French vs. Dutch

"Don't believe everything you hear or see, there are always three sides to every story.  Your's, theirs and the truth...."
-unknown

I am at a loss for the correct spelling of St. Marrten.  I have seen Sint Maarten, Sint Marrten, Sint Martin and St. Martin.  So if you see that my spelling is all over the place, it's not entirely my fault.  I suppose I should use the appropriate spelling depending on which side I am referring to.  But that is just too complicated, so bare with me.  I might make up my own.

The island of St. Marrten is split into two different countries, French (Sint Martin) and Dutch (Sint Marrten).   I learned it is one of the smallest sea islands divided between two nations, a division dating back to 1648.   Legend has it that a dutch citizen and a french citizen were placed back to back on one side of the island and had to walk (not