Relaxation and Party Time in St. Martin

Today really showed us two completely different sides of St. Martin. The day dawned absolutely still without a breath of wind in Grand Case but nevertheless we headed out to Tintamarre, a large, flat island off the north east coast of St. Martin. In the SXM nature preserve, mooring balls are provided and by mid-morning they were all full so we were glad we got there nice and early.

Glassy waters on the approach to Tintamarre Island

Lined up on the mooring balls - but check out how clear the waters are!

We also wanted to beat the heat for a hike on the island which took us along the south shore and then inland, past many old dry-stone walls and a herd of goats. Carefully, we picked the evidence of the goats out of our shoes before returning to Mowzer.

The flat interior of Tintamarre, the masts of boats in the anchorage and the peaks of St. Martin in the distance.

In the afternoon we watched a sea-turtle grazing on the sea-grass under the boats in the anchorage so we snorkeled off the back of the boat. Just before we jumped into the water I commented to Henry that this had better be a pretty boring snorkel since the battery in the underwater camera chose that moment to die. Of course, the most surreal moments are those that can't be captured so I will just have to lock this one up in the memory banks for recall. As we hovered over the turtle grazing about 10 feet below us, he finally decided to come up for air. He must be pretty used to the snorkelers so he rose up through the water to surface about 5' in front of me and after a casual 3 breaths he headed back down to the underwater pasturage. Unreal!

Late in the afternoon we returned to Grand Case, making a short detour to explore the harbour and canal of Anse Marcel, a pretty little marina nestled in the hills and only accessible through a narrow, winding channel.

By 6pm Grand Case was starting to prepare for the last street parade of the season. Through the winter there is a parade and bazaar put on by locals every Tuesday night and with the restaurants and lolo's all firing in high gear it is a fun event not to be missed. I think all the stops were out for the last night and the streets were thronging with tourists and locals alike. Small vendors were selling cold drinks for those wandering the street where everything from purses made of pop-can tabs to the most beautiful paintings and inlaid wood pictures were for sale. After a little shopping of the local wares, we eagerly anticipated the first drum-beats to be heard at the end of the street indicating the start of the parade. The one-way main street is about a kilometre in length and just over a car's width, in some places widening out where a shop has a little more space. The parade of feathered and painted women and flashy men with drums and horns mingled with the hundreds of on-lookers down the street and sometimes, other than the costumes it was hard to tell where the display and the voyeurism ended and began. The energy and friendliness of the whole crowd was wonderful and we followed along behind, alongside and at times right in the parade itself.

Once the parade had passed, which took almost 45 minutes, the empty space was taken up by a number of street bands and a group of buskers who kept us entertained but couldn't quite pull off getting me to join as a participant. Maybe a few more street-beer but by then we noticed that the crowd had definitely changed a bit as the tourists headed into the restaurants or back to their resorts for the night so we decided it was time for dinner back at our favourite lolo.

I can't say enough for how much we enjoyed the whole event and hat's off to the locals and the gendarmes who kept it all very family oriented and welcoming of locals and tourists alike.

Eating Our Way Through St. Martin

So here's the deal, this trip is definitely not about the walking/hiking like the last one. I guess that's what we get for coming to a French Territory vs. hanging out in U.S or British territories. You just don't find the same level of finesse when it comes to food.

We found out that we can check out of St. Martin up to 48 hours in advance and since we want to head up to the north-east side of the island, by checking out this morning we won't have to come back to a clearance centre before we leave. Again, the process is so easy and all we have to do is wait until 9am when the office opens. What to do in the meantime...?? Of course, sitting in a boulangerie/patisserie to while away the time wouldn't be an option, would it?? Who could resist and need I say more about our scrumptious breakfast?

Above all, keep the baquette dry in the dinghy!

Next order of the day was to fill up with fuel and water so we won't have to do this again before getting back to St. Thomas. We hailed Marina Fort St. Louis and were told to come on in, but when we arrived at the fuel dock it was taken with another boat. We hung around for a bit and did a loop out of the marina and back in, and were finally clear to pull up to the dock. 130 liters of fuel and our water tanks topped up we were free to go, so long as we made it into the office to pay before they closed for lunch. It was 11:58 am and quite a long walk around to the office but thankfully Henry made it since lunch break in Marigot is two hours! Who can blame them, though...?

Finally, we were all free to head up the coast and with a lunch stop in Friar's Bay and then a snorkeling stop in Happy Bay (both of which we visited and loved on our previous trip to St. Martin four years ago), we headed for Grand Case for the evening.

Happy Bay - a happy place, especially when you have it to yourself.

To bookend the day of culinary adventures, we headed into Grand Case for dinner. This little town – literally one one-way street, is lined with restaurants ranging from Lolo's (locally owned locally operated fresh-air BBQs) to high-end French or Italian cuisine, all overlooking a spectacular sunset across the harbour. We decided to go low key and settled in at a Lolo where we enjoyed a rack of ribs, a half lobster and a number of sides (potato salad, coleslaw, green salad and curried rice) all for the ridiculous price of 43 Euros (which also included 2 beer each). To top the evening off, we found out that the price was offered in USD at par which usually runs 33% above the Euro here.

Last flights into Grand Case for the night fly in over the anchorage.

 Our plan is to head to Tintamarre in the morning (an island off the east coast of St. Martin and part of the nature preserve) but we have also found out that Tuesday night is the last of the street parades in Grand Case. They run through the winter and we'd originally been told it was over but now that there is just one left, we will try to return to participate in the fun (and maybe one more visit to the Lolo!)

