Love SXM – Saint Martins and Sint Maarten

We arrived at Saint Martin’s from the BVIs (https://kiwiflyingfish.com/?p=13103) after a lovely smooth sail overnight. We arrived in the crowded Marigot Bayand took the dingy ashore to check in.

“We love SXM” is the logo for all the advertising in Saint Martins(the French side) and Sint Maarten( the Dutch side) and it is everywhere in painted signs and advertisements. It is great to see such a pragmatic approach to the island and the entry procedures were similar. Once you are on the island you can go to either side by dingy or car or on foot, there is no division. If you want to change your yacht from one side to the other then you have to check out on one side and in on the other, but it is cheap, easy, and efficient. We wished more islands were las easy as this.

Street Art

Street art exemplifies a welcoming and inclusive feeling.

Marigot Bay

We arrived in Marigot Bay on the French side and checked in at Island Water World. Yes, you go to the local boat shop and they have a computer there dedicated to entry and exit permits. You fill in the information, print it, and the shop assistant checks the passport numbers you entered on the form match your passports, stamps it, signs it, and hands the entry permit back to you all for €2. Why can’t all countries be this simple?

Marigot Bay has moorings and areas to anchor. It is close to the markets and town and has a large dingy dock to make access easy for cruisers.

There is also an excellent French bakery close by – luxury after months of very basic food.

The center of the town on the French side also has many restaurants and some lovely clothing stores. We had been starved for more sophisticated shopping and my supply of bikinis was getting really tatty so some money was spent here.

Time to go

After two days Robyn and Cameron were ready to continue their travels to Houston and then back to New Zealand. I had purchased a new tablecloth for the boat at the market and we decided to celebrate in style.

After drinks on the yacht, we headed off to Dock 46 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083611140570 for dinner. This is a real yachtie bar and restaurant but they have a great chef who will cook anything you want that is in the fridge/freezer at the time, even if it is not on the menu for the night. The food is beautiful. It has a great dingy dock and next door is Shrimpy’s laundry which also runs the cruiser’s radio net. It does not look much from the outside but is great inside the restaurant( at least on the ground floor). Much of the French part of the island still looks dilapidated from the cyclone 4 years ago and many places are only partially rebuilt.

After dinner, we decided we should go for a cruise around the lagoon. We were amazed at the number of boats there as we had not had a chance to go during the day. Also, the Causeway Bay bridge is lit up at night with great colours. This bridge which runs across the lagoon is a swiveling bridge whereas the two bridges that go out of the lagoon to the sea are both lifting bridges.

The Sandy Ground bridge on Saint Martins’s side only opens twice a day and is covered in decorative tiles.

Many of the boats that are used daily for visitors are low enough to travel through with the bridge down, as can all the dingys belonging to the yachts anchored inside and outside the lagoon,

Rebuilding after Cyclone Irma

We found remnants of Cyclone Irma that happened in 2017 everywhere. Most of the Dutch side has been rebuilt but many areas on the French side are still incomplete or forgotten. There are derelict boats everywhere, and many yachts have been repurposed for cruise boats so you see many without masts.

After Cameron and Robyn departed for Houston we had a few days before we were due into Lagoonies Marina, Sint Maarten for some maintenance so we explored the next couple of bays up the coast

Brewers Bay

Brewers bay has a lovely beach and was sheltered from the northerly so we anchored up in the NW corner which was quieter during the daytime. We had two lovely days of doing nothing then we felt we should move on to check out the next bay.

Grand Case

Grand Case was a much busier bay with a beautiful beach, with lots of bars and restaurants, and a colouful little town.

There was also a good snorkeling area around Rocher Creole but the water was not particularly clear. There has been an algal bloom around Saint Martins/Sint Maarten this year and it is still affecting the visibility, some places much more than others. Therefore you will notice that the shots in the video that are further away like the Turtle are not very clear, however you still get to find some great fish.

After two days there we headed off around to Simpson Bay and Sint Maartens to check into Lagoonies marina for some maintenance work. https://kiwiflyingfish.com/?p=13252