Fort Bay is the official and only port on the island of

Saba Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Şaba (Romanian for Shabo), a town of the Odesa Oblast, Ukraine * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Saba (river), ...

and sits on the south side of the island, about by road from

The Bottom The Bottom (formerly ''Botte'') is the capital and largest town of the island of Saba, the Caribbean Netherlands, and is the first stop on the way from Saba's Port in Fort Bay towards the rest of the island. In 2001, it had 462 inhabitants of the ...

. The port is very important for the island as most of its supplies arrive here by boat. The port currently has two piers.

Structure

Before the construction of the first

pier image:Brighton Pier, Brighton, East Sussex, England-2Oct2011 (1).jpg, Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century. A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of ...

at Fort Bay in 1972,Van Vilsteren, W.L
Fort Bay, Saba: A study on hurricane condities
October 2001.

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

. Ladder Bay (and its 800 perilous steps hand-cut out of the cliffside) was the only way to get any goods or people on or off the island. Since then, Fort Bay harbor has grown to two piers, the larger dedicated to cargo and dive boats, while the second smaller pier is mostly used by local fishermen. The port is also home to the Saba Sea Rescue Organization that have a rescue ship stationed just outside the mouth to the port. The ship is equipped with decompression tanks, rescue equipment and personnel. On land, there are also two decompression tanks that are used in diving emergency situations. During 2010–2011, various improvements were made to the Fort Bay harbor, including the quay wall, boat ramp, and retaining wall.New Quay Fort Bay Harbour Saba
Janssen de Jong Caribbean. Retrieved 11 November 2018. The port also contains two bars and one restaurant which are frequently visited by locals and tourists. Additionally the only gas station on the island is situated here. Fort Bay has been affected by several

hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

over the years, including breakwaters damage in

Hurricane Lenny Hurricane Lenny was the strongest November Atlantic hurricane since the 1932 Cuba hurricane. It was the twelfth tropical storm, eighth hurricane, and record-breaking fifth Category 4 hurricane in the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season. Lenny ...

in 1999, one of the piers being destroyed by

Hurricane Omar Hurricane Omar was a powerful tropical cyclone that took an unusual southwest to northeast track through the eastern Caribbean Sea during mid-October 2008. Forming out of a tropical disturbance on October 13, Omar initially moved slowly in t ...

in 2008, and the fisherman's pier being damaged by

Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two ...

and later destroyed by

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was a deadly Saffir–Simpson scale#Category 5, Category 5 Tropical cyclone, hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the wo ...

in 2017.Durand, Hazel
Fort Bay harbor Saba damaged after Hurricane Maria
21 September 2017. Caribbean Network News.

Transport

Fort Bay has two

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

services operating between Saba and

Sint Maarten Sint Maarten () is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. With a population of 41,486 as of January 2019 on an area of , it encompasses the southern 44% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the north ...

. The ferries that operate these routes are ''The Edge'' (based on Sint Maarten) and ''Dawn 2'' (based on Saba), with almost daily trips.Travel Info
Saba Tourist Bureau. Retrieved 11 November 2018.

References

External links

Official Website of Fort Bay Harbor
{{coord, 17.6164, N, 63.2514, W, source:wikidata, display=title Geography of Saba (island) Buildings and structures in The Bottom