Inner Waters of St. Martin/Sint Maarten

Sunday in Marigot and everything except the churches and a few market stalls is locked up tight for the day. Being nice and quiet this was a day for us to explore the area so we started with Fort St. Louis.

The Fort is now in ruins that sit perched on the hill overlooking the marina named in its honour. As we wound our way up the hill we were accompanied by many carrying palm fronds. Being the heathens that we are, it took a moment to register that it is Palm Sunday and they are making their way up to a large cross on the hillside below the fort for an open-air service.

The fort itself offers spectacular views of Marigot, the anchorage, across Simpson Bay Lagoon and the other way up to Anguilla. With a little bit of clambering and a few signs explaining the history of the fort and the pride of the community in its construction at the time, it doesn't take long to cover the site.

For the afternoon we headed off under the bridge at Sandy Ground and into Simpson Bay Lagoon. The Lagoon is like a huge inland (salt-water) lake that is divided by the border between the French and Dutch sides. If we took the big boat we would have to do the whole customs thing of checking out and back in, but by dinghy or car you are free to travel between the two sides. The lagoon is an interesting mix of cruising boats anchored out surrounded by the biggest yachts we have ever seen, tied up at the various marinas on the Dutch side. The anchorage was a bit reminiscent of Coral Bay on St. John for us but the marinas were definitely upscale from anything else. There are two chandleries but unfortunately with it being a Sunday, both were closed. We stopped off on the Dutch side for lunch at Lee's Roadside Grill and while the food was good, the service was absolutely abysmal. We finished off our tour with what felt like a run that went forever down the channel in the middle of the lagoon but when we looked at our GPS track later, we realized we had still only covered about half of the water area. Sitting off the end of the runway watching the planes take off overhead reminded us of sitting on Maho Beach at the other end watching them land when we'd been here before.

The winds are dying off completely and this evening the water is almost completely flat in the anchorage. The forecast looks for much of the same through this week with winds in the 8-10 knot range so we'll fill up with fuel in the morning just to be safe before we head off up-island to some of the less serviced spots.

Anguilla to St. Martin

Winds this morning were dead out of the east at 15 - 20 knots  and the seas running from the NE at 2 - 4', which given we were sailing WSW down the north coast of Anguilla and then crossing the Anguilla Channel to Marigot on St. Martin, couldn't have been better.  We had a final close reach approach to Marigot Harbour with apparent winds topping out at 24 knots so we made very good progress with Mowzer picking up her heels to almost 8 knots with a very comfortable ride.  We arrived in the anchorage at noon and found a nice spot just off the sea wall just next to Golden Dawn.

Again, thanks to advance information we headed to the Capitainerie at Port Royale rather than endure the surly clearance officers at the ferry dock.  Other than waiting for the office to open at 3pm, this had to be the easiest and fastest clearance into a country.  We completed the form ourselves on a computer upstairs, the form was printed downstairs, we paid $7.00 and left.  He didn't even check out our passports or look at our clearance papers from Anguilla.  When we are ready to leave we can go into any of the clearance offices up to 48 hours before we wish to leave, fill in the reciprocal form and pay $7.00 to be on our way.  Amazing!

 We wandered through the lower streets of Marigot and Port Royal making sure we picked up a fresh baguette and some chocolate croissants for breakfast in the morning - ah the upside of a French territory (among others).

And Round Anguilla We Go

Customs and Immigration in Anguilla permits you to check out up to 24 hours prior to departure, so our first order of the day was a visit to the charming ladies in the office to complete our paperwork. This would avoid us having to launch the dinghy and make the trip in on Saturday morning before heading off to St. Martin.

Prior to actually leaving though we have the rest of an island to explore and the wheels with which to do it. Having been a little disappointed the day before by limited access to the beaches we set our final destination as Shoal Bay on the north east end of the island. On the way however, we headed up to The Valley where the St. Gregory RC church is quite an eyeful. I guess having outgrown the first church the parish decided they had at least a conversation piece going for them so they copied the facade for the new church.

We were diverted in The Valley at the round-about due to a road-race but this fortuitous redirection gave us a fabulous view of the north coast of Anguilla – the colours were absolutely stunning.

After taking this photo of Henry and the rental car, we were amused that it looks a little like we came to a skidding halt and wrapped the front end round the phone pole. Rest assured there were no 'additional' scratches, dents or dings added by the end of the day.

Carrying on along the north shore we came across a number of gorgeous little bays with the surf crashing on the coral shoreline and then once we'd had our fill of the rugged beauty we headed inland across the rolling landscape. We criss-crossed the island and now feel that we can recognize most junctions by the landscaping of the various round-abouts; and, they're proper English ones that rotate in a clock-wise direction! However, some roads were debatable on how public they really were...

We visited a very interesting little museum on the history of Anguilla all lovingly put together by a local scholar and author. The museum was established in his mother's house where he had grown up and he had some wonderful artifacts on display. On inside information from Ted and Louise we stopped at a Lolo in the middle of nowhere for some delicious wings and ribs. We took them to go and found a parking spot at Scilly Bay overlooking the local fishing fleet.

We wrapped up with a visit to Shoal Bay and a walk along the beach – finally a beach with a nice blend of tourism and nature, lots of open, accessible space, a few beach bars but not invasive and plenty of incredible beauty.

Back on Mowzer for the evening and we are preparing to head off to Marigot in the morning.