Saba’s signature reefs crown its pinnacles – sea mounts that reach from very deep water up to within sport diving depths. On our descent to the reef top of Shark Shoals reef in about 95 feet of water we passed this hawksbill turtle on its way to the surface for a quick gulp of air.

Shark shoals comprises a pair of pinnacles on top of one of the sea mounts. The dive begins at the mooring pin on top of one of the pinnacles and moves over a deeper plateau to a slightly deeper pinnacle at about 115 feet.

On several of our pinnacle dives, including this one, we saw large Caribbean reef sharks as we first reached the reef. But they invariably stayed off in blue water and moved away quickly, making a decent picture impossible.

The dive ends circling back around to the higher pinnacle and the slow ascent up the mooring line.