Our time in St. Martin

For different reasons, it's always hard to leave St. Martin. Last year we were going to stay for a couple of weeks and ended up staying a month. This year, we wanted to stay for a week and ended up staying three weeks.

The main reason for this is that you can get anything you need in St. Martin. Of all the islands in the Caribbean, St. Martin is the best place to get anything you need for the boat. And if you can't find it there, you can have shipped without paying duties. Another reason is, of course, provisioning. You find very good French food and for good price.

We left Barbuda at 10 pm on a very calm night. The seas were flat making the passage very pleasant. We had a full moon making the experience even more enjoyable. We had to use the engine for about 5 hours but then the wind picked up and we were able to sail the rest of the time. We got to St. Martin at noon but with the big swells coming in from the north, anchoring in Marigot Bay was very uncomfortable for us. With these conditions, we decided to seek the protection of the lagoon. The lagoon has two entrances, one in the French side and another in the Dutch side. The entrance to the lagoon is very well marked in the Dutch side but not so well in the French side. But because we were in the French side, we decided to give it a try and go to the lagoon through the French side. The entrance is very shallow and sure enough we run aground. Not only but twice. Luckily for us, the bottom is all mud and we were able to keep going with the help of some motor boats passing by and leaving a big wake for us. The beauty of anchoring in the lagoon, though, is that is very well protected and so it was flat as a pancake as Matias says. Very opposite to the big swells outside.

We were inside of the lagoon for about 5 days. We did the mandatory touristic visit to Maho beach and went out to see the airplanes land very close to the beach. And once again we enjoyed a very tasty hamburger at Sunset.

Lunch at Sunset watching the planes take-off and land.

The kids enjoying the beach at Maho while a small plane lands.

We got out of the lagoon on a Friday and went to Grand Case for the weekend where some friends (Lagom) were anchored. We had a lot of beach time, some very tasty ribs in a local restaurant and even some diving. We then went back to Marigot to spend another week there. Ernesto set up the swing on Taia and everyday we would have the kids from Lagom and Korrigan aboard Taia where they would spend hours jumping in the water.

Ernesto took the opportunity to install a salt water faucet in the kitchen. Now we can wash dishes using a lot of salt water without wasting some of our precious fresh water. What a luxury!

Teamwork! Ernesto (with some help from the crew) spent a lot of timing rigging a new vang and preventer for Taia.

Look at all that salt water running!

Our third week in St. Martin saw us going inside the lagoon for a second time as there were forecasts of winds of 20-30 kts and north swell coming in again. Going inside ended up being the right decision, as there were a lot of boats dragging anchor outside. We took advantage of being in the lagoon for a second time and had 2 bonfires with the crew of Day Star and Korrigan on a nearby beach.

With the 20+ knts of wind, Matias decided to take his bed sheet out and using it as a spinnaker!

We were told of this abandoned resort near the lagoon. The kids spent a fair amount of time exploring this huge place.

Overall, our stay in St. Martin was very productive and we had a great time. This being the last French island we'll visit, I did a lot of provisioning and I'm happy to say that we won't go hungry anytime soon :)

The BVIs await next.