Sint Maarten (but not St Martin)
Tamarisk
Wed 26 Apr 2006 23:03
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This is the island that is divided into French
and Dutch halves. The story is that rather than fight over the island, a
Frenchman armed with a bottle of wine was sent to walk round in one direction
and a Dutchman equipped with a flask of gin went in the other. Where
they met became the East/West boundary. The French ended up with a bit more
because the gin was stronger than the wine. Now the island has, according
to the pilot book, 'embraced tourism wholeheartedly with casinos, condominiums
and scores of hotels'. And it shows. It was a real shock after St Kitts.
The airport, which is close to Simpson Bay, where we moored, was in constant
action. The roads were full of big American cars and lined
with supermarkets, liquor stores and restaurants. It felt as
though, in one day's sail, we'd moved from Porto Santo to
Florida.
Everything is duty free and a lot of yachts come
here to provision. (The pilot book calls the island 'the Caribbean's number one
shopping mall'). We bought all our reserve fuel for the trip to Bermuda
plus water and beer. There are also some good chandleries and we got a few more
pre-ocean jobs done. We didn't get to the French half at all. And, to be
fair, some people say that is pretty nice. After one night anchored in the
lagoon and a couple in the marina, we set off with our friends on Wild
Alliance to do the 80-odd miles to the BVIs overnight. Our first overnight
since the ARC.
 Tamarisk in the Simpson Bay Yacht Club
Marina
 SUVs 'r' US. The road behind the
marina.
 Anna with Hannah from Aromatic at the poolside
bar in Jimbo's - the marina bar
 Here to save a couple of dollars on a case of Red
Stripe, presumably...
 Wild Alliance in the lagoon anchorage
 Heading out of the lagoon for our overnight to the
BVIs
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