Sea Saba Dive Trip Report #1 – Hole In the Corner

We had an excellent day of diving with our favorite Saba dive operation, Sea Saba. A little background, I am a newbie diver with just shy of 30 dives. Nevertheless, I do have my Advanced Open Water & Nitrox certifications, being a typical over-enthusiastic learner. Joel has over 100 dives and is a certified Dive Master. Tucked in the back of his mind is the option of becoming a scuba instructor.

What got us hooked on diving? I’ll be sharing our first dive experience with you as part of our “Why Do You Dive?” campaign & contest. In the meantime, I wanted to mention a few things that attracted us to diving in Saba.

The first thing I noticed was during my PADI Open Water class with Sea Saba. The instructor was excellent – not only helpful and informative, but upbeat and friendly as well. She made us feel comfortable and ready to hit the ocean for our first dive. The same was true in our advanced classes. All of our instructors gave us the skills we needed to be calm and confident – and were a lot of fun too!

Dive Crew
The Sea Saba dive crew are excellent! Lynn and John have a knack for hiring responsible, yet fun-loving people to run the boats and lead our dives.

Our Crew For Today Were:
Dick, Vivi and Alex

Divers

Joel and I have met some of the nicest people on our dive trips. We keep in touch with several of them and have become lifelong friends with some (hi Tom & Myrna!).

Our Fellow Divers For Today Were:
Craig & Jean (from the US), Bill & Linda (from the US), Bill #2, Rob (from the US), and The Wolfgangs (from Germany)

Craig & Jean and Bill & Linda met right after September 11th in Bonaire. Since then, they have become very close friends. They are a very friendly and boisterous bunch, who were fun to have on the boat with us. This group has a funny story on why they call Craig, “Mr. Yummy!” We probably don’t have permission to tell you here, but if you see them on one of their frequent dive trips to Bonaire, ask them yourselves for a laugh!

Okay, so now for our dive trip:

Dive Geek Stats
2nd Dive – At Saba Marine Park Dive Site #25: Hole In The Corner
Boat Ride: 15 – 20 minutes
Experience Level: All levels
Recommended Max. Depth: 75 feet
Current: typically none or light, to west
Snorkeling: yes, when sea is calm

Dive Site Information
For shallow dives, this is a good choice whenever conditions on the leeward side aren’t favorable or when the seas are not so choppy on the windward side of the island.

The site has large boulders encrusted with Elkhorn Coral (shallows) and large head corals (intermediate depths). Among the head corals, exquisitely colored mountainous star coral (ranging in color from grass-green to soft mauve) and giant brain coral are common. You will also find pillar coral, large sea fans and other gorgonians.

For sponges, you can expect to see mainly encrusting species such as the brown velvet sponge and chimney sponge, a few barrel sponges and yellow tube sponges. Thankfully, there was relatively small damage from Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the reefs have recovered beautifully.

On The Fishy Side
We saw plenty of good stuff on this dive – Bermuda Chubs, schools of Barracuda, French, Queen and Grey Angelfish, White-spotted Filefish and smaller groupers like Coneys, Graysbys and Red Hinds. Of course, we also saw Hawskbill Sea Turtles – these creatures never cease to amaze me as they fly through the water. Thankfully, we get to see plenty of them whenever we dive in Saba.

The Best Dive of The Week!
When we got back on the boat after this beautiful dive, one of our fellow divers said, “That was the best dive all week!” It was a great dive and Hole in The Corner is one of my favorite sites as well. While you can do a buddy dive in either direction from the mooring, it is typically a westerly dive. If you do a buddy dive going east, you can go around the corner to see big block becoming more fused – sometimes with small caves and tunnels and golden disk algae.

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