Hi,

I just wanted to know how safe Saba was. Let me know

Search for "crime" or "safe" and you'll find a few posts about this very topic. Learn how to search this site.

At the top of this second section, on the right, there is a link/button. "Search this Forum". See it? Click and search away.....

Having said that, here is my view of safety that I emailed to an incoming family.

I really do feel safe with my kids. I have absolutely no worries about anyone breaking in at all. I've made it a point to meet the locals, ask their names and introduce myself and my children. I feel like there are quite a few people on the island that I could go to if I needed help. Now when we go around, people greet us (and us them) by name.

I hear there are drugs here. Lots of drugs as I understand it. I personally don't ever see it. Alcoholism is a big problem here but it doesn't seem to affect anyone else other than the drunk person. You see drunks quite often and it is widely accepted.

Now, I am a round, 35 year old maternal type who always has two small children in tow. I'm not some hot 25 year old. I don't think I qualify as someone who would be harassed/came on to by the locals. LOL. I find them friendly and non threatening. I don't know of any of the other moms who have had any problems but there may have been some I haven't heard of.

I don't fear break ins or shootings. There was an argument in Windwardside one day between two locals and a local teen got access to the dorm keys and stole some stuff. In general, I feel very comfortable walking anywhere at any time with my kids and feel safe at home at night by myself.

R/

This has been discussed in depth in the last weeks and months. Please use the Search function and learn what we have said on the topic.

While I agree with Sabaspouse, Experienced and Wolf that new users should search the forum for old messages, let's not get carried away.

VMD is a place for discussion. How would our marraiges be, Wolf and SS, if we simply told our spouses to refer back to what we said last month or last year. Life would be boring!

As with you, I get tired of the same old questions. However, it is possible that some new light may be shed on those questions when they are asked again, for the 295th time. New users are like new neighbors, let's get to know them by having conversations with them.

Hopefully this will be taken in the manner with which it is given! (Just my $.02...)

This island is very safe, there is literally almost no crime. Most people don't lock their cars or their houses. It is a small island, there are only two ways off: the ferry and the plane. Just one road. Only roughly 1500 people. If one breaks the law the police will find you easily, pretty soon. The only time anything gets stolen is usually by teenagers/kids with nothing to do who occassionally will take off with stuff that is left sitting in unlocked cars. So don't leave your $1,500 laptop sitting in the car to tempt them. I had a FM reciever that goes to my MP3 player stolen out of my car one night, but the kids left my laptop alone. The stole my friends can of WD-40 and bottle opener out of his car.
Hitchhiking is safe here. There are no guns on the island that aren't "official" (police, the goat hunter guy that keeps the goat population down).
I have never felt unsafe on Saba, neither have my wife or kids. This is in stark contrast to St. Martin, where muggings, robbery, and burglary are a problem.
Living in Saba is like living in Mayberry. Living in St. Martin is like living in Mexico. St. Martin is much more exciting with much to do and a bit more dangerous, Saba is boring as heck sometimes, but very safe.
I won't compare any other islands as I haven't been there much.
People's main concern is the weather; it is hurrican season. Saba gets hit by a hurricane about every five years or so I'm told, so we are due (the last one was in 1995 I think). But the island is so steep - a long dormant volcano - that the storm surge of a hurricane does not affect most houses at all, but instead winds high up tear up the roofs when a hurricane strikes. There were no deaths with the last hurricane. Many houses, especially the newer ones, are made of foot-thick concrete walls. They are really over-built to withstand anything, the weak point being the corrugated steel roofs.
There are no poisonous snakes or dangerous animals on the island. There are few mosquitoes and no mosquito born illness. There is hookworm so don't walk around in the dirt bare foot. That's all.
Cheers,
~W

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PGY-1 Psychiatry

I totally agree with Wolf that the island is very safe. That being said, there was a pretty wild machete fight between some locals over the weekend. Really rare on Saba, but realize that happens daily on the other islands.

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It was torture.... straight torture son....

Apparently it's safe unless you're the president of SOS!

E.

LOL

I tell you one thing, the food and rent here in saba are a real crime.....but you get anesthesized in a while with the dream of becoming a doc in usa/canada in the furure...

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And remember, wherever you go, there you are...Buckaroo Banzai.

I think I'm stuck in Stage II anesthesia. Maybe that explains some things...
Anybody got some valium?

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PGY-1 Psychiatry