The island of Saint Martin (French side) and Sint Maarten (Dutch side) is the smallest divided land mass in the world and the two sides have been living in perfect harmony since 1648, when the island was divided according to legend by a walking race between the head Frenchman and the head Dutchman of the time to create the border. It is a mecca for sailing yachts having the best chandleries in the Caribbean and to add to the effect is duty free too.
We headed in the dingy under the road bridge which opens three times a day to admit yachts into the very large lagoon (the French-dutch border subdivides), all of the marine business are on the waters edge. We went to the first dingy dock we saw and walked down the road past large cinemas, hotels and casinos, there were lots of shops and big luxurious four wheel drives on the road, yet at the same time the pavements are rough and uneven or absent. Although the duty free formula and location appear to have brought the money into St. Martin/Sint Maarten, the infrastructure is still less well developed.
We managed to find a large Budget Marine, where we also realised we had walked the wrong way to check in. We headed back to the dingy and then back over the bridge by foot to check in, a very slow process with big queues (lots of superyacht agents with handfuls of passports) so decided to treat ourselves to lunch out. We had a fairly average lunch with undrinkable tea and coffee then headed to Island Water World by dingy. Here we managed to spend a fair bit of money on fishing tackle (obviously) and a USB Wifi signal booster as the computer shops we went to had never even heard of them. The staff at Island Water World seemed quite determined that we should spend no money at all and despite ignoring us and sending us to unstaffed areas to wait, eating lunch at the till and sending us to the one neighbouring one (I should point out there were at least 8 staff in the shop and most of the time we were the only customers). The guy who appear to be the boss (American I think) was very helpful but the whole process took about 30-40 minutes and 20minutes of that was trying to get people to help us.
We went back to the boat and decided to move to the other side of the bay as the swell had picked up over night and still had not died down. We go a good spot and plugged in our new Wifi Aerial and although it did boost the signal, it is still quite poor. We decided to head out for the evening, Kevin had seen an offer for 11.95USD, all you can eat ribs and could not resist the challenge! We had a beer first at the Sint Maarten sailing club and then onto to the Lady C floating bar and neighbouring Pizza Galley. It was a really good evening and very good service which made a really nice change!
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