St Maarten - 30th March to 7th April 2013

St Maarten – Sat 30^th March  to Sun 7^th April 2013

We arrived in the Dutch St Maarten. Primarily this is a provisioning stop, but in the book it also looks nice.

We had to wait for the bridge to open at 5.30pm. It is amazing watching the super yachts squeeze through. The yactclub is a great place for sundowners and also to watch the boats come in. We were even treated to the sight of boobs and willies as a party boat came through. Umm very classy!

 

The island is split in 2 between the Dutch and French. We went in the Dutch side. It cost us US$7 for the bridge, US$20 for a week’s mooring and US$7 to clear customs. It was flat calm in the lagoon, even though it seemed to blow 20 knots for the whole duration of our stay.

There is a large concentration of live aboards on the French side where it is free. It is also shallower on that side and our friends Fabiola draw 11 feet so we stayed on the Dutch side with them. Rafiki joined us a few days later.

The chandleries and supermarkets removed us of our cash, on numerous visits during our week. We filled 5 trollies with an array of food and drink that will hopefully see us through the expensive BVI’s and to Bermuda. I now have all the tinned and dried food for the Bermuda to Azores leg, so hopefully I can relax a bit. Every cupboard is stuffed. It is amazing what we do to save money. We have fallen foul of poor trade descriptions again. The Cerres orange juice stated in big letters 100% juice, many are more like squash. When we opened it, Ethan pulled a funny face and on closer inspection of the ingredients it is a mix of orange, grape and pear juice. We have 15 litres so we will endure much face pulling. The apple is all apple so Oli and I are OK. I really miss UK supermarkets where you generally get what you expect.

 

I have decided that I would no longer want to be a super yacht hostess as I watched them push trolley loads round the supermarket. They probably had the same number for a weeks’ worth of guests, as I did for the next 6 weeks. All far too much hard work for my liking.

St Maarten is also famous for the airport which again is on a beach. This one however takes jumbo jets and people actually hold onto the fence behind the jets as they take off and get blown across a road onto the beach and into the sea. The slightly more sensible stand on the beach and experience it from there. The really sensible sit in the Sunset Beach bar drinking a beer and laughing at the stupid people getting blown over.

 

We actually spent a week in St Maarten as our friends on Fabiola experienced some technical problems that Russell helped to fix. It meant that I could get school, washing and some trips to the beach in.

I cannot say that I would recommend St Maarten as a holiday destination. It is not as beautiful as the other islands. I am sure that had we managed to explore more of the anchorages then we may have had a different feeling. The wind and swell though was not conducive to exploring and therefore we just sheltered in the lagoon.

You need to also beware of the rather loud music played on Fri and Saturday nights until 4am. The first night we were there the whole boat shook. It seemed that a famous Dutch DJ had flown in for a weekend of heavy dance music. The music was played outside. We were anchored off the dock, so those on it must have got really fed up. Ethan woke up at 2.45am and we did think about going and joining them. Instead we got out all the teddies and danced with them instead. When the music stopped I still couldn’t sleep as it was just too quiet. 

The yacht club was very friendly and the boys enjoyed a morning of sailing in optimists. It was USD15 per child for 3 hours. 3 hours with no kids. Bliss.