat), and "The Islands of Mountains and Mangroves" (Antigua/Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Marie Galante, Iles des Saintes, Dominica). As we approached Saba (SAY-ba) this morning (after a fantastic 30-mile sail. That's right -- look ma, no engines!) we found the guide's description pretty spot on -- the island is an extinct volcano that rises steeply up from the ocean below to the clouds above. There are no beaches here, most of the shoreline is just a spectacularly high wall of volcanic rock. There are also no great anchorages here, as the ocean floor drops off very close to shore, but the country's Marine Park has installed 7 or so moorings for traveling yachts to pick up. After the crowded lagoon in St. Maarten we are now sharing the peaceful anchorage with only four other boats -- we are definitely off the beaten path.

We dinghied in to the tiny harbor to check in with immigration and the marine park (there's a fee to use the park and moorings) and picked up a taxi to take us to the other side of the island. Saba has two main towns: the Bottom, and Windwardside. They are connected by "The Road", as there is pretty much just the one road on the whole island. Prior to 1943 the residents here walked or rode donkeys on small mountain paths. Engineers from Holland surveyed and determined that there was no way a road could be built on the island, but one determined Saban took a mail correspondence class in road construction and over the course of 20 years the road was designed and built by hand. All the locals helped build the thing using cement and wheelbarrows -- no modern equipment. The end result is a twisty, curvy, hair-raising road that is just barely wide enough for two cars. It makes for a pretty dramatic cab right, that's for sure.

Windwardside is a sleepy little town that seems like something out of a foreign film. First of all the island is so small that everyone knows everyone else (there are only 1600 residents), and secondly there must be some sort of town planning committee that only grants building permits to people who want to build quaint stone cottages and gingerbread-like shops. We walked around the town for while and after having a drink at Scout's Pub we decided to head back to the boat and call it a night.

Where we are:
Location=Wells Bay, Saba
Lat=17 38.251
Lon=63 15.425