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Published: November 6th 2014
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Wednesday 5
th November 2014
With an area of only 37 square miles, St Maarten is the smallest landmass in the world to be divided between two governments, France and the Netherlands. The French name for the island is, of course, Sant Martin, and the Dutch call it St Maarten. Today we visited the Dutch southern half of the island, where the cruise ships dock, in the capital, Philipsburg. Philipsburg is small, compact and very Caribbean in atmosphere. Since it is actually the largest development on the island, the rest must be very unspoilt and not over- developed at all. In other words, this is an island we would like to visit again to explore properly.
The day started so well for us. We found our “lost” mobile phone. This morning, whilst getting the passports out of the safe in our cabin, Viv knocked something down that was stuck to the roof of the little safe; it was the mobile phone! The phone case is magnetic and so it was stuck to the metal safe i.e. not “lost” at all! Happy days!
We docked at about 7 a.m. and by 8 a.m. we
Early Caribbean architecture
Pasanggrama Royal Guest House 1905 were disembarking, in 30 degrees of very humid tropical heat. There were four large cruise ships in port today, but the little town catered for everyone with practised laid back charm. The hurricane of a few weeks back caused some damage, palm trees broken and wooden structures, but the islanders have done a big clean up job already, which is crucial to them now at the start of the main cruise ship tourist season in the Caribbean. We strolled along Front Street, which is full of little duty free shops, then headed for the beach. The sea was typically Caribbean, as warm as a bath. We had lunch in a beachside bar with free Wi-Fi, then spent a leisurely afternoon around there before returning to the ship.
The sun is now setting, early at just 5.30 p.m. and one of the cruise ships has just departed. We leave at 6 p.m. Two green turtles have just popped up for air close to the ship. Earlier we saw lots of Boobies and Frigate birds. It is lovely to see some wildlife again after days at sea seeing nothing. There isn´t much food out in mid Atlantic, so far
from land, so it is hardly surprising. Now that we are in the Caribbean, with its lovely tropical blue warm waters, we shall probably see a lot more wildlife. We didn´t snorkel today. We took the snorkels with us to the beach, but it was too sandy and a bit breezy, so the water wasn´t clear enough.
Tomorrow we shall be in St Thomas in the Virgin Islands. We have come 3,774 nautical miles to get here and still have 1,298 to go to get to Miami (total journey 5,072). After tomorrow we shall have two more days at sea, reaching Miami on Sunday. Now, we are casting off. “Au revoir Sant Martin!”
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