Sint Maarten, Simpson Bay and Lagoonies

Sailing is really about maintenance, exploring, and socialising, and usually in that order. This year we have done much too much time in the maintenance section. Saint Martins/ Sint Maarten is much more about socialising and when you can’t stand waiting for parts or work you go exploring. It should be the other way round. Here is how the middle few weeks of our time on this island worked out following on from https://kiwiflyingfish.com/2023/05/love-sxm-saint-martins-and-sint-maarten/

Simpson Bay

When we arrived in Simpson Bay it was noticeably less busy than Marigot Bay. It was also obvious that there were several boats waiting for the bridge to lift. The bridge opens five times a day with different times for inbound and outbound boats, and you need to call in on the radio and list your boat. The yachts all then follow very closely through or they get a hurry up from the operator. The most difficult maneuvering is waiting outside just before the bridge opens when everyone is trying to get in line, especially if the wind is blowing from abeam the boats.

Once inside the lagoon, it is much calmer. There is room to anchor or you can go onto buoys. We took the early bridge opening and went straight into Lagoon Marina which is commonly called Lagoonies after the restaurant and bar at the end of the pontoon. We were due to be on the marina for a month but only had a week before we returned to New Zealand for a quick visit then we were back up again to do some delayed maintenance work. If you stay longer than a month they charge you at a higher rate. Our extra two weeks cost as much as a month.

Maintenance

The reason we were coming into the marina, apart from having a place to put the yacht for the trip to New Zealand, was that our new boom had finally arrived.

FKG

The process of ordering the boom had taken a year and as soon as we got in we went to make sure it was actually there at FKG which is next door. It was beautifully packed in its very expensive wooden box. Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of the box. If we were in NZ we could have sold the box or used it for all sorts of projects but here there was nothing that we could do but leave it for the yard.

We did not move over to the FKG dock as it was full so they just wheeled it around and put it on the boat using the topping lift. Very new and shiny.

FKG is a working dock and yachts usually are only there for a couple of days. One side is for fabrication and the other side is for the rigging crews. It is very busy. FKG did the boom for us, but they also then mended the helm seat which had failed, installed a bracket for the Starlink aerial ( more later), and fixed the hydraulics for the passerelle. Since we had a new boom we also had to get a new sail cover and the sail maker also made the chaps for the dingy.

When we also purchased a new dinghy to replace the interim one, that we had purchased in Jamaica, we then had to sell this dinghy and engine. We put up a notice on the wall and then let Hyacinth in the Business Point office know and left for New Zealand. Two days into our trip back to New Zealand and the temporary dinghy and motor were sold. Interestingly the guy running the cruisers net told us we would not be able to sell it because the engine was Chinese, but he was wrong!

We spent quite a few dollars with FKG and they were good enough to let us assemble the new dingy there. You might ask what did we assemble? Due to the lack of everything in the Caribbean, we ended up buying a dingy from an AB dingy agent, a Suzuki motor from a second agent, and a console meant for a Highfield dingy from a third agent. With the three items from different companies, Hew had to be an assembly man.

The next time we came into FKG to fix the hydraulics on the passerelle we did end up on their dock.

Appliances

The other big reason to come to Saint Martin’s was to buy replacement appliances for those that had failed. The yacht is run on a 220v system because it was European so we had not been able to find any appliances in the last six months as most of the Caribbean is 110v. One of the first stops in Saint Martin was the appliance shop. A new washing machine, and a new espresso machine, and of course we had bought the new microwave with us from New Zealand when we originally came up to Panama in October.

Just having the washing machine made the yacht feel cleaner and so much easier than constantly having to find laundries at each stop.

Lagoonies

Lagooon marina and the FKG dock next door are very social due to the Lagooonies restaurant and Bar which runs every day except Sundays – though if there is much going on like races it runs then as well. Because they have a large dingy dock many of the yachts around the lagoon come in to use the wifi, have dinner or drinks and listen to the live music which is 2 to 3 times per week.

They also run once a month a buy, sell and swap for yachties at no charge which creates a great deal of interest – if only to chat. We also managed to get rid of some of our “treasures of the bilges”!

Socialising

When we returned from New Zealand we found that Chris from Ari was in the dock and he was going to travel back to Europe with several members from the Vikings Group who we had crossed the Atlantic with., so we had to join the dinner organised in Lagoonies

After a three weeks of work and still waiting for parts we decided to take 4 days off and go for a cruise up the coast. The northern end of the island has a large park and two small islands are included.

Ile Tintamarre

Ile Tintamarre is a small uninhabited island with a lovely beach on its western side. The island has been inhabited in the past but only a few rock walls remain. Apparently an airline operated out of the island in the 1950’s until the plane crashed! There are paths over the island to walk around and it is part of the National Park area.

The waters are clear and good for snorkeling and diving. One of the most interesting snorkels was right between the boat and the southern headland where there was a whole school of Tarpon. They were not the least worried about snorkellers. The turtle was directly beneath the yacht and was much shyer.

This is a short video of the snorkelling and diving around the island. https://youtu.be/sErA1saAv-g

There are supposed to be two wrecks off the island but we did not get a chance to look at them. We may go again before we leave.

Isla de Pinel

Isle de Pinel is also part of the nature reserve with two restaurants, composting toilets, and no water so there is only bottled water on the island. There is a lovely walk over the island where you can see not only the western beach but also the northern beach and the SE Beach. It is very dry but Iguanas and rare cacti are common here.

The anchorage is really shallow, especially behind where we are anchored, then there is another entrance on the NW side of the island to get to the anchorage in the background but they are all local boats.

We stopped at the restaurant for a long lunch, they don’t do dinners, and it was very relaxing.

The next day we decided that we needed to walk around the island before we left. It is very dry but it was interesting to see the iguanas and the other two beaches. The Sargossa weed build-up is a problem in the Caribbean and it was interesting to see the amount that ha gathered on the SE beach.

With no fresh water, there are only composing toilets with very good signage to explain how they work.

The island is covered in grass and some shrubs. The best cover is near the beach on the western side and above that the shrubs are sparse and are only just coming into leaves after a long dry winter. There are iguanas around the island but they are fairly shy and hard to photograph.

Back to Lagoonies – More work and more socialising

This time we were back in the same area but on the FKG dock to fix the passerelle. To make life easiser they used a floating dock to stand on and just used our boom to secure the passerelle while they removed the lines to get replaced and the ram to increase its length slightly thereby making it more upright and allowing more room and a higher lift for the dingy .

We also decided to replace all the grommets in the trampolines at the front. When the grommets were ordered they did not have enough silver ones so they sent us silver and gold and we alternated the colours around the rim. We had the help of a young Polish guy called Jan which was great. He had also helped Hew when I was down in New Zealand.

When we arrived back after our a few days away firstly Sue and Reg – ex-Vikings on Misty Blue, decided we had to all have dinner at Dock 46. This meant our yacht, Misty Blue and their crew, and Chris and his Crew. We had a lovely night – photos from Sue.

Chris felt that we needed to have dinner with his crew who had missed the main party because they were still arriving. They were also ex-Viking sailors who had volunteered to cross back to Europe as a crew for Chris. So dinner was organised at the yacht club which is on the opposite side of the harbour from Lagooonies.

From the right Hew, Chris, Barb, Dave, Andrew

The following night we had agreed to have dinner with other friends who were anchored in the lagoon, Hans, Irene, and Thomas on Pacific Blue. We had met them in Providencia at the beginning of the season and kept in touch over the following months but this was the first time we had been in the same place at the same time since a very windy bay in the Dominican Republic. It was really great to catch up. They were also leaving to cross back to Holland.

After another few days on the dock and the Passerrelle fixed we were still waiting for alternator parts so we decided to leave the lagoon for a few more days and travel up to Anse Marcel and join Chris and his crew for their last few nights.

Anse Marcel

This is a lovely sheltered bay that also has a marina though we would be a very tight fit trying to get into the channel. It has been completely rebuilt after cyclone Irma and the hotel and grounds around the marina are lovely and they have a great Italian restaurant. The other advantage is that you can also check in and out here if you wish, at slightly more cost than the boat shops in town.

For some reason I did not take any photos there but here is a link to give you a good idea of the bay https://www.youtube.com/?v=W62zjy3Ecjo

I did go snorkelling but the water was full of the algal bloom in the small islands off the bay and even when I went around the NW corner it was not much better. I did not have the swimming bouy with me as Hew was driving the dingy but I almost got run over by a large rib cutting the corner of the point at full speed. Of course, I got yelled at and it was a warning to always take the buoy with you. Hew had been hiding on the sheltered side of the point but they were not paying any attention to him even though they could see him.

We had dinner with the Ari crew of Chris Dave and Andrew and said our goodbyes as they headed off back to Europe and we headed back to Lagoonies again for hopefully the final round of repairs.