Beez Neez now Chy Whella

St Martin

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Fri 18 Dec 2009 23:08

Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten

We sailed overnight and arrived in St Martin at 07:40, we motored around until nearly eight when Ian came out from the marina to lead us in. We heard Leona of Voyageur C on the radio and we had a quick chat, hoping to meet up with them. Sadly time was short, so hope to see them in the future. Safely nestled in to the marina, time to do chores and get some sleep.

The island was discovered by Columbus on the 11th of November 1493, St-Martin's Day. St Martin was occupied by the Spanish until 1644, in which year it was conquered by the Dutch forces commanded by the Governor of Curacao, Petrus Stuyvesant, and French forces from St Christopher. Four years later in 1648 the island was split into two. There is a lovely local legend, completely unsupported by historical fact, that the French and Dutch were far too civilised to fight over the island, they had a Frenchman armed with a bottle of wine walk in one direction and a Dutchman equipped with a flask of gin take the other. Where they met became the boundary, and the French ended up with a bit more because the gin was stronger than the wine.

The French side - a view

In the early days the island was important to the Dutch because of the salt ponds in the southern part, which is why they settled in there. St Martin was successful for a time as a producer of tobacco, and then of sugar. When slavery was abolished most of the French colonists left, replaced by Anglo-Saxon planters and a few Swedes who rented their old estates. The now free slaves had to assume a surname and often took that of their new employers, at this time they adopted the English language, partly turning it into pidgin. So all in all the French side doesn't feel very French. Everyone can speak English, most people are bi-lingual. Marigot is the sub-prefecture of the two cantons St Martin and St Barth, both a department of Guadeloupe some 250 kms away to the East, so the French roots are very shallow, Paris is a very long way away. With the collapse of the sugar market, the island started a long decline, in 1939 the island became totally duty free in a bid to attract tourists and stop the decline, which came to an end in the 1960's when an international airport on the Dutch side was opened - result - boom in tourism.

Pity it was such a misty day, but these pictures give an idea of the attraction of the island to the super yachts. The island in the right picture is called Snoopy Island.

The island is split between France and the Netherlands, which makes it the smallest area in the world divided into two countries' dependencies. Although the border is almost entirely theoretical and without frontier posts, there are distinctions: each part is of a different nationality, has a different administrative system and also manages its sea space differently. You can wake up and spend a Euro on breakfast, a US Dollar on lunch and an Antillean Guilder on supper.

After our sleep off to explore. The waterfall at the entrance to Port Louis Marina, Marigot. Bear stopping any attack. The population is around thirty thousand on the French side.

Nearly every day is market day in Marigot. Brightly coloured clothes and t-shirts three for US$10

Wonderful paint job on this bike - the rider was a looker too, behind it is a heated game of dominos. Time for us to hire a car for the next couple of days.

Fatso who we hired the car from, an interesting lady and a random person who wanted their picture taken with Bear.

Later we went on a date. My B52 being lit. We had calamari for starter, Bear had lobster and washed it down with a mango cocktail, I had Carbonara.

We saw this little girl in the restaurant eating her chips. We watched a couple of street bands, glad to see Leona's hat has a new life on one of the lead singers, back up boys on Kazoo's

ALL IN ALL A REALLY GOOD ATMOSPHERE