Sint Maarten / St Martin

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We arrived in St Maarten and had to wait for the bridge opening before entering into Simpson Bay Lagoon. The lagoon was very shallow and was a bit nerve racking once again seeing the depth gauge hit zero more than once. When I was up the mast doing a rig check I took some photos of a boat that was less lucky.

We got our engine mounts changed in St Maarten to make them fresh and new and it has got rid of the vibration, and probably more comforting, the noise that came with it.

St Maarten is incredibly touristy and with it very little charm. There are great chanlderies here and it's a good place to get work done on the boat. It is a favourite for cruise ships and its capital has dozens of duty free shops selling bargain jewellry and electrical goods. Hmm, not one of the greatest places I'm afraid. We didn't like it here much at all.

We did manage to catch up with Adam and Suzie of Stargazer though, which was nice to see them after following similar tracks from the Saintes, Antigua and now here! Congratulations on the job Suzie!

We also bumped into Anthony Smith of Antiki, which has made it into the news recently. Antiki is a small raft made of water piping and has been sailed across the Atlantic from the Canaries making land fall in St Maarten. Anthony was very interesting to talk to and his adventure has made ours quite pale in comparison. None of the 4 crew knew each other before setting out and they have built the craft themselves. He is quite an inspiration. Bravo to the whole crew for making it happen.

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