Well, we arrived at the diverse island of Sint Maarten ( if you come in on the Dutch side) or Saint Martin ( if you come in on the French side) or locally also known as SXM a few days ago. What an island!

This was taken underway:

As we have a gorgeous Dutch captain on-board we decided to enter through the Dutch bridge into the Dutch side of Simpson Bay Lagoon, but  this was in fact a mistake. Most yachties wisely go through the French bridge into the French side of the lagoon as the Dutch authorities charge you an entrance fee as well as a fee for anchoring in the bay / lagoon whereas the French authorities only charge you a one-off fee of 5 euros and they do not charge you an anchorage fee ( the difference between the French and Dutch side is only a matter of distance – the bay / lagoon is the same. We will be moving over to the French side of the lagoon soon.

We love this island already. It is so diverse, so interesting – with so many cultures in a small area, a great climate ( if you like sunshine and heat, which I do), and there’s plenty to see and do. We have only just begun to explore this island, so no doubt I shall be inundating you with more posts as we go along.

On a personal note it appears that there is plenty of work here too and so, keep your fingers crossed for us, we may be staying here longer than a visit ….. Miami is still an option but if we can find work here instead then that would help us out tremendously and may work in our favour… Let’s see….

So, as mentioned, this small island is split into two countries and it all seems very relaxed and the wide variety of people who live within the two areas all seem very friendly and at ease with one another.

The French have the area to the North, where the currency is the euro and French is the main language. The Southern end of the island was under the Dutch flag, though it is now an independent country – Sint Maarten. This is still under the umbrella of The Netherlands but here most of the people speak English, you can however see the Dutch influence everywhere; but not as much as I had imagined.

Simpson Bay Lagoon, is the main yachting hub – it is a fairly huge bay that straddles both the French and the Dutch sides of the island and dinghies are constantly travelling between these two countries, with no problems of border control! There are many restaurants, bars and amenities bordering this bay and some reasonably priced supermarkets.

You can buy Caribbean, American, Dutch, French and English branded items here and we have been told the supermarkets here are some of the cheapest of the Caribbean. ( Despite appearances to the contrary we did NOT buy this HUGE pot of REALLY yellow crisps).

There is also a great yachting ‘net’ on VHF channel 14, run Monday through to Saturday by a very amiable man called Mike who gives a daily weather update, as well as managing all the notices and questions set by the boating community ( catch it every day from 07:30) – this is a great way to find out what’s going on, ask any questions you may have and involve yourself in the active boating social scene here.

We were fortunate enough to bump into our old friends from the boat Mehari, whom we met in the Canary Islands. A great couple, travelling with their  SIX children!! A lovely, lovely family and we were sorry to see them all go.

The buses on the Dutch side ( I’ve yet to experience them on the French side yet) are great. They are cheap and they stop to pick you up wherever you are on route and they  drop you off wherever you ask – on route. We took one into Philipsburg – the main port and shopping area of the Dutch side, but did not have the time to stay too long; we will return. It seemed a lovely place, busy, full of interesting shops and it has a lovely beach with a boardwalk full of bars and restaurants over looking it that still retains a relaxed Caribbean style atmosphere. I really liked it.

Today, Sunday, we decided to have a short look at the picturesque town of Marigot on the French side and were lucky enough to catch a carnival there at the same time!

I shall be adding more posts, as mentioned with further images of the island, but for now here are the ones I took of the lively, and friendly Marigot carnival today: