05/14/2009 St Martin

05/02/2009 I am anchored in the Bay of Marigot. Marigot is also the town located here. Today I pick up Jim and Alecia. They cruised with me for a week in the Florida Keys and they are back for round two. While waiting for them, I started getting a layout of the area and where different services are available. It took me awhile to figure it out, but I am having a little bit of anxiety. I finally realized it that this is my first time to a country that was not a US territory or member of the United Kingdom. I know no French and I will be using the Euro. This is also a first as all of my travels on this adventure have been to countries that use the US dollar. I did ask a local policeman if he could show me Customs. I found out that I was asking for the wrong thing. I needed to ask for the Clearance office. It is located at the ferry dock and was closed Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday.
I have found a couple of restaurants along the water front that I have eaten at for a meal and they also have wi-fi access. The food has been good and reasonable. Most all of the area is closed down. I am not sure if it is due to the local economy or because of the holiday on Friday. (When out and about on Monday I determined it was a mix of both.) The marine store is also closed, so I need to wait until Monday. The water pump failed again so I mended it one more time.
Jim and Alecia showed up at 4:00. They took the local bus from the airport to Marigot. The airport is located on the Dutch side of the island. To make it to town it required two different buses, but the total cost for both of them was less than $10.00. This island also will take US dollars. There is some concern about getting a fair exchange rate. The restaurants I ate at offered a check in both Euros and Dollars. There are a few stores and gas stations that are offering 1 euro = $1 if you use cash.
05/03/2009 With all of the stores and clearance closed we will stay around Marigot for another day. After a lazy morning on the boat, we headed into town to do some more exploring. We walked through town and found another bakery that we decided to try out for lunch. The bake goods and sandwiches were very good. Now that we were energized we took off for a hike to the top of the hill overlooking Marigot to the old fort located there. The views from atop the hill are incredible. You have a 360 degree view from up here and it gives me a good idea of how the town is laid out. We then head over to the local supermarket. It is closed still. No surprise there.
On the way back in town we saw a game going on at a local stadium. It turned out to be a local game of softball. There were three things going for this game. It was in a stadium that had sitting, sitting on the shade and a local was selling cold beers for $1.00. We sat and watched about 4 innings of the game. We then went out hiking towards town again and found a poster advertising Fish Days in the town of Cul de Sac. We caught a local bus to Cul de Sac to see what was going on. It was a local festival as you would see in the US with different booths set up with all kinds of different fish dishes and local crafts. We walked around and tried a few of the different fishes.
05/04/2009 Monday morning. Budget Marine is open and I am able to purchase a new water pump and replacement starboard running light. After I returned I installed the new water pump and we are back in action with water.
I can finally check into Customs. It was a fairly easy process. It is the first place I have found that it is all computer based. I did not have to write out all of the documentation. The small issue is that they use a French keyboard. Some of the keys are placed in different places. Not a real issue for a hunt and peck kind of guy that I am. The cost was 25 Euro for clearance and an anchor fee.
After that I made a quick stop at the local marina to find out about filling up the water tank, we went off for a spot of lunch. I did the unthinkable and ordered a hamburger and French fries. I had seen many people ordering them the last time I was there. A hamburger is a hamburger.
Hiking for provisions is now the order. We find the grocery store and start filling up for the week. This is definitely a French store. There are not many recognizable labels. We do our best and figure we won’t die from anything we bought. It was interesting that they charged you if you wanted to use a grocery cart vs. a basket, the security guard took mine and Jim’s back packs and there was visible security throughout the store.
Two more stops on the way back to the dinghy. One was the local bakery to try out another pastry and pick up a couple loaves of bread. The other was the Duty Free Store for some rhum and gin. I picked up some of the local rhums that I had in the past. They are very good flavored rum with fruit in the bottles.
We made our way back to the boat, put away the stores and lifted the anchor. We motored up to Grand Case Bay. We dropped the anchor for the evening and hung out. Alecia is in charge of the galley for this trip and she put together a light dinner of French breads, cheese and a bottle of good wine. Life doesn’t get much better or relaxed.
While we were watching a movie the wind kicked up. We were seeing gusts of 38 knots. This caused the anchor the slip and in the middle of the squall we had to go into anchor reset mode. There was a boat behind us that we almost passed while being blown backwards. The second time setting the anchor it set good and hard and we didn’t have any more problems for the next days.
05/05/2009 We decided to hang out in Grand Case today. It is a small resort town on the coast here. We eventually made it ashore. We are not moving too fast in the morning. The plan is walk town, find a place to try some of the local cuisine, and then hike the length of the beach. We walked town and there are many boutiques and restaurants, bakeries, a rental car agency and a few local grocery stores. It is a nice little town with narrow main street. There is hardly enough room to walk and not get hit by a passing car.
