Sint Maarten 25/3/17

Salamander
Sun 26 Mar 2017 13:28

We are currently stuck in Sint Maarten. Having had 6 weeks of easterlies, the wrong wind to get here from Puerto Rico, the wind has now come round to south east, so would have been the right wind to get here from Puerto Rico, but is now the wrong wind to leave here to get to Nevis.

The mega yachts come here and until yesterday we couldn't get a sunset picture because one boat's helicopter was in the viewfinder, until dwarfed by a bigger boat.


helo


The lagoon has a bridge that opens at fixed times and up to 7-8 boats of 100-200 feet queue to go through. Today 20 odd 6ft sailing dinghies flew out as the children have their weekend fun.


dinghies

Street recounts a tragic story, 'After two boats had passed through, the bridgetender, for reasons known to himself, decidedto close the bridge. But a third boat had already entered and more boats were astern lining up to pass out. The unfortunate third boat backed down as hard as possible but the current was so strong that the boat was swept into the bridge and jammed against it crosswise. In the chaos the poor owner died of a heart attack.


Currency and other scams abound, from labelling in local money and refusing to convert down into US dollars (ie 5 florins rung up as $5) to unlabelled goods and straightforward rip-off pricing.


So, waiting for the wind to leave, again.

muz

Pic