18.02.396N   063.05.637W

 

16.2 Miles logged

 

We left St.Barths and headed for St.Maarten, slightly delayed by a sheared bolt on the 2nd alternator mount!

Zero wind but we caught an edible fish! A king mackerel sacrificed himself to a Thai curry!

 

We entered the lagoon via Simpson Bay lift bridge and anchored opposite a super yacht marina on the Dutch side; in the past we have stayed outside but the forecast was for 13ft swells from a storm in the North Atlantic which cause every anchorage to be rolly.

 

   

 

 

   

Through the lift bridge into the Lagoon. It opens 3 times a day and we always watch to see who may be arriving!

 

   

 

   

 

  

 

   

Large yacht threatening to drop anchor on our aft deck!

 

   

Boat (rubbish!) jumble on the French side                                                                       French fish market

 

Sint Maarten or St.Martin is a confusing place. It has a duty free status that attracts business and yachts but life is far from simple!

The whole island is 37 square miles and split between the Dutch and the French with a total population of about 77,000. You can check in on the French or Dutch side and that covers you for both sides!

But on the French side the shops close for 2 hours at lunch time- the Dutch do not. On the French side you pay in Euros but on the Dutch side you pay in US dollars; unless of course you go to a Chinese supermarket in which case the prices are marked in Antillean Guilders but the tills are in US dollars.

All the Caribbean islands from Trinidad north are part of the North American phone numbering system so that the numbers are prefixed +1 so you can dial in the US and Caribbean without an international code but if you want to speak to someone on the French side you have to dial 011 before the number.To further exasperate the situation my ‘ Caribbean mobile’ with it’s Digicel Grenada sim card only works on the French side.............. Most people speak English but there is also the universal Caribbean Patois which I find unintelligible and of course with my luck when I went for a ‘proper’ haircut (Lynn normally cuts it !) I selected a barber who only spoke Mexican which created some communication problems but at least now my Telly Savalas impersonations are a bit more accurate.

On most of the Caribbean islands you can now get good wi-fi but not in St.Maarten! Supposedly there is so much electronic ‘pollution’ in the airwaves that the signals cannot survive! Oh, and the mains electric is 110v on the Dutch side and 220v on the French side – we will stick to 12v!

Luckily both sides of the island drive on the same side of the road!

Meanwhile we are busy varnishing the toerail, rewiring part of the charging system and visiting the many chandleries!

Thursday afternoon out through the bridge then an uncomfortable night at anchor before an early start for the 80 mile passage to the BVIs