St Martin - 31st March
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Tue 31 Mar 2009 03:11
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From St Kitts we sailed another 65 miles north to
reach St Martin. It was a lumpy bumpy sail with confused seas,
particularly when we sailed round the north of St Kitts, between St Kitts
and Statia where the seas were short and breaking - we had
quite an 'exciting' hour or so with winds around 26kts. But Aurora B powered her
way through, close hauled and under well reefed sails. From then on
the wind was mostly on the beam so it was a fast passage, and the sun shone
all day long. As the sun was dipping towards the horizon we entered
Marigot Bay on the French side of the island and dropped anchor. This is
another Marigot Bay and not to be confused with the one in St Lucia. It's a big
and truly lovely bay with beautiful turquoise water that's only 8 to
15 ft deep. It carries these depths for a long way and we ended up
anchoring in only 10 ft.
 Anchoring in Marigot Bay
Having arrived, the weather was right the next day for a trip
to Anguilla, just 5 miles or so to the north. The northerly swells were forecast
to return, so it was always going to be a quick visit. As it
turned out, it was very quick, just one night and we had to return to St
Martin. The entry for Anguilla has a few pictures to record the flying
visit.
St Martin is half Dutch and half French, the
border goes from west to east, sort of across the middle. There are
no actual borders on land, but you can tell when you cross from
the French side to the Dutch by the very good roads that suddenly
becoming bumpy and unkept! If you sail from the French side to
the Dutch, or vice versa, you do need to clear customs on the French side and
clear in again on the Dutch side. Both sides of the island have good
shopping and the island is called the shopping mall of the Caribbean. It's all
is duty free - so supposed to be cheap. Compared to the other islands
it is, but not compared to the UK or USA. On our return from Anguilla
we risked entering Simpson Bay Lagoon to meet friends we originally
met in Las Palmas. Risked because the French side of the Lagoon is not
very deep and at close to 7ft draft, running aground was a real possibility
- and we did, several times! On one occasion we had to unfurl the
genoa to heel the boat over to get off. As a result we decided to go straight
into the marina where the channel was deeper and berthed right next to
our friends. That's one of the beauties of cruising, you keep bumping
into friends along the way, some you haven't seen for months. The
Lagoon stretches several miles across the island and you can get to
it via lifting bridges on the French or Dutch side. Lots of boats anchor
inside as it's sheltered, and quite a few boats look like they have been
there for years.
 A view from our berth in the marina which is a
quadrangle with shops and open-air cafes and
restaurants on 3 sides, so its snug and
quite atmospheric at night.
 The water front at Marigot - the dinghy dock is
just beyond the yellow boat.
 On of the many pretty restaurants in
Marigot.
The main airport is on the Dutch side and the end of the
runway is right next to the beach. You can get much closer than they would ever
allow in the UK and get good pictures of planes coming into land, and some,
not us I hasten to add, take advantage of being so close. As the planes
take off in a direction away from the beach, the blast goes across the beach and
people cling on to the wire fence and get blown horizontal, while others allow
the blast to blow them across the sand and into the water. There are lots of
warning notices, but they don't stop crazy people having fun! The pictures
below give some idea of what it's like.
 Looking across the bay, with the end of the
runway to the right..
 Looking out to sea.
 A plane heads across the bay to the
runway.
 A surfboard stuck in the sand and converted into
an Arrivals Board!
 The warning notices and a plane getting ready to
take off.
 Another plane preparing to take off and people on
the beach get ready..................
 ............. to be blown into the
water!
Having stayed a week or so in Simpson Lagoon it was time to go
back out into Marigot Bay and carry out some maintenance -
changing our 4 anodes under the water, re-antifouling the bow thruster
propellers (had to take them off to get to the bow thruster anode), and cleaning
the hull from stem to stern, the diving gear earning its place on the boat
once again. Once complete it was time to head south back down the
islands.
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