Rolling in St Martin!
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Tue 12 Mar 2013 17:22
| We left early on Sunday morning to travel over to St Martin. Our favourite side of the island is the French side - we always have a good time here, the food, cheese and wine are amazing, just like being in France. Also, if you go to the restaurants on the right day, Wednesday and Friday, they have fresh seafood flown in from Brittany - perfect. On the basis of this we decided to try and anchor in Marigot Bay. The anchorage is open to the north, the same direction as the swell is coming from, but Anguilla is very close and we wondered if that would give us some shelter. When we arrived, it wasn't too bad and we anchored with 50m of chain in about 5m of water - the usual chain scope is about 6/7 times the depth of the water. We then went to our favourite restaurant for a very late lunch/early dinner at 5pm. This was, as ever, delicious. The problem came when we tried to get back to the boat - the dinghy is just not made for 4m swells! We managed to get back on board, but again couldn't raise the dinghy so had to leave her hanging off the back on a long line. What a dreadful nights sleep we had - at 4am we were already waiting for daylight so we could leave and head round to Simpson Bay to get some shelter. We left at about 8am, having heard the forecast on the cruisers radio net that the swell was here t stay for at least the rest of the week - it has been caused by some large storms north of here. We were a little bit naughty in that we didn't check out of the French customs - we just left. When we got to Simpson Bay and were safely anchored, we went y dinghy back to the French side, to clear out and then went to the other side to clear in with the Dutch customs. Being here is not too bad - it is about a 15 minute ride through the lagoon to the French side, so I think that we will have to base ourselves here and travel back and forward when we want to. It is so much calmer here - not perfect, but as good as we are going to get! So what have we been up to? St Martin is the home of boat spares, all the shops are duty free and you can get just about anything you need at a reasonable price. As we are going through Panama next year and on to places where spares will be limited we decided to stock up. We have also done a few boat jobs such as servicing the generator, and the fridge man is coming next week. We managed to catch him at his shop the other day and explain the problem to him and at least he a) speaks English, and b) seems to have a good idea what he is talking about - no mention of a new thermostat or seal - fingers crossed he knows what he is doing and can fix it. Simpson Bay is the home of some of the largest sailing and motor yachts in the Caribbean - the largest ones that can't get into the lagoon have to stay outside. There is an unbelievable amount of money tied to the docks here. Also, I have been doing some reading on the subject of ostentatiously large yachts and it seems that a mega-yacht is a thing of the past and despite talks of a worldwide recession, it seems there is a new level of yacht, the giga-yacht! These are truly amazing, panoramic views from the master cabin seem to be deriguer, others have interiors designed by Armani, and have bathrooms made entirely of green onyx - how the other half live! The yachts heading inside the marina need to pass through a bridge into the lagoon, which must at times have the Skipper's hearts in their mouths - it is quite a tight fit for some! |