Dive Review of Sea Saba in
Saba

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Sea Saba: "Great diving in the unspoiled waters around beautiful Saba island", Sep, 2023, by D Esslinger, PA, US ( 2 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 12782 has 2 Helpful votes.
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Had a vacation booked in St Maarten with morning dives about half of the time and was looking for some additional activities to do while there when I stumbled upon a reference to diving in Saba. Intrigued by the fact the entire island is circled by the Saba Marine Park where all marine life is protected. Immediately went and looked at the Undercurrent reviews of Saba. Based upon the positive reviews of Sea Saba I decided to book a 3 dive day with them and I’m so glad I did. Took the short flight to Saba and was met by the Sea Saba van driver Anthony. Anthony was friendly, told us about Saba, and did a great job driving the narrow streets of Saba. He dropped us off at a wonderful bakery where we got coffee, breakfast and a packed sandwich for lunch. After we finished breakfast he picked us up and drove us to the dock. We boarded the boat Fin & Tonic. It's a custom dive boat that's well laid out for diving with easy water entry and a sturdy ladder for exiting the water. It was very well organized including boxes labeled for each diver with their equipment and plenty of room to store personal items. My box contained my rental regulator, and weights. They had me try on my rental BCD to ensure it was a good fit and then put it and the regulator on my Nitrox tank. Their rental equipment was in good shape and they had extras in case something didn’t fit or work properly. After a safety orientation of the boat we were off to our first dive site Diamond Rock. A good overview of the dive site and marine life was provided by our dive master Svenja. Advanced divers could swim their own profile and everyone was encouraged to keep diving until their tanks were down to 500psi. The water was a warm 85 degrees F so I just wore a dive skin. At the start of the dive we saw a small, perhaps 1 foot diameter shell, turtle and then a large, perhaps 3 foot diameter shell, turtle. We circumnavigated Diamond rock, a beautiful coral mountain, with many different types of coral, sponges and sea fans. Tremendous number and variety of colorful fish including many large schools. There were a number of spiny lobsters including a grouping of 3 at one spot. Saw a few sting rays and a few reef sharks swim by. The marine life I saw diving in St Maarten was good but this was so much better. Next we headed back to the dock to pick up another few divers and then headed out to our second dive site Tent Reef Shallow. A good overview of the dive site and marine life was provided by our dive master Aaron. At the start of this dive the bottom was sandy and covered in turtlegrass. Turtles obviously like this area as we saw over a half dozen turtles of varying sizes during this dive including one that was buried beneath the sand. Came upon a bunch of garden eels that went down into the sand as I got close. Saw a small moray eel swimming across the coral. Aaron pointed out an octopus that we saw walk, change colors and swim. There was an abundance of colorful fish throughout the dive. Another short ride back to the dock to drop off the divers that had signed up for 2 morning dives. We ate our lunch sandwich and then the boat left for our third dive site Man O’ War. A good overview of the dive site and marine life was provided by our dive master Svenja. This was another coral mountain with colorful corals, sponges and fans. We started at the bottom and slowly spiraled upwards enjoying the beautiful marine life along the way. There were many schools of sergeant majors, triggerfish and other small fish. Saw a large nurse shark through a coral hole. Came upon a spiney lobster party with 8 spiny lobsters. Waters were teaming with colorful fish including spotted drums, squirrel fish, wrase, butterflyfish, trumpetfish, and parrotfish. Saw a few queen angelfish and a barracuda. Near the end of our dive we explored the coral and beautiful fish at about 15 feet deep. While doing that a small turtle swam by within about 1 meter of us. After we got back to the dock we headed to the Sea Saba office to get a few souvenirs and then Anthony drove us back to the airport. It was up the mountain that makes up the island and then down to the airport. I enjoy roller coasters and as Anthony drove the narrow, winding road down to the airport it felt like I was riding a smooth steel roller coaster. This was one of the best, if not the best, organized and run dive operator I’ve had the pleasure of diving with. The informative pre-arrival communications, the great conversation and driving of Anthony, helpful dive master Svenja, amazing captain/dive master Aaron, and support from Chad and Katy in the office all made for an absolutely wonderful day of diving. Looking forward to scheduling a week in Saba for more great diving and to explore the island.
Websites	Sea Saba
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	[Unspecified]
Closest Airport	SAB	Getting There	Took the 7:05am flight from St Maarten's airport(SXM) to Saba's airport on Winair's 19 seat Twin-Otter plane. Note that you need to be at SXM 1 hour before the scheduled flight time. It's a short 15 minute flight to the world's shortest commercial runaway with beautiful views of Saba out the right side of the plane. Maximum altitude on flight there was 3000ft. My return flight was at 5:30pm and it flew lower with a 2000ft maximum altitude.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	85-86°F / 29-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	60-80 Ft/ 18-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By Robert (Dean) McCurdy in AB, CA at Dec 05, 2024 10:12 EST

Thanks for the report, I was on Sint Maarten in Nov 2024 and never thought of doing a short hop over to Saba for a day of diving, might of been a hard sell with my patient non-diving wife. Visiting Saba in Feb 2025 looking forward to the diving and hiking.

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Dive Review of Sea Saba in Saba

Sea Saba: "Great diving in the unspoiled waters around beautiful Saba island", Sep, 2023,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Sea Saba in
Saba