Moving to the French Caribbean Islands - first stop St. Maarten. And a real bad experience….

It was strange but strangely nice being in St. Maarten. It was the first of the Caribbean islands to be more European in nature - St. Maarten is half French owned and half a Dutch protectorate. We arrived too late in the day to check in to the country officially, but we found a great little bar that did wood fired pizza, and European sized cold beers to end our first day. We anchored in Marigot Bay, on the French side of the island. Unlike a lot of Florida ad the US coastal places we had been to, St. Maarten seemed to be totally set up to both welcome and service sailing cruisers. Everything seemed to be on the water, and easily accessible. Each restaurant had a dinghy dock outside it, the gas station was on the water and had a grocery store attached to it. Once we had checked in at the local ships chandlery (marine) store, we went and had our first French breakfast - pain au raisin, pain au chocolat, croissant and fresh juice or Orangina. We very quickly found a great selection of meats and cheeses to go with our baguette from the boulangerie, and had a couple of quiet days. We bought a large new solar panel and all the wiring ready to add to our solar array - we are a panel short at the moment in terms of our electrical usage we feel, so to get everything in one store and take it back to the boat in the dinghy straight from the dinghy dock was pretty rare - something that you wouldn’t even get in a place like Fort Lauderdale in the US which is apparently all about the sailing needs!

It is pretty unique to be able to dinghy between 2 different countries we decided, and once checked in we could move freely between the French and Dutch sides of the island. We were invited to a dinghy pizza raft up, we attached our dinghy to the back of a beautiful old schooner who had an Oomi pizza oven on board and for a few Euro we had fresh pizza with new friends.

Pete had to fly back to the US for a few days, Bethan and I tried to drop him near the airport at a dock but the security guard was having none of it, so in the end we dumped him on some rocks near the bypass to the airport and he scrambled across them with his suitcase! We then took the time to explore the old French Fort (Fort St Louis) and ended with a large ice-cream as it was SO hot!

Sadly there are always worse sides to a good time as well. The day before we left St Maarten to continue our journey south, I was in the Marine store checking out of the country in preparation for the early start the next morning, and the store I was in had an armed robbery take place whilst I was at the counter. The three guys pushed past me to get to the cashier, masked and one holding a small gun. Luckily no one resisted, the guys took money from the till and safe, and left. I was pretty freaked out at the time, extremely glad no one was hurt, and also that the kids were not with me (they were on the boat doing schoolwork). Worse stuff has happened in the UK and US, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time I think. Had a celebratory beer and curry (which was plentiful on the Dutch side of the island for some reason!) that night!

Next stop we are headed south this weekend to get to Martinique, and then St. Lucia…. trying to make time to get south for the cricket world cup! T20 game!