Voyage 2010: Chapter 2

10 Dec 2010, The First Week in Sint Maarten, 18 02.448 N/ 063 05.65 W

We arrived at Simpson Bay Marina around 1000 hrs and our escort dinghy became an emergency tug boat in case we missed the slip. No fears, mon, as we glided into the slip with nearly a scream. Pretty unusual. The marina staff was wonderful, the facilities were great, and the price was reasonable.

The four of us headed for a local restaurant and we found Jimbo's with a Caribbean style of Tex Mex. We discovered that the restaurants were a bit pricy pretty much everywhere we went. But here at Jimbo's, Butch decided to try his talents on consuming their hot sauce. Was it hot, Butch? Maybe.

Last Sunday, Moony arrived in St. Maarten. We looked for them in Simpson Bay to see if they would come into the Lagoon on the 0930 bridge opening. Yep, there they were. A small boat like Jule waiting with all of these really big guys (megayachts). We rushed to the bridge and were the first to welcome them to St. Maarten.

Things that break must be fixed and the top priority was the wind generator. Brave Bob went up the mast to work on the generator. Actually, poor Wolfgang went up the mast three times for us and 'Brave Bob' only once. You can imagine BB is not all that brave as he is afraid of heights.

Butch and Vicki had to leave on Tuesday so they did some sightseeing by bus and taxi. They told us about all of the cool places they saw. But before they left, we inaugurated our bridge watching tradition at Sint Maarten Yacht Club where we would watch the megayachts enter the lagoon. We heard stories about boats not always making the transit through the bridge without incident. Once an extra large megayacht crushed the bridge tender building (bridge tender was OK). No such excitement for us(so far).

20 Dec 2010, Life in th Lagoon, 18 02.44 N/ 063 05.65 W

After a week, we decided that it was time to leave the marina a get back to the anchoring life. Last week we said goodbye to the staff of Simpson Bay Marina and headed out for the anchorage. It was not long before we spotted Moony and found a nice area to drop the hook. Only problem with the place is so near the airport. It can be a very noisy experience; an experience that Sammy Jane can not grow accustomed to.

Here in the Tropics, stuff can grow on your boat quite quickly. Bob went down and cleaned the 'stuff' off of the waterline and scrubbed the prop a bit to be sure that the growth does not accumulate. The water here is not very hygienic as most people 'dump' here in the lagoon as there are few other options. Even the dinghy has growth problems. At night we haul her up by the mizzen halyard to keep her bottom out of the water. Speaking of dinghies, we have a bit of a problem with the dinghy motor propeller. We have something called a spun hub where the prop will slip on the shaft at moderate RPM's. We are waiting on a new prop but we can live with this one for a while.

We were sitting at the Sint Maarten Yacht Club watching the megayachts come through the bridge into the lagoon (a near daily pastime for us). This is a favorite sport of ours as it coincides with Happy Hour. We saw flashing blue lights escorting a rather small ketch through the bridge heading for the Yacht Club. All of a sudden, a series of moored megayachts sounded their horns in honor of Laura Dekker's arrival in St. Maarten. Miss Dekker is completed her first leg of her circumnavigation where she hopes to be the youngest to do it. Miss Dekker is 14 years old. She is only three years older than Collin, our grandson.

When we need to provision or visit the stores in Cole Bay, we usually stop at the dinghy dock at Simpson Bay marina. There is usually room and most folks share the available space. Of course, there are those who are not very considerate but that is life. The area around the marina has restaurants, a business center, several markets, and a newly opened Burger King. In addition to the marina, most of the marine stores on the other side of the bay also provide dinghy docks as does the yacht club and Barnacles, the new restaurant that is in operation where Shrimpy's used to be.

Speaking of Shrimpy's, Mike, the proprietor, opened a new enterprise in Marigot where he is trying to replicate his Simpson Bay operation. Everything looked nice and new but dinghy space was limited. Mike is the net controller on the morning net here in the lagoon. Something happened to him and he was in the hospital. Someone else has been managing the net in his absence. Hope he feels better soon. There is not a lot of information about his condition or cause.

Marigot is the largest town on the French side of the island and they speak French (they are very accommodating and speak English if they can). On the Dutch side, most of the local conversations are in English. Marigot is very picturesque but quite 'touristy'. They have their equivalent of the straw market where you can get anything from tee shirts to jewelry. Marigot has the second bridge where boats can enter the lagoon. New Shimpy's is less than 200 feet from the bridge. We went to Marigot once by dinghy,and once by bus as the second trip was required for Ann's routine blood tests. Quite a (good) experience seeing the clinical side of the island.

We also took a bus ride to Phillipsburg, the biggest town on the Dutch side. Phillipsburg is a large cruise ship hub so you can imagine that it is very 'touristy'. Much of the surroundings reminded us of Nassau and their cruise ship district. Traffic everywhere on the island can be difficult, especially right after a bridge opening. We explored some of the less tourist oriented places, walked the marina, and had a casual lunch and the Green House restaurant.