We ate at a lolo. It is a eatery that is small and open aired. They cooked on an open grill like I saw in Puerto Rico. The ribs and chicken are fantastic and the beers are cheap. From there we hiked the beach from one end to the other. There appears to be no codes for where or what to build. There are homes next to restaurants, next to apartments, next to hotels. I did find it interesting how the homes are built to the edge of the water and the overhanging porches.
05/06/2009 Today we went snorkeling on the north end of the bay. Jim and Alecia went in. I stayed with the boat. We had strong winds and I was on a mooring ball designed for a smaller boat. I was able to install the new starboard running light that I found out when I was entering Virgin Gorda the week before.
Afterwards we sailed to Friars Bay. There are a couple of restaurant/bars that are listed as a must not miss. They are nice places and the beach is fantastic. After a couple of beers, we took off for the Dutch side of the island to try out some different anchorages. We ended up in Simpson Bay, as all of the other bays were very rolly. We were able to duck in pretty close and provided us protection from the wind and waves rolling in from the east.
05/07/2009 We went ashore to see what the town offered us. It is very touristy with plenty of restaurants, delis, bakeries, etc. We had a mission to find wi-fi and a grocery store. We stopped at a local café for a coffee and wi-fi. We then hiked about a mile or so to find a good size grocery. The currency on the Dutch side is the Gilder or the US Dollar. The exchange rate is favorable and it is easy to use US Dollars here.
We stopped for lunch before we went back to the boat. We had a good fish sandwich at Lee’s. This was recommended to us by a couple we met the day before at Friars Bay. I recommend it also.
After lunch, we pulled the hook and sailed back to Marigot Bay. I needed to go there to clear out of customs and get more water. We had a good sail with reaching and sailing into the wind to make it there. No Rush is sailing real well.
05/08/2009 Today we took off for a beat to St Barts. We needed to check out of the French St Martin and pick up some more water and ice. After we were finished we sailed down around the island and started our tacks for St Barts.
While we were off the Dutch side of the island, Alecia awoke me from a nap to ask how we should deal with what looked like a tornado tail coming from the clouds. It was the beginning of a downspout that never completely formed. There was the tail in the clouds and we saw the water being lifted off of the ocean. I was just happy that it was downwind from us. We kept an eye on it and the squall that was blowing through. This was a first for me on the water.
We made our way to the west end of St Barts for the night. We ended up sailing 38 miles today. It was Alecia’s first off shore sail and Jim had not been on an offshore in quite some time. Tomorrow we will go ashore and do some hiking.
05/09/2009 Today we hiked on the western edge of St Barts. It is mostly a National Park with a couple of beautiful beaches and a small village. The weather is fairly dry here with plenty of cactus. The beaches are beautiful white sand and not very crowded at all. I almost felt like I was intruding when there was someone else within a hundred feet.
After we returned back to the boat, we hung out and enjoyed the weather. I spotted a turtle swimming next to the boat. Jim and Alecia grabbed their snorkel gear and went in to see the turtle. They also spotted another turtle lying on the boat under the boat eating the sea grass.
05/10/2009 Today we sailed over to a remote island off of St Barts. It is also part of the National Park. It was a good place to snorkel. Alecia gave me the new nickname of Barracuda Bill. I have a knack for finding and spotting the barracuda in the area. As we swam around the bay, we came into contact with a large school of small fish. It was very similar to the school Cliff and I saw in the BVIs. On the edge of this school was a 4 foot barracuda. Nothing like being in the middle of a food chain. After the snorkel we had a pleasant down-wind sail back to Sint Maarten.
We came ashore so I could get web access and I wanted to try and connect with Harold and Teresa. We ended staying too long. We started at Jimbo’s for a margarita. It lasted way too long, but we were able to some how find our way back to the boat.
05/11/2009 Today Jim and Alecia flew home after a wonderful visit here. This is their second time around and we had as good a time as we did in Florida.
05/12/2009 I was finally able to connect with friends of mine that are on vacation here in St Martin. The chore of the day was laundry and watching the sunset. Harold, Teresa and I hung out all afternoon and evening at their condo on Maho Bay. It is located next to the main airport here on the island. One of the activities that people participate in is to go to the beach at the end of the runway. When the planes take off the jet wash blows over the beach. People try to stand and get knocked over, tumble weed. When a 747 took off I watched a guy grab onto the fence and get lifted off of the ground.
05/13/2009 Today Harold and Teresa joined me on the boat. We sailed for a while today and then anchored in a Long Bay. It has a protective point to anchor behind and a long beautiful white sand beach. We sat with drinks and watched the sunset again. Life is so difficult down here, but I will volunteer again.