18:02.10N  063:05.8W

St Maarten is a duty free island with two large chandleries so this was very much a working visit.  We need to change our gas system from the European fittings to those that are used in the USA otherwise it would be cold food for the foreseeable.  We wanted to buy our next batch of antifouling paint here and, as ever had a list of bits and pieces we needed.  There is also a large French supermarket which is the last we will see for a while so a major re-provision was needed. 

There is a huge lagoon in St Maarten so you get to pretty much everywhere by dinghy and the chandlers and some stores have their own dinghy dock which is handy.

You can get into the lagoon three times a day when the swing bridge lifts.  We were perfectly comfortable anchored outside (some say it is too rolly) so we stayed put there and enjoyed the show when it was opening time as yachts lined up to go through and cut each other up rather than simply hanging back and going one at a time.  For the larger motor boats it is a tight squeeze and from our vantage point in the anchorage it just looked as though the boats were driving into the land.

This was the place to replenish our sadly decimated supply of fishing tackle and hopefully learn a bit more about what we needed.  The phenomenal Shaun in Island Water World was recommended to us and turned out to be just what we needed.  A wealth of advice and common sense without trying to sell us the most expensive everything.  Armed now with what we have we are hopeful of some fresh fish soon.

We will remember St Maarten for the traffic and the noise.  Sirens and hooters, which we had forgotten all about, were blaring everywhere.