Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten
14 April 2016 | Simpson Bay, Saint-Maarten
Ros Brice
We needed to get away early for the 2 hour motor sail to our next port of Simpson Bay, in the Dutch territory of Saint- Martin. More about the history of the island a bit later, but suffice to say that this island is split between France and the Netherlands, which makes it the smallest area in the world to be divided into two countries' dependencies. The island area is 90 sq kms with a population around 40,000. The official language is French but English is the everyday language. The official currency is Euro but US dollars are the everyday currency.....talk about a split personality!
Simpson Bay is a large and pleasant bay surrounded by beaches. The marina we were to berth at was in the Simpson Bay Lagoon is about 12 sq miles of completely protected landlocked water, which is accessed through a 56 foot wide channel and lifting bridge. There are published times for entry and exit in a one way designed system. Trilogy perfectly timed her arrival for the 11:30 inbound entry and with the assistance of a marina tender escort, we motored through on the green light against a 4 knot current. Once inside the lagoon there were many marinas around the shoreline, many for super yachts. The lagoon has been dredged continuously to give sufficient depth, but we needed to keep an eye on depths just the same. There is a sliding fee scale collected for entering the lagoon: Trilogy at 15-18 metres cost $42 (US) and up to $500 for those over 36 metres....not bad revenue raising when we saw the number of large craft within the lagoon, but hopefully that goes towards keeping the depths predictably safe and the lifting bridge well serviced!
How did the Dutch/French split occur? The island was discover by Columbus on 11 November 1493, St-Martins Day. The island was occupied by the Spanish until 1644, in which year both the Dutch and French forces arrived. Four years later the island was split into two territories. Legend has it that the border was decided following a walking race! A Dutchman headed south and a Frenchman heading north. In spite of more rugged terrain, the Frenchman covered more distance than the Dutchman and this gave the French a 3/5 portion in the north of the island. The Dutch got the advantage of the salt ponds (lagoons) in the south and since then, the division has never been challenged, and the two flags have fluttered peacefully for over 3 centuries.
Economically, the salt was a very advantageous commodity for the Dutch. In spite of the dry climate and arid soils, prosperous sugar cane plantations also abounded but with the abolition of slavery, these operations ceased. Cotton growing was tried and the salt exports continued but the decline was in motion and it wasn't until an international airport (Dutch) in the 60's was built, that tourism allowed new financial security.
Saint-Martin today has a (pending) new status of French Overseas Collectivity and is a free port. St-Marten doesn't actually have strong and deep ties to France because most of the French colonists left when slavery was abolished. Although French, the names and language are mostly English because when the French colonists departed and the now free slaves needed to choose a surname, they often took on the names of their new employers, who were Anglo-Saxon planters. Simultaneously the slaves adopted the English language, giving it their own special twist. The population is today about 75% black or mixed race Caribbean and 25% white, mostly from mainland France.
The free port status has eased the way for an inflow of capital and to its profitable employment, which has now for a number of years attracted offshore finance. The island's economy however still largely rests on resort development and the tourism that goes hand in hand. The numerous residential and hotel developments have attracted the arrival of Haitians and Dominicans, as clandestine immigrant workers, almost doubling the resident population in the last 20 years. This has put pressure on the future of the island's economic future, as it needs to keep growing in order to avoid the risk of high unemployment and the associated consequences.
Talking of Hiatians, we did a taxi tour with Dennis, a Hiatian. Dennis thought we would like to see as many hotel and resort developments as he could squeeze into our afternoon tour. Things got farcical when he insisted on getting us all out of the van to enter a huge hotel complex that was absolutely swarming with guests. We passed the large casino just behind the main reception and headed out to the swimming pools. There we were staggered to see hundreds of American guests all being marshalled into groups by placard waving 'leaders', with such signage as Elanco, Zoetis, Arm and Hammer. Eventually, we saw an even bigger lettering 'planted' in the garden spelling NUTRABLEND....ah ha, it was one of those monster American Conventions. Basically, tourism at its overwhelming worst and we have been so removed from it, thank goodness!
Our tour continued, but deteriorated rapidly. Dennis continued to think we wanted to see resorts and no matter how we put it, he said 'just 2 minutes to show you'. The sun was setting and we had invited some Americans to drinks, so we were not free to wander. Dennis was given a clear directive to take us back straight away to the yacht, but, you guessed it, he took the long route home, to show us the new airport and the new causeway and the new resort....The conversation went something like:
Dennis: So now, we go back to the boat
Peter: Drive safely, we don't need to speed.
Dennis: Back to the boat
Peter: slow down, please!
Dennis:: Back to the boat. No more hotels?
Peter: No, back to the boat!
Dennis: No causeway? just 5 minutes?
Peter: No, BACK TO THE BOAT!
However, that wasn't the end of it! Dennis wanted to take us to Sunset Beach Bar for a drink, well after sunset, which is situated right at the end of the runway for the new airport. There is a golden sandy beach, with a narrow busy road that winds around the end of the runway, and the bar is right there, on the roadside, under huge landing aircraft only metres above! He couldn't believe we didn't want to do it!!
We spent the remainder of the evening not only calming down but chatting the Dale and Tanja, an American couple who are cruising the world over the next couple of years. We were particularly interestedly in their visit to Cuba and they were interested in cruising Australia, so we described our love of Lord Howe Island.