Saba and Statia- ‘Two Thumbs Up’ 👍🏼👍🏼

With Grand Fond in our rear view mirror, we turned our heading south and west toward a rock we hardly knew.   People said ‘it’s just a rock’.   ‘The dingy ride is over a mile’.   ‘We didn’t like it.   Don’t go!’ We went.   Brooks and the kids certainly saw and appreciated my excitement .. even though it was just a short day sail from St Bart’s to Saba, it seemed that Kong and the shroud of clouds would delight even our spoiled souls of St Bart’s.    We took our south west heading and full sail and romped downwind at almost 8 knots toward a huge rock. It’s affectionately known as The Unspoiled Queen and is the first in the chain of leeward islands that brush the clouds.  A rock that would provide some exhilarating yet finger waving at our crew.    We sailed the entire way to Saba and approached our anchorage of Wells Bay.   Sheer cliffs that drug directly into the ocean from 3,000 feet above.   The anchorage was awesome.    What we didn’t know - what we couldn’t know, other than the written words in the guide book, is that the SCUBA diving in the area was forbidden - unless you had Jacques Cousteau or some relative of his accompanying you. We awoke with a $2,500 attitude toward the waters off Saba.   The clear blue seas coupled with our children’s affinity for the water plus we had enough dive equipment to sink, or dive, anything around us.    So, we did what most ignorant Americans do / ask questions later. We saddled up all the dive equipment for Brooks and Charlie and even Mills.  We did a 30 second refresher or learner course and off we went.    Sank Brooks and Charlie at 40-50 feet and good luck!!! They came back 24 minutes later - impressive bottom time.   But alas - we found that bottom time was in fact a “pay to play” -type situation - to the tune of $2,500 / person! As we snapped the three or four pictures of our divers, an official Saba dive boat approached.   They came along side and said, “do you have a Saba guide?”   I thought, the local map guide?   That wasn’t enough.   They proceeded to tell us that we were going to be reported to the United Nations and that our passports were being shredded.   So - we all rinsed off, hopped aboard the dinghy,  and headed to immigration and customs to confirm these rumors.    We got to immigration, checked in and inquired on how to get to town. They insisted that hitchhiking is the best way, but then the two fully uniformed Dutch ‘Politie’ offered to drive us themselves. Must have been a slow day in the office, a chance to get away for a moment while coming across quite gracious.  They drove us to the town of Windward Side and gave us some cool facts about the island along the way. We learned that Saba has the shortest commercial runway in the world and that it is also the highest peak of any land in the kingdom of Holland. We also saw the medical school. We then made it to Saba Dive shop and got legit - I signed up for a dive with them at Diamond Rock - and then proceeded to explore the beauty of the 2,000 person town on a 3,000foot peaked island.    No matter that the immigration officer himself said that the people of Saba were such good drivers considering the amount of alcohol they all consumed before driving the switch back style roads.   After preventing any type of international incident with the divers coupled with the gregarious border patrol guards - we headed to the grocery with thoughts of sugar plums and mayonnaise in our heads.    With the advice of immigration, we began talking a big game about hitchhiking.    We assembled our groceries and laid out our thumbs.    A kind and knowledgeable medical student at the grocery shared that if we got $60 worth of groceries, they would give us a ride anywhere on the island.   It’s only 5miles in any direction.   $78 spent. Boom.  They, in fact, did take us to our dinghy, see picture with Phillip.    We really enjoyed Saba.  The Diving was 10/10, the island has its own true charm and the falling cliffs at Wells Bay will not be forgotten - but, alas, we hardly knew yee.   Statia or St Eustatius was in our sights next.     I did my dive at Diamond Rock Thursday morning, January 23, and then we all headed north of Saba to make some way upwind in a south east direction or dead upwind passage to Statia.   The forecasted SE winds at 15-20kts were every bit and the seas coming a little more from the south made the 20 mile trip a bit lumpy.    Full main and a reefed jib was giving us 7.5-8knots upwind and we were sailing well.    After a full day of sailing, we arrived with about 18 photons of light shinning upon the earth.   We weren’t late, but as the photons dwindled quickly from 17, 16,15...we hooked on to the last mooring in the field and then it was dark.    Statia is an interesting island - it was the first nationality to officially recognize the United States as it’s own country - November 1776 - by firing a welcome cannon to an American ship in the harbor.   We were excited to visit the history and relevance of this small is

land  - in fact, after the Exxon Valdez incident, all oil imported to the USA, comes through Statia.     We headed to the dingy dock and lunch.   We were OTW to the fort atop the hill and my thumb hadn’t even been extended before a vehicle pulled over and asked us if ‘we needed a ride.’    And as I was ‘blinded by the light, wrapped up like a...’ we got in.    He told us all about the island, the museum, the grocery stores, the fort, his dogs illnesses and that his power bill was too high.   The 8 minutes we 5 were together - was incredible.    He dropped us off at the fort and we dipped our feet in some abstract American history.    We then went to the museum where Brooks caught up on her fine arts theatre international style by having an interesting conversation with the dance and art Director at the local high school.   They discussed budget constraints and teaching and administration at the school.    Definitely got some pointers for some Caribbean influence in Eastern NC! After some truly great time in Oranjestad, the main town at Statia, we headed to the hills!    The Quill was our destination.    The Quill is the name of the dormant yet incredibly distinct volcanic crater atop Statia.    We were walking, very uphill (kinda a theme with these volcanic islands) and after about 3minutes of that, we all stuck out our thumbs - a truck stopped within 1 minute.  They took us to the base of the Quill - and we began.    After a Rocky Mountain high style hike, we made to the crater rim and the top of the Quill. (No one in flip flops 😃 ) We could see Saba, St Barts, our neighbors in Greenville- we were on top of the world!    As soon as we made it to a paved street - thumb - to grocery.    Then groceries assembled - thumb - ride back to dinghy dock.    All the rides, all the people we met in those cars - some with kids, some with broken windows and some without any lights or mirrors - we met some gracious people at Statia for sure - but our time was marching on.   We ended our night at the Gin House, an excellent establishment on the water with views that lasted a lifetime.     St Kitts and Nevis were just down the road and we said good night to Statia.