Punter's paradise in Philipsburg?

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Thu 15 Mar 2012 14:40

18:01.18N 63:02.76W

Monday & Tuesday – 12th & 13th March

Monday would be our final day in St Maarten (excepting possibly an illicit visit to a bay on the West end before we set off for the Virgins later on this month) so lots of finishing up to do.   Rob dropped me off for a big food shop while he went and tried to catch the canvas man before he started our shoe store – having now juggled our storage at the back of the boat we have found a better solution with different dimensions….

He then went to Island Water World to discover we had had a bum steer on the morning radio net regarding which type of gas can be replace on the Dutch side and will now hope to get it in St Barts.   He also got a few bits and pieces we still needed to buy from the chandlery – does it ever stop?!   Got some bread at La Sucriere and he caught me up at the supermarket to help in the lugging back of everything to the boat.

Back to the patisserie for the final almond and chocolate croissant which we had back on board Serafina.  There is a small problem developing:  Rob has decided that his coffee machine does the best ever coffee with its variable settings, such that he really doesn’t want to visit coffee shops so much – great!  Just how much people-watching can be done in a bay?

After lunch we up-anchored to motor over and get fuel at Simpson Bay Marina.   Unfortunately a very large yacht had moored on the fuel dock so they could only offer us a tiny pontoon which barely reached past our cockpit when we were stern to;  luckily there was practically no wind so Rob reversed us into the small space and we managed to balance there for the re-fuelling at lovely duty free prices.   Then back to the anchorage.

Back into town by dinghy for a variety of necessities including yet another trip to IWW for a wire strop to secure the new gas bottles and to finally collect the last bits of canvas.   Rob (from the canvas shop) had disappeared and it was left to one of his sailmakers to work out our costs and input them into the computer – his solution was to by-pass those items he couldn’t find/be bothered to calculate!   Final update of emails on Rob’s  computer at Lagoonies and back to prepare Serafina for our departure tomorrow.

We got up to listen to the radio net at 0700 hrs and to thank everyone who had helped us, particularly the affable Mike at Shrimpy’s and then raised the anchor relatively early knowing that there would be lots of goo to wash off the anchor.   This was made a bit more exciting by being surrounded by a variety of boats all setting off for the bridge including a huge motor boat descending on us from an unlikely direction.   The bridge openings are quite entertaining as we all jockey for position and the bridge operator encourages us to bunch up as it gets nearer the witching hour.   Obviously Rob loves the way the French barge into the sedate line at the last minute!

Once through the bridge we decided to motor the 3 miles to Philipsburg and it was weirdly flat sea-wise for the Caribbean.   I wanted to enjoy the delights of the duty free shopping provided for the cruise ships and we hadn’t got round to a bus trip into town, so I felt that an extra day in St Maarten and a possibly cheaper check out in Philipsburg might be the solution.   Why do I go on believing the pilot book?!

As we rounded the headland we were treated to the sight of SIX cruise ships moored in town – so a potential 12000 people milling around in the shops….   We found the suggested anchorage pretty empty and eased our way in.   After half an hour or so the yacht ahead of us left and it became apparent that we were now right in line of one of the inbound routes for the little passenger boats ferrying the cruise ship clients ashore, so we re-anchored before going ashore ourselves.

The spectacle of these enormous cruise ships is something to behold.   The logistics of getting them all into town is also impressive:  the queues of people waiting to be ferried (rather than walk the shortish distance) standing in the blazing sun (and sometimes the pouring rain – the weather was undecided today) were unbelievable.

Once we reached town, the parade of vastly over-weight, often terribly sunburnt people was also incredible.   And the shopping was pretty dire.   We pounded up the so-called boardwalk which resembled a concrete road without shade, and back down the next street back which was generally filled with jewellery shops and, oddly, souvenir shops selling African ware.   We settled for an ice cream after finding a long queue at the Hard Rock café – we had felt too impecunious in Beirut to treat ourselves there and thought this might be an opportunity.

Giving up on town we set off to find the Customs office at the commercial dock, initially erroneously trying to get into the cruise ship dock where the security officers there had no idea where the customs would be!   We thought we would be standard fare for immigration but they don’t seem to deal with yachts much and this was a rather protracted affair.  They then asked if customs (Clearance) were in – this was the room next door to his divided by one thin wall, so we looked through the adjoining window to his and told him “no”.   He announced we would have to come back later and he would keep my passport until then.  Customs were due to be there, but are a law unto themselves .  This was volubly confirmed by the office cleaner who was also waiting to get into the same office as we hung around outside.

Eventually a very nice customs lady cleared us to leave, the immigration officer returned everything stamped and we left – it only took an hour!

Back on board Serafina, after a few domestic chores, we settled down to watch several charter yachts anchor very nearby (yup you do tend to watch these manoeuvres) and then view the cruise ships peel off the dock for their evening departures.   Usually the ships sound their horns as they leave and we were delighted to hear the ‘Disney Magic’ ship hoot the first few bars of ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’.   This ship was showing cartoons on a huge screen on the top deck and is decorated with an enormous Goofy apparently painting the name on the stern of the ship – really quite tasteful in the light of some of its competitors!   They really are incredibly ugly things and look so unseaworthy it is no great surprise that occasionally they topple over. The town now became a complete ghost town and everything magically disappeared with the beaches cleared of all the chairs etc and literally the place closed completely. Good news for us as silence replaced the earlier booming music from various live artists along the prom.

And I almost forgot to mention that I also chucked a bucket over the side and failed to keep hold of the rope…. I watched it slowly sink out of sight with some squawking but didn’t feel up to a leap over board to rescue it (it was cold, I was dressed and there is always that nagging feeling of what of value am I also going to lose in a hasty moment).   In the morning we could see it on the bottom and hoped that our prop wouldn’t stir up the floating nylon rope to add insult to injury!