Of course we arrived during a holiday! Apparently we have a real knack for arriving at destinations during holidays. We were able to check in with customs the same day, but that shopping list for the marine stores … forget it. Not only is it carnival, but on the Dutch side no one is working in reverence of the Queen’s birthday. God Bless the Queen.
St Martin is French and Dutch (Sint Maarten for the Dutch). The smallest island that is two countries. Each country has different fees for checking in by boat. We checked in on the French side, as we were warned that the Dutch have extra fees, and it’s just as easy to visit the Dutch side by dingy. Although the language spoken is French and Dutch respectively, English is still used everywhere. Of course signs are in French of which I don’t speak a lick; that will need to go on my study list. I often find myself wanting to speak Spanish, since that’s the only foreign language I know. Not actually helpful.
Since there will be no shopping till next week, we decide to spend the weekend exploring a bit of the island. According to our guidebook the small island of Île Tintamarre has some nice mud with great exfoliate properties. Always up for a little home spa on the beach we head over to check out the mud. The mud did not disappoint, must be something from the volcanic origin of the island, after 20 minutes of basking mud caked in the sun with a salt water rinse, our skin feels soft, smooth and rejuvenated.
Next stop, Orient Bay. A lively and well-known beach, also the location of St Martin’s clothing optional beach on the east end. And of course that is where we anchored. Most of the afternoon was spent lounging and swimming off the boat, later in the day we decided to head to shore, which brings up the question; Where to land the dingy? Our cruising guide claimed there was a location on the east end, we looked and didn’t see it. Finally we found a mooring near shore that didn’t look very used so we just tied to it, stowed our gear in a dry bag and swam to shore. We were not really sure if this was an acceptable place to leave the dingy or not, but watched for several hours on the beach, eventually deciding it was fine and an unused mooring. At one point there were two other dingys there as well, guess they figured we knew what we were doing. First we head to the east end, past the sign welcoming us to the clothing optional beach resort and the sign forbidding the use of cameras, plopped our stuff down on the beach and headed in for a swim.. with suits.. mostly. Now that we had swam at the nude beach, it seemed to be getting on cocktail hour and time to see the rest of the beach, find a tasty drink and think about some food. I can see why this is an attractive beach, the water is calm and beautiful, restaurants and stores are right on the beach complete with chairs and umbrellas for rent. We found a pleasant spot, ordered a few margaritas and sat down to enjoy the beach, putting off dinner for a while. About 5:00 it seems time to look for some food, so we think. I’m not sure I’ll ever quite get the hang of business hours in the Caribbean. Everything on the beach closes up at 5:00, even though it is still quite sunny out. We are told to head downtown, of course the restaurants downtown don’t really open until 6:00. Hmm. We hang out a while, shop for a restaurant and eventually get dinner. Time to head back home. The dingy is still moored off the beach, and since we are all dressed for dinner, off come the clothes, into the dry bag they go and we swim back to the boat.
The next day it’s time to start heading back toward Marigot Bay, stopping for the night to visit Grand Case. About the only thing in Grand Case are restaurants; this is where people come to eat. Of course we go to shore too early, 5:00 is a very unreasonable hour to want to eat, we should know this by now. But this gives us plenty of time to shop for a restaurant, walking up and down the street, one by one, reading the menu’s, and time to stop for a glass of wine to discuss the menu’s. Eventually we opt for one that has a happy hour special buy one meal get one free. Maybe not the best meal in town, but definitely half the price.
Once back at Marigot Bay, we are able to get our shopping done, the marine stores have most of the items on our list. What we didn’t find our next glorified mail courier can bring down from the states when he meets up with us in St. Lucia. After shopping, we head back to customs to check out and try to stop back by the Spoon Café where we had some wonderful crepes. But alas it’s 2:00 and who would eat lunch at 2:00, they are closed. Tomorrow we head to St Barthelemy.
