A Whale of a Crossing – St Barth’s to Saba to the BVI

Saba

While we hated to end our wonderful stay in St Barth’s, it was time to go back to Tortola, BVI to have the boat repaired (the damage from the boat that hit us before Christmas). Rather than go directly to Tortola, we decided to swing a little south and spend some time in Saba (pronounced Say-ba).

While running downwind, wing and wing (one sail to the left and one sail to the right) to Saba, a large humpback whale came up just in front of us. After a quick change of course, the whale just missed Berkeley East and we passed with the tail under our bow.

Saba is a very small, steep island and has about 1,000 residents. We found the people to be very friendly and proud of their island home. It the cleanest and best kept island we have seen so far. Daily, the one road through the island is swept by hand to keep it clean. The road winds through little villages where the houses are all painted the same colors, and it is so steep that there are many sections where cars have trouble getting up the hills.

We decided to take a hike up Mt. Scenery, the extinct volcano on Saba. It is 2800 feet high and the trail contains dirt and mud paths, as well as 1062 very large, steep stone steps. The volcano creates its own weather and the top is typically shrouded in clouds. On a clear day, there is a great view from Antigua to St. Maarten. Unfortunately, when we finally got through the ankle-high mud and reached the top, the clouds had rolled in and we couldn’t see the other islands. It was still a great hike through a beautiful tropical rain forest and was actually very cool when we got to the higher elevations.

Saba is known for its scuba diving and we weren’t disappointed when we dove along a beautiful wall that was full of colorful corals and sponges.

Saba does not have any natural harbors, so we anchored in the lee of the island. While the volcano provided a good break from the wind, there was little protection from the waves. After two and a half extremely rough nights and a weather forecast of approaching large seas and high winds, we left Saba at 1:00 am for what we thought would be a 15-hour passage to the British Virgin Islands.

FAIR WEATHER BOAT

The sky was clear and we had a three-quarter moon to light the way. With about 17 knots of wind off our stern, we reefed the main and genoa, and settled in for a comfortable sail. The weather front we were trying to avoid quickly caught up with us and we found ourselves surrounded by squalls. In the end, we arrived in Norman Island, Tortola three hours ahead of schedule after dodging more than 20 squalls, proving once again Mary’s theory that Berkeley East is a “Fair Weather Boat”.