Ladder Bay
Ladder Bay, with "The Ladder" and the old customs house above
Ladder Bay Location on Saba
Location	Saba National Marine Park, Saba
Coordinates	17°38′2″N 63°15′21″W / 17.63389°N 63.25583°W / 17.63389; -63.25583
Type	Bay
Primary inflows	Caribbean Sea
Max. depth	80 ft (24 m) [1]
Settlements	The Bottom

Ladder Bay is an anchorage on the leeward side of Saba. The bay sits directly under a set of 800 steps hand carved into the rocks locally known as "The Ladder". Prior to the opening of the road to Fort Bay in the late 1930s, The Ladder was the single point of entry for supplies to the island.^[2][3][4] An abandoned customs house sits on the lip of a cliff overlooking the bay.^[5][6]

Moorings

To the west, the Saba National Marine Park manages about half a dozen moorings that are in about 60 feet (18 m) of water.

In March 2017, a French-owned boat broke free of its mooring, and became stranded on the rocks in Ladder Bay. No one was aboard, and the boat was successfully salvaged a few days later.^[7][8] In April 2023, a mooring holding a French charter boat broke off during the night while the crew was asleep. ^{[citation needed]} The crew was alerted and safely re-anchored, but only two visitor moorings remain. ^{[citation needed]}

Hiking

The Ladder is one of Saba's many hiking trails. The trailhead is located between The Bottom and Well's Bay.^[9] The trail goes past the old customs house, and descends all 800 steps of The Ladder, before coming back up. The strenuous hike takes about 1 hour round trip.^[9][10] The dry forest^[11] portion of the trail includes diverse trees, including mahogany trees (e.g. Swietenia mahagoni) and cinnamon trees (Pimenta racemosa).^[12]

Diving

Ladder Bay is the location of multiple dive sites for scuba divers.^[13]

• Porites Point, named for the quantity of Porites coral at the locating, including Mustardhill Coral (Porites astreoides) and Branching Finger Coral (Porites furcata).^[14]
• Babylon, a site with dramatic overhangs (possibly reminiscent of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon)^[15] home to sea fans, as well as a site for seeing sharks, turtles, eels, and fish.^[15]
• Ladder Labyrinth, named for the labyrinth of tall, 10-foot coral and rock ridges that are for shrimp, crabs, and lobsters.^[16]
• 50/50, named for divers' choice of multiple areas to explore, including underwater lava formations, a shallow reef area, and a rubble field.^[17]

At Babylon, Ladder Labyrinth, and 50/50, divers can place their hands on hot, sulfur-colored sand, resulting from the active status of Saba's volcano.^{[18][15][16][17]}

Marine life

The bay is home to a variety of fish, including Burrfish, Chromis, Filefish, Glassy Sweepers, Horse-eye Jacks, Lancer Dragonets, Lizardfish, Peacock Flounders, Pikeblennies, Schoolmasters, Spotted Drums, Tarpons, Yellowfin Groupers, and Yellowhead Jawfish, as well as Nurse Sharks and Reef sharks.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Other marine life in Ladder Bay includes Channel Clinging Crabs, Green Turtles, Hawksbill Turtles, Spotted Moray Eels, Squat Lobster, and Tigertail Sea Cucumber.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Ladder Bay's reefs include a variety of coral. The most common are Star coral (Astreopora),Brain coral, and Gorgonian (Alcyonacea) coral,^[19] as well as Porites coral at the Porites Point dive site.^[14] The bay is also home to sea fans such as Deepwater Seafans.^[15]