SV Erica's travels: St Martin (French) and Sint Maarten (Dutch) (14th December 2014 to 27th December 2014)

This unique 7mile long island is divided through the middle, the north being French and the south Dutch.

According to Chris Doyle's cruising guide there is a charming story, unsupported by historical fact that the French and Dutch were so civilised that, rather than fight over the island, they had a Frenchman armed with a bottle of wine walk in one direction and a Dutchman equipped with a flask of gin take the other. Where they met became the boundary, and the French ended up with a bit more because the gin was stronger than the wine!

We arrived here on the 14^th December after a pleasant downwind overnight sail from Barbuda, anchoring on the outside of the lagoon on the French side at Marigot Bay. We waited here until the swing bridge opens to allow yachts into the sheltered lagoon. Waiting outside the canal entrance while boats came out of the lagoon was what the guide book suggested. But alas while we politely allowed others to go through ahead of us it closed!!!! Not having good enough French to call them on VHF radio and advised not to call speaking English we went back on anchor. Feeling somewhat pissed off Eric bought out the rum bottle and Cathy decided to cut the Xmas cake.

The next morning at the proposed opening time of 0815hrs we waited again at the canal entrance but the bridge did not open at all!!! Later we were to discover that the guide book info had changed and the bridge opened at 0900hrs

Sooooo we set off around the island to the Dutch side and to their bridge! We waited until the opening enjoying the scenery out in Simpson Bay.

The Dutch bridge opened on time and we followed other boats through into the sheltered lagoon

When the big super yachts go through it is quite a site with only centimetres of clearance each side and by the damage to the bridge sometimes the skipper gets it wrong as you can see by the photo

We counted 30 motor yachts over 150' long and around 10 super yachts within the lagoon and more outside. This isn't even the peak season! Many of the Caribbean islands economies rely heavily on the charter boat business and these super yachts are the charter fleet for the super rich who fly in and out on their lear jets as opposed to cattle class in the airbus! The middle class fly in on the largest jets and sail away on the smallest yachts while the rich fly in on the smallest of jets and sail away on the biggest yachts!

After 15mins the next bridge opened from St Maarten on the Dutch side to St Martin on the French side. This one is a swivel bridge

Irish friends on SV Karma and NZ friends on SV Rhombus were in the lagoon so we anchored nearby

We spent the next 2 weeks restocking the boat with food and duty free liquor, doing maintenance and exploring our new surroundings. As always in a new place it took time to find what we wanted and at the right price. It was strange to pay Euro at one end of the lagoon and US dollars at the other end.

We walked up to Fort Louis for the great views back across the Lagoon and out to sea

During our walk we saw Iguana and these very colourful wasps.

These Iguana also liked sunning themselves on boats

In October a tropical storm developed into a category 3 hurricane named Gonzalo and swept across St Martin destroying many boats. As we circumnavigated the lagoon we saw remnants of the damage

A walk to Maho bay down a beautiful long beach and through resorts brought us to the end of the airport runway. This is a very popular place to spend some hrs drinking at the bar, swimming and lying on deckchairs while the planes come in. They come over so close to the beach that you feel you could reach up and touch them.

Eric looking out to sea and at the bottom right eating a baguette

Many people line up to take photos at takeoff and it's pretty exciting to be in the jet stream as these planes roar up their engines causing the sand to have a sandblasting effect. Then they all dive for cover!!

I took this movie then had to dive for cover. It was hilarious!

A bus trip to the Dutch capital Philipsburg was interesting. 4 cruise ships were docked and the town centre and beach restaurants were buzzing with tourists. We did some xmas shopping and strolled along the beach

We had a quiet but pleasant Xmas aboard “Erica”eating and drinking and watching the sites. On Boxing day we topped up our diesel and water tanks in preparation for leaving the next day.