We find St martin a really easy place to hang on the hook and so we plan to
stay here through the Heineken regatta and participate a little in the
festivities. While we are waiting our friends John and Peggy contact us to say
they are arriving in St Martin soon. We are very pleased to catch up with them
since last being together in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon in December 2012 when we
were first leaving. They joined us for a trip to Philipsburg with Karen on Nauti
Dog so we can go and collect our shipment from the US of soda stream and some
parts. We planned to make a day of it and so we have a nice lunch out at a local
food vendors court and enjoy BBQ chicken and local sides. We toured the back
streets to discover lots of interesting stores and find a milk shake at of all
places McD’s.
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| Karen, Devin, Peggy & John in Main Street |
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| Nice art |
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| Lovely houses and businesses |
The streets are very narrow but have lots of character so we keep exploring
until we reach the beach promenade where we find all the cruise ship passengers
sunning in lounge chains on the beach. Still it’s a lovely boardwalk and lots of
good places eat or enjoy a beer while people watching.
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| Typical streets for walking and cars! |
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| Boardwalk beach |
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| Awesome |
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| More narrow streets |
Devin goes to get our packages while Peggy, John and Liz meander the
streets and visit the courthouse and church.
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| Pretty Courthouse |
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| Lovely Church |
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| Nice inside too |
Later in the week we invite John and Peggy over for a happy hour catch up
on our respective travels in the Caribbean. They have lots of good advice having
been here a year longer than us. We have a great time and the ladies plan on
attending the ladies luncheon the next day, no pictures but I can assure you
they had a great time with lunch out and swimming in the resort pool. The
following day we say goodbye to Peggy and John as they head north and back the
the USA, we are all so glad we caught up again.
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| Liz, John & Peggy |
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| A wonderful happy hour |
We have another day out in Philipsburg to attend the Heineken regatta
concert on the boardwalk and have dinner out with Nauti Dog. We catch a bus from
Marigot and on arriving at the boardwalk bump into the crews of Slow Waltz and
Cool Cat. We find a nice Chinese on the back street to have dinner at and catch
up on each others plans. The evening starts with lots of loud music from the
bars and them out came a steel pan band from the local school which we enjoyed
for a few numbers before the concert took off.
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| Local school pan band |
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| Not just sail boat races but crab races too! |
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| Jackson Wetherbee on stage |
The concert was Jackson Wetherbee and although the did some cover songs
their own music was better we thought. While we were waiting for the bus back to
Marigot we counted 3 buses pass going to the French Quarter. The enterprising
driver of bus #4 stops and asks us where we are going. When we tell him Marigot,
he changes the sign from French Quarter to Marigot! We’ve never seen that before
but it is a benefit of having a private bus system where the driver is
boss.
We catch a few glimpses of the regatta as we toured the island after our
misguided enticement to a free draw which turns out to be a timeshare sales
pitch. Ah well time we have a free tour of the island is a small consolation for
time spent seeing a fancy resort complex. The boats also race past our anchorage
on the last day so we see lots of racers pass by in the distance. Watching
sailboat races is always difficult as they cover a fairly large race course and
there is no good place to watch from except another boat.
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| Our anchorage for a month |
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| View over Simpson bay on our bus ride |
Before departing Marigot Nauti Dog persuades us to do the really tourist
thing of watching the Jets and private aircraft take off and land at the
international airport at Maho Bay. The beach literally runs across the end of
the runway and jets are really close overhead and the blast from the engines is
pretty strong. The strongest blast comes watching the big commercial jets take
off however and they are only about 100 yards away from you! It blows several
people over on the beach it’s that strong.
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| London buses in St Martin? |
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| You have been warned! |
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| Yes they are right overhead |
Well that’s it from Marigot Bay, we want to visit Anguilla and there looks
like a nice weather window opening so like a lot of cruisers who have been here
a while we are planning on an escape after a month in one place.
