Marigot, Saint-Martin
23 February 2019 | Marigot, Saint-Martin
Philip Greetham
For once I am lost for words in the blog. I confess I find the island uninteresting, though to be fair we have only stayed around the town of Marigot and not travelled the island. Historically, the usual Caribbean colonists, English, French, Dutch, Spanish all had a go at the island. A massive influx of African slaves took place in the 18th century with the development of sugarcane plantations by the French and Dutch. In 1648 the French and Dutch agreed to divide the island between themselves.
The island was hit last year by hurricane Irma which left 12 dead and approx. 90% of the buildings damaged or destroyed. Two years later, the devastation is still seen everywhere, with not only damaged buildings, but boats washed ashore. The lifting bridge to the lagoon still isn't working. Somehow though, I don't think you can blame it all on hurricane Irma. I still think that even before 2017, it is a pretty ordinary place. The view ashore, for example, from In Tune is of various ugly industrial buildings. Overall, I'm disappointed, which is part of the reason we have decided to turn around and head back south again. We have had 20 knot winds day and night ever since arriving, with much stronger gusts, which caused our anchor to drag one morning, so I think it will be a pretty rough passage.