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From the Valenza Trip Journal:
Day 12
What's up! Well, so far our trip has been great! A few setbacks and difficulties, but that's what life's about. Today was our Saba shore day. We woke kind of sluggishly as always and ate a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs, breakfast burritos and cereal, compliments of Captain Joe. Then we scrambled to get ready for our second real day at shore this trip. Having gathered all our stuff and dressed, we took a dinghy part of the way around the island into the port. Everyone got soaked through because we were going against the waves, but we made it to the dock in one piece.
Once there, we took a quick tour of the Saba hyperbaric decompression chamber, a medical device used to treat divers with the "bends". The tour was short, since the chamber was a tiny thing in the middle of the room, barely large enough to accommodate two people. The Saba hyperbaric crew generally tries to avoid treating serious cases since they aren't really equipped to do some of the more extreme surgery that is possible in other facilities.
Next, we took a van driven by Wayne, an islander whose family has been on the island for over eight generations, up through St. John's to Windwardside. There we hung out for a bit at the dive shop called "Sea Saba" while waiting for Jungle Jim, who would take us to our community service duty - part of the agreement signed by Broadreach with the local government. The community service turned out to be clearing a scenic path that was rather disused. This involved raking the path clear of debris and rocks, trimming the overhanging foliage to provide a seven foot clearance and removing a tree that had fallen and was blocking the path. It was a lot of fun, especially because once we had removed the propping branches from the tree, we were able to watch the trunk slide straight down the side of the mountain.
Tiffany took to making clothes from the huge elephant-ear plants growing all around, inspiring Jordan and Divemaster Dave to run up the path ahead of everyone and return wearing nothing but leaves. It provided some fun photo opportunities, especially when Natalie and Ellie stole their shorts and brought them up the path a bit and so they couldn't find them. Then Jungle Jim took us to his banana plantation, where he gave us several of bunches of bananas to bring back to the yacht. Of course, we had to carry them back down the mountain, and by the time we got back Scott, Joe and Trevor were all pretty tired and stained with banana tree sap.
After a quick but incredibly delicious lunch at the Y II K Cafe, we all did what we came to do, climb Mount Scenery. The climb was hard, and took a long time, but we eventually made it up into the cloud forest at the top. By the time we reached the peak, we realized it was almost time for our dinner reservation, so we all participated in a mad rush down the moss-slick stone steps going up the mountain. Fortunately, there were no injuries beyond the occasional bruise or foot blister.
We went to a nice dinner at the Tropic Cafe, and stuffed ourselves to gorging. After a quick visit to the grocery store to pick up a few supplies and snacks, it was finally time to return to the boat. Once again, on the way back, we got soaking wet, and everyone was glad to be back. Everyone but Joe, Logan, Trevor and Jordan collapsed almost instantly.
Those four, however, got geared up for an awesome night dive at Diamond Rock. On the way there, they picked up Luke from the Xenon, another Broadreach ship, and instructor James from the Broadreach Support boat. Together, they had an awesome dive, seeing a bunch of stingrays, crabs, trunkfish, and other examples of the gorgeous night life in the reefs around Saba. Finally, they all returned to their respective boats and went to sleep, ending another great day.
