st Maarten
Persephone... Cruiser/Racer
Nigel & Karen Goodhew...
Tue 26 Feb 2013 21:21
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Persephone arrived in Great Bay, St Maarten after
her tour of St Kitts and off lying islands. We enjoyed a reachy, fetchy sail, to
windward of Saba, leaving Statia bright and early, with a view to arriving mid
afternoon. We docked at the delightfully apt "Dock Maarten" and were settling in
when we discovered that our battery shore power charger could not deal with the
US voltages on offer there. As a marina stop over was partly to give our
batteries a good top up after a month or so at anchor, we reluctantly changed
our minds and went next door to Bobby's Marina - a large concrete structure on
to which we had to climb from Persephone's diminutive presence, to get ashore.
European style shore power voltages were the prize for this manouevre and we
were rewarded with nice hot water as well.
St Maarten has two sides, one Dutch and the other
French. We were in Pilipsburg, on the Dutch side. The water is clear and
aquamarine blue, the bay is around five metres deep and a huge sandy beach
dominates. However, so does the cruise ship terminal, and the entire
town seems designed to catch the thousands of cruise ship passengers as
they disembark, in daily arrivals of all shapes and sizes. Indeed, we were in
town to meet Karen's brother, Steve, his wife Brenda and Karen's father, Ben as
they arrived on Saturday on one of the more magnificent P&O versions of
these cruise ships.
On Saturday 16th February, the clan duly
arrived and we had a wonderful day together, visiting the beach and one or two
of the hostelries which line the demarcation zone between sun and sea lovers and
the duty free "hunters".
Shopping in St Maarten seems to revolve around fine
watches and jewelry, or named brand sun glasses and of course, booze...and lots
of it. All too soon, the family day drew to a close and the Chadwick clan
were whisked away by vedette to rejoin their ship.
The next day was our wedding anniversary. We booked
a table at Chesterfields...a destination in the town, and like so often before,
went out in the afternoon to find some internet access. On the way back, we
stopped for a G & T with ice, at the 12 metre club, at the end of the
pontoon, and before long, had struck up a conversation with James and Pete...two
americans travelling southbound on their Beneteau 50, "Buoyant Asset". We
were invited on board their yacht for a pre dinner cocktail. Then we all went to
compare with Persephone. One thing led to another and, in the end, all four of
us sat down to dinner...which was great fun. They were bound for Antigua
and were away at first light the next morning.
We decided to slip around the corner to
Simpson Bay and the famous lagoon, to try and replace our ailing engine start
battery. Simpson Bay Lagoon is where all the yotties in St Maarten go. It is
sheltered, accessed through a narrow channel with a lifting road bridge. All the
big marine stores are there too, as well as some good supermarkets.
The engine start battery is a diddy little thing,
by Oddyssey, and there are no stockists in the Carbbean. We think we mistreated
it back between Guadaloupe and Antigua, by leaving the engine ignition on all
day while sailing, and the poor thing is struggling to hold a charge for
more than a few hours now. Budget Marine said they could help us, and order one
in, but after a series of discussions and visits to the shop, it seemed that
this was not going to be posssible after all. The nice guys at Electec (next
door) can get one from Florida, so we will be sorted by 27th Feb.
We also caught up with Pete and Carol from Jack
Tar....one of the "things to do" is to get to the St. Maarten Yacht Club around
5 to watch the super yachts squeeze their way into the lagoon, and we whiled
away a couple of beers doing just that, with Harry (South African Aussie) and
Mark (Aussie Aussie), Pete and Carol and others.
Next day, we all hooked up for the short bus
ride down to the Sunset Bar to watch the planes take off and land just over your
head....some people go especially to endure the jet wash from planes about to
take off.....as the blast holds them out almost horizontally from their grip on
the railings....bizarre, but strangely Caribbean!
St Maarten is great...very developed, very
American, fairly expensive, despite the duty free tag, but good fun
nevertheless. The Heineken Regatta starts in a few days time and we hope to see
some of the racing, but before we do, we will take a quick look at St Barthelemy
(St Barts), just 15 miles away....
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