how to get from st martin to saba

[pammyk]

Me and my husband and a couple friends are going to St. Martin Oct. 2006. We traded our time share. I've heard on this board that it's not the best diving but definitely not the worst. Someone did say that the diving in Saba is better. How do you get to Saba from St. Martin? And when you say it's not world class diving what exactly do you mean? I know I've been spoiled...we were in Bonaire last August...so now nothing will be as good as that. But actually, I've been to St. Martin but it was before I started diving. The island itself is fun and hopefully the diving won't be really disappointing. Please help me out. Thanks in advance.

Pam

 

[CSD1129]

To answer your questions:

- You can take either a ferry or a small plane (winair...they don't fly high so you can dive afterward!). Winair has flights almost (if not) every day. When I was in sxm in August Dive Safaris was discussing some sort of deal to saba with some divers. I'd email the dive shops and see who has a Dive and Fly deal... some do. By ferry, it takes 1 hour and a half. You may not won't to be on a boat that long...and crossing can be a little rough. ( the distance is approx. 32 miles) Also, if you use the ferry you have to arrange dives with Saba shops etc...could be more expensive and time consuming.

- Sxm isn't world-class diving. Meaning, it will never be considered a top dive destination like bonaire. Sint Maarten doesn't draw in a lot of divers like Bonaire/Caymans...etc. I think the diving is pretty good. There are some really great sites (Moon Haul is my favorite site).

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[wjbrandt]

Saba is very different than ST Martin. Contact seasaba.com. Lynn and John run a first class operation and will guide you through your transportation. The ferry is also called the vomit comet, I would fly. The landing and take off is outrageous. The island is beautiful. Of course the diving is very good as well.

 

[jdwa]

I wouldn't write off the diving in St. Maarten offhand. It may not be a dive "destination" but I have had some really nice, relaxing dives there. LeRoy French http://www.stmaartendiving.com/ has been diving since the 1960's and has a really nice operation with loads of personal attention. He has some stories to tell, too. He can arrange Saba diving for you, too.

 

[LindaBluedolphin]

I was there several years ago (98 I think), on a timeshare trade. I took the Ferry Over, I believe it was called the Edge (but don't quote me), the ride over was fine, no problem. I was not wild about the operator I used, they lied about dive profiles and bottom times. They told us we did not need to worry about keeping track of our bottom times they would do that for us.

Well I never got below the DM and somehow I had a deeper reading then he had, also his bottom times were not close enough to mine to make any kind of sense.

SeaSaba was on the other side of the island and I heard they were good. I only used the operator I did because that is where the Ferry took us.

Overall the diving was decent, no complaints, I went in the December time frame.

LindaBlueD