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Mar 16th - Arrived in Ladder Bay at 4pm after a 6 hour beat to windward, maybe we should call the boat 'On the Nose'! Then as we we're tiding up the boat Tom forgot to cleat off the main halyard and it went up the mast. So we spent the next half hour with Tom standing on the boom trying to get it down it with our 2 boat hooks that we taped together end on end with duct tape! A humorous sight, I just wish I'd got a photo, oh and yes, we did get it eventually!
Saba is a unique island, it is a mere 5 miles across, and yet it reaches up to 3084ft. We anchored in one of the 3 anchorages, Ladder Bay, so called because of The Ladder, the name given to the 800 steps that lead up to the road to town. The main town is called The Bottom, or just Bottom. The other smaller village is called Windwardside, both apt names!
Mar 17th - We decided today for some insane reason that it would be interesting to walk up the Ladder and visit Bottom. So we motored to the beach in the dingy, and after getting wet and sandy, managed to tie it to a boulder. Then we clambered across the rocks that covered the beach and started our ascent up the steps. Being the people we are we'd also ended up doing this at 12 noon, so with the sun on our backs we climbed the switchbacks up the hill. Had a breather at the customs house at the half way point, and enjoyed the view, then continued on up more steps through the vegetation. We at last reached the top around 12:40pm and then walked up the 'road they shouldn't have built', another extremely steep slope, up to Bottom. The village was a pleasant surprise with winding roads and goats hidden in the bushes. We stopped at a family deli, had some homemade chocolate cake, then went and sat on the park and ate our lunch. After enjoying the cool shade and amusing ourselves by watching the goats fooling around we headed back. It turned out to be a bit of an adventurous day, and after motoering back to the boat we all went for a swim to cool down.
< The Ladder, looking a bit like the Wall of China, and that's only half
of it!
Bottom
Mar 18th - Raised anchor at 10am, we're sailing, yet again, to windward, on a SSE course to St. Eustatius (Statia).
