Saba Photography

Hello!

Heading down to Saba in August for 3 days of diving. I know the Pinnacles are nice and the visibility should be better than St. Marteen. I have to keep the kit light because of luggage restrictions. For those who have been there, if you had to take the wide angle vs. the macro set-up, which would you recommend?

Thanks for the help.

Best Wishes,

-JenFu

I don't know your rig, but IMO, definitely wide-angle, assuming you have a good strobe or two. Most of the ops do the deepest dives first thing in the morning, and it can get darkish down those slopes. But big schools of fish, potential pelagic fly-by encounters (especially @ Shark Shoal dive), and neat topography (Pilot's rock, Diamond Rock, Outer Limits, etc) with a lot of growth would point more to wide angle for me. Some of those (Diamond Rock in particular) make good 2nd and 3rd dives maxing around 70' depth, and in the sun they can be amazingly colorful. So still wide angle in my opinion.

You can expect vis anywhere from 100' down to 35-40' depending on the dive site (the shallower sites can be a bit poorer, weather dependent, especially if you're lucky enough to dive Green Island off the northern shore, which can be sandy but pretty cool). I haven't been there for years but I think we had one dive around 40' vis, but mostly 70' or above, and we were there roughly this time of year (although I see you're not going until August).

Are you staying longer in St. Maarten around the Saba trip? One thing the wife and I did that does sort of cost, but helped with luggage, is we got a good 2-week long deal on a place to stay in St. Maarten and kept it even while we were in Saba for 3 diving days; that way we could take absolute minimums for the flight to Saba. Of course I didn't have a DSLR rig back then, but one of the couples were were diving with had one and he took great advantage of it. Got some wonderful shots.

Went to saba 2X,

You need to call the macro/wide angle lens per dive. I had opportunities of both during my stay, but each dive was predictable if u asked the crew.

I thought the viz was similar to St martin, but it could be we where a mile off shore in st martin and close to shore in saba.

Be careful of winair;

First Year, i checked in my gear in St Martin, when i landed on Saba my luggage(dive gear) was not on the plane. The baggage handler said "we did not think you needed it"

Second year; they lost our reservations. Even though we had a confirmation printout, they would not let us on the plane. they claimed the flight was full. This was a good thing. We learned we like the ferry. overall the same time spent traveling, free beers and drinks on the boat ride, plenty of storage. When we arrived at the dive boat, we found other divers from the same flight. They said the plane was empty with only 4 passengers.

Check out www.mwdives.com for pictures.

Be careful of winair;

 

First Year, i checked in my gear in St Martin, when i landed on Saba my luggage(dive gear) was not on the plane. The baggage handler said "we did not think you needed it"

 

Second year; they lost our reservations. Even though we had a confirmation printout, they would not let us on the plane. they claimed the flight was full. This was a good thing. We learned we like the ferry. overall the same time spent traveling, free beers and drinks on the boat ride, plenty of storage. When we arrived at the dive boat, we found other divers from the same flight. They said the plane was empty with only 4 passengers.

They sound as bad as Liat (they loosely consider themselves an airline). What did you think of your accommodations while on Saba?

Saba accommodations run from very nice (and pricey, e.g. the Princess Juliana or the Gatehouse) to super eco-inexepensive (Momo Cottages, may be under new ownership and name now: solar heated showers, no AC, rooms about as big as a bed with a foot or two clearance all the way around ).

The one thing you will do on Saba is climb a LOT of stairs, whether you book a taxi to meet you and shuttle you from place to place, whether the dive op supplies transport, or not. There's precious little horizontal anywhere on the island.

I stayed at scouts which is tied to saba divers. I would recommended both. Rooms are clean and decent size. Saba Divers; nice boat and crew. Crew lets you dive on your(kind of) own when they trust you. When Winair screwed me, they loan(free) me new decent gear for the dives without gear. Boat was very large for the amount of people we had(8-12).

Saba brings back wonderful memories. We stayed at an inn across the lane from a vegetarian restaurant, which was excellent. We were there several years ago in August... no AC and didn't need it, at night I wore a sweater!! You walk everywhere and it is beautiful. Saba is one place in the Caribbean with altitude, about 2000-3000 feet and always a breeze.

By the end of our week there, we knew half the island and they knew us. We dove with the chef from the restaurant we ate at the night before, we saw our "taxi" driver in the Carnival parade... it was just laid back and great. And the diving was good too! That was the last time I ever used a film camera, it mysteriously flooded on the last day, just n time to buy my D100. What a shame! :-P

I hope you enjoy Saba as much as we did!

Fletcher

Thank you, everyone, for all of the helpful replies. We will definitely use the ferry instead of flying. We'll be staying a few days in St. Marteen too.

Really appreciate all the help.

Cheers,

-JenFu