St Martin

18 03.0 N 63 05.9 W

Opening Bridge to Simpson Lagoon

St Martin (French) Sint Maarten (Dutch) is a small island barely 7 miles in each direction, divided roughly in half – the northern half is owned by the French and the southern portion by the Dutch. The island has beautiful white sandy beaches and has embraced the tourism trade whole heartedly – ie casinos, condominiums and scores of hotels. The whole island is one duty free shopping plaza. Not my idea of a place to linger. There is a large lagoon through which runs the dividing line – the lagoon can only be accessed by two opening bridges, one on the French side and as you have already guessed the other bridge on the Dutch side. Both sides have their various fees for customs and immigration and the Dutch also charge for entry and departure via their bridge. You can clear in to the French side and freely travel to the Dutch side via road or dinghy but need to complete new customs and immigration if you decide to take your boat over the line – (which is debatable as to its exact position). How strange !!! To check into the French side we arrived at a marina office, went up a narrow wooden stairway and found some computers – it was a “do it yourself” arrangement. All the people from the 4 boats in our flotilla arrived at the same time and it was so funny listening to all the advice about what certain words mean in French – the format had drop down boxes for place names etc but of course it was all in French – a drink was needed by all after completion. My extensive knowledge of the French language was via Grade 3 in Primary School for about 1 term – I can still count to 3 and still remember Frere a Sharka !!

St Martin meant reasonably priced marina stores for boat parts, French patisserie (chocolate croissants) and scantily clothed women – I am just flabbergasted at the near or naked women – a small power boat anchored near White Rose, dad, mum (flabby 40's) daughter about 17 and daughter about 9 were out for a day's cruising. None of the girls had tops on – I noticed because the 17 year old was badly sunburnt above and below a tube type bikini top had been – she was bright red with very white breasts in between – mum – well what can I say – I must mention that it was Don that pointed out mum had the same dress code. We are becoming accustomed to bathing beauties without tops now – also to smoking in cafes and restaurants – yuk !!

When we arrived at St Martin we originally anchored outside in the bay – the lagoon being very shallow. A bad northerly swell was due to arrive and all our friends rushed to the next bridge opening – after some indecision we decided to follow knowing they would call out the depths along the way – we having the deepest keel of the group. We inched our way in with a mere couple of feet under our keel – the lagoon is riddled with dead and dying ships, half sunken yachts and various other debris. The dredged channel is not as claimed but we made is safely – leaving was another story – we dragged our way through lumps and bumps in the channel hitting bottom three times – we now have the cleanest keel. Another boat was not as lucky as us – they arrived at the bridge a little too early and did a small turn and ended up well and truly stuck on the bottom and missed the bridge opening. We only spent a few days in St Martin and was glad to leave.

Simpson Lagoon Anchorage