Mike:

I'd generally agree with your comments about the trip to Saba and not being the best to start a crew on...it was a necessary evil for us unfortunately.

The Tortola > Saba leg was our first lengthy run overnight (19 hours/85 NM) on this trip. Sitting in the BVIs and anxious to get down island, we had hoped for a more northerly (really, NE or even ENE) wind in mid May but no luck - it was nearly straight upwind (SE) and against the current. However, the swell was pretty easy - averaging just 3-5' as I recall. It was the first overnight run ever for all on board except me (my 82 yo father, my wife, and my son).

Frankly, it was pretty mundane and (really) easy though as always, it was a long passage to jam away under motor (we started under sail after clearing Virgin Gorda but wind was shifting southerly and I took the sails down once they started flogging) - so it was pretty much a motor the entire way. However, the general weather was good - we'd not have left BVIs without good weather other than a passing squall. We left VG at 1330 and arrived Saba at 0830 - perfect timing.

What wasn't apparent in the video is that Saba is NO place for the beginner sailor to stop. However, that's very clearly outlined in every cruising guide you'll read (and as you certainly know). What was interesting is that during the passage to Saba we crossed another sailing couple on their way back from SXM. They were Caribbean live-aboards and we told them on VHF that we were heading to Saba. They wished us luck and said they'd never been as they'd tried to get there at least 3 other times and they could never get off their boat and onto the island given the conditions. That made me more wary of Saba but I was prepared to continue all the way to Statia (another 20 NM), if necessary. In the end, we did make Saba and found a small patch of sand to anchor in the single anchorage on the island - very close to a $48M superyacht that had been recently washed ashore ("Elsa") about a month earlier due to a broken mooring amid rough conditions. (Several pictures of Elsa in the video: https://www.superyachttimes.com/yacht-news/48m-superyacht-elsa-runs-aground-in-saba)

While its an awesome place to visit, its a potentially treacherous anchorage and can be very tough getting on/off the island. There's a whole story about that but it wasn't documented in our video as I had no photos/video. We actually had to leave my father on the island one night after a dinner ashore because we had a very significant issue re-boarding our boat. We had to call a taxi driver around 9 pm from our boat and have him picked up and taken to a local inn - the only place with a room available - for the night. My father had given me his phone and wallet to put in my dry bag for the dinghy trip to the boat - the swell was so large that everything was going to get soaked and I was going to make a couple of trips to get everyone back to our boat. After one trip (with his phone/wallet), there was no way I was going to make that trip again - it was too dangerous and I had other issues to deal with on the boat with my wife and young son.

Its a great story now, but it could have been a very different ending. It was really the only time on our trip where I was very worried about my crew's safety. I've been in a couple of harrowing sailing situations in my life and this was the most serious. In the end, it all worked out fine.

Other than that issue, Saba is a just fantastic place - and I can't wait to get back there one day under better circumstances!

Kevin