It has been 4 years since we have been to St. Martin. After 11 weeks here during our first visit (waiting for Ken’s new passport, getting the bottom done, having the clutch plates in our transmission replaced…) we had had enough of the island and weren’t in a rush to come back. However, it is an excellent place to get things done, and being a duty free port, it is a good place to get things shipped and pick them up.
With the large protected lagoon, and the plethora of boating services, this is also a place where a number of boat people end up and hang a shingle. We don’t know what the legal implications of this are in St. Martin, but it makes the morning net interesting. There are self-proclaimed shipwrights, canvas experts, mechanics, electrical experts, riggers and other skill sets all offering their expertise to the battered cruising boats. We were tempted to go to the self-proclaimed rigger, but we have chosen to go with an established rigging company instead – if something happens, they have their own insurance, and if something happens with their work, we can go back to them to get it sorted out. Who knows where a mobile cruiser may be when you need to discuss possible complications? Besides, you really only have their word on their abilities, whereas a business that has been around for a while has pretty much proven themselves , or they would have been out of business by now.
The Dutch side of St. Martin has a bit of a Wild West feel to it, at least to some of us. It seems like pretty much everything goes, and there is a somewhat seedy feel to the place on the roads. The residential area in Pelican Bay has more fences, walls and gates than Sing Sing, making it very clear that the residents want to keep unwanteds out and their stuff in. The main strip by the Dutch bridge has strip bars, party places, and even a liquor and tobacco mega-store (to take advantage of the duty-free status of course) by the name of something like “Booze It Up”. There are a couple of casinos around, and a plethora of restaurants in case you get hungry between the other possible activities. Happy Hour is a given here, with 2-for-1 drinks, $1.00 beers, cheap appetizers; just look for the deal that appeals most to you.
Whatever you care to do, you can pretty much find it here. Beaches (although the ones close to Simpson Bay have questionable water quality, or did 4 years ago), bars, or combine the two with jet blast. Maho Bay is at the approach to the airport runway, and you can hang out on the beach and get sandblasted when the planes take off. Hang on to the fence and feel the full force of it, or stand about 20 feet over and observe the action. Of course, you could sit in the bar, sipping a drink, and watch the spectacle in comfort.
In the hope of decreasing traffic congestion, especially to and from the airport, the powers that be figured that a Causeway Bridge would be perfect. It divides the Lagoon, and opens to allow boats to pass through just before or after the bridge opening into (or out of) the Lagoon. This bridge is approximately a month old. In the 5 days we have been here, it was closed to traffic for part of one day (it couldn’t close completely and left a 9 inch gap in the roadbed) and was closed to boat traffic for two days. But at least it has really funky LED lights (Toronto people, think CN Tower type). If it can’t be functional, it can at least be decorative… although one of the lanes of traffic was closed to traffic for about three hours to fix a strip of lights – which still isn’t working. Really, the causeway has turned into an expensive treadmill, as it has become a popular place to run or walk.
In the meantime, we are in line for getting a rigger to look at our stays, and the dinghy stuff should be rectified very soon. We may have even found a good deal on a new Autopilot. A visit to the Wild West is not necessarily a bad thing, it just isn’t a place we would voluntarily want to spend a long time.