Sint Maarten/St.Martin

St. Martin is an island that is only 14 miles long with a multitude of superb white sand beaches with scenic rolling hills towering in the distance. The whole island is one duty-free shopping plaza, the cruise ship passengers dream. St Martin is divided across the middle. The northern part is French; the southern part is Dutch. History says that the story of the island goes like this. In the early days the French & the Dutch wanted to claim this island as their own. They took the civilized way about it rather than fighting. It is said that the Frenchman armed with a bottle of wine walked in one direction and the Dutchman armed with a flask of gin walked in the opposite direction. Where they met became the boundary. The French ended up with a bit more land because the gin was stronger than the wine.

We stayed in Simpson Bay Lagoon on the Dutch side things are much cheaper on this side of the island. This side caters to the boaters with shipyards and any boat supplies that you can think of you can find it here. The French side is just like being in France. I love the food and the shopping. Duty-free helps out a little but not much, everything is still very expensive.
When we arrived here all of our friend were here we had so much fun sightseeing and partying. Our friend Robert’s wife and son came to join him for two weeks. It was surly a pleasure to meet them both. It was the queens birthday and carnival. This means that everything was closed for one full week. There was a big parade downtown with the locales all dressed up in bright colors singing and dancing, it was great.

We left our boat for two weeks to go home to Arizona for Chris and Amanda’s wedding. When we returned to St Martin all was well on the boat. All of our boater friends have left southward. The Pas de Deux headed home. We will miss you guys so much. We will be heading to Guadelupe next. We should be leaving here soon it’s a 18 hour trip.