peter bassill · operator
$ cat diving/sites/ladder-labyrinth

Ladder Labyrinth.

Named after a maze of coral and rock ridges about 3 m (10 ft) tall that lies just seaward of the mooring. The ridges formed from lava flows and are cut by sand chutes and sandy alleyways. Warm, sulphur-coloured sand near the mooring shows that Saba's volcano is still active.

Where · Saba Marine Park, Ladder Bay area, west (leeward) coast Type · reef Depth · to 24 m Logged · 66 dives, 7 Oct 2003 – 21 Sep 2004
$ man ladder-labyrinth
01 / The dive

What's down there.

POINTS OF INTEREST
  • Maze of 3 m coral and rock ridges
  • Lava-flow fingers and sand chutes
  • Warm sulphur-coloured volcanic sand
  • Close to The Ladder landing on shore
MARINE LIFE
  • Lobsters, crabs and shrimp
  • Filefish
  • Schoolmasters
  • Yellowhead jawfish
  • Pikeblennies
  • Lancer dragonets
  • Tarpon at the safety stop
  • Nudibranchs
DEPTH & CONDITIONS

No site-specific range published; Ladder Bay maximum given as 24 m (80 ft)

Leeward-coast site, normally sheltered. Moderate depths make it suitable for most levels.

$ git log --reverse ladder-labyrinth
02 / History

How it got there.

Ladder Bay takes its name from The Ladder, a steep stairway cut into the cliff that Sabans used to carry goods and passengers up from the shore to the village. Ladder Bay and Fort Bay were the island's two ports of entry from the 1650s until the 1970s.

$ grep ladder-labyrinth diving/log | wc -l
03 / Logged here

66 dives.

From the reconstructed log — the dates follow the pattern I dived, so read them as representative rather than exact.

2003 17
2004 49

→ diving  ·  dive log  ·  off duty