The day started overcast but the cloud cleared by mid morning. As it was France's turn to celebrate Mother's Day today, the girls let the guys know that they wanted a second celebration of this important occasion. The guys put up a feeble protest, as we reminded them that both their birthdays had been celebrated for 2 days, covering both Australian and Caribbean timezones and therefore it seemed appropriate to keep with the time honoured tradition! Any excuse to celebrate actually, in this cruising lifestyle!
With cash in the pocket, we swam ashore to the closest resort and wandered past the signage stating 'strictly guests only to use this pool'. Not deterred, we slipped into the large pool and mingled with the American guests nonchalantly. After a while we moved into another section of the pool and to our amazement, three iguanas were sunning themselves poolside. The first one was quite a magnificent creature, with orange camouflage colours and black striped tail, while the others were different shades of green. They flattened their tail and back legs onto the pavers and the front legs supported their head higher, so as to keep a wary eye on their admirers. A green one suddenly dived into the pool and in an instant was on the other side, which put the cat amongst the pigeons! The third one decided to go into the adjacent garden area, but all seemed very tame...however, not to be patted, or so we thought!
After our lovely and surprising experience, we walked the full length of the beach and decided it was time to spend our money on a coffee. Alas, no one greeted us with fresh fluffy towels, this time. We plonked ourselves in some comfy lounges and sipping on our nice café latte and/or freshly squeezed orange juice, we settled in. The breeze was blowing gently through the pavilion and the scene across the bay, with Trilogy looking her stately best, making for very pleasant viewing. The beach goers were variously clad in bikinis, most of which were not picturesque. However, the French women know how to do beachtime with style and panache and their bodies, no matter what the age, are remarkably svelte. The men too are body proud.
As we had previously eaten lunch at the Anse Marcel Beach Resort, the girls recalled a resort boutique worth checking out and so with not much hesitation, wandered in to browse, only clad in our swimsuits! The clothing was beautifully displayed on pearl covered coat hangers and the colours were vibrant and Caribbean, but of French fabric and design. The 3 young sales women all had fabulous bodies and all were wearing the same but different swimsuits and matching print coverup, that had a multiple of ways to be worn. Before long we were both trying this combination on, and much to our own surprise, we liked our reflections! The young girl helping us was quite delightfully charming and we both decided to trust her favourable opinion. However, there was the problem of payment...we hadn't planned this splurge!
Meanwhile the guys had been noticing a very tall elegant model type girl roaming up and down the beach, seemingly changing her outfit from red, to yellow to a lilac in the blink of an eye. She was one of the shop staff and part of their ploy was for this stunning girl to parade the swimwear, to lure other women.....how clever! She'd stop and chat at every opportunity and the charm worked! It was Mother's Day, so that was a bonus!
Our purchases required the skipper to swim back to Trilogy this time, to stuff more money in the pocket! With garments paid for, we settled in for a Tapas lunch on the lounges, as all tables had been reserved. Not that we were complaining as French tapas was perfect....house cured Atlantic salmon, calamari cooked in garlic butter and an antipasto platter of tasty morsels, washed down with a Pinot Grigio from the Italian winery Albola, which Peter and Sue had visited previously....very, very good indeed.
Eventually we pulled ourselves off the comfy lounges and returned to the first resort for a wander to the inner bay marina and then a further swim in the pool. This time the big orange iguana was being 'cuddled' by a male who calmly sat beside the creature and wrapped his arm around its head. A staff member was calling loudly across the pool in words we couldn't quite understand but from her reaction, she was pretty amazed, as we were! The American crowd had been quenching their thirst all day, and were now a lot more rowdy, to say the least.
We swam back in the warm water of the bay to Trilogy. We lifted the anchor from the muddy bottom and motored to Ile de Tintamarre, located about 1.5nm NE of St-Martin. It is a flatish island, just over a mile long. We picked up a National Park mooring on a superb beach located on its western shore, in the company of several catamarans. Some crew couldn't resist a swim ashore, but they were disappointed to find that signage warned about staphylococcal and other pathogens in the mud and the toxic Manchineel trees on the island.
Back on board, we were treated to an amazing sunset, which illuminated the clouds and sea with gold and pinkish hues, while the sky turned iridescent blue. We dined on a chicken quinoa salad and washed it down with beautiful French wine....life's good!