French Island/Dutch Island

We left St. Barts for the 15 mile  sail to St. Maarten. This is the Dutch half of the island. The other half is French. Once signed in to one side, you can move freely to the other side and back by local transport.. We had been told that the Dutch side was cheaper and we wanted to provision the boat for the sail to Bermuda, then, as Bermuda is the most expensive place in the world to live, for the stay there and the onward trip to the Azores. For this reason, we anchored in Simpson Bay on the Dutch side.

We stayed there for two nights then decided to go through the lifting bridge to stay in the sheltered lagoon. Scruffbag wanted to fit a radar reflector, which involved climbing the mast and we would have to dinghy regularly across the lagoon to collect water  and visit the chandlery so we felt it would be better there. It certainly was but there are some shallow patches and we touched bottom whilst anchoring before dropping the hook in 5.2 metres.

The island is not a particularly pretty one, but Phillipsburg, the Dutch capital, a bus ride away, is an attractive town surrounded by saltmarshes. It has an attractive seafront and a good swimming beach as well as a large Carrfour for stocking up and a "Cost You Less"warehouse for bulk buys of tinned goods and drinks etc,

The French capital, Marigot, is also a short bus ride away and the Super U supermarket is our provisioner of choice. It can also be reached by a  half hour dinghy ride across the lagoon, though in windy weather one can get a little wet. Marigot, and indeed all the French side of the island, shows more obvious signs of hurricane damage.

We have managed to do some exploring and have found a walking track from here to Marigot, which affords great views of the lagoon on both sides of the border.

We have visited several pretty beaches, including the famous Maho beach, which is next to the airport on the Dutch side and where you can swim in the sea whilst planes come down overhead. Everyone automatically ducks.

We are now killing time waiting for a good weather forecast to sail the 850 miles to Bermuda. Unfortunately the winds are not yet favorable. We took a walk up to the fort in Marigot last week for another great view,

There are a number of superyachts  here in the lagoon (though nowhere near as big as those in St, Barts). Among them is the£1.5 million  yacht designed for Steve Jobs

Also anchored here in the lagoon is our friend Richard, who we first met in Guadeloupe, a singlehander on his Vancouver 28 and he is also waiting for the weather to sail to Bermuda, We meet up in the local yacht club every morning to enjoy the $2 cup of coffee with  unlimited refills and to check the forecast and continue to hope for fair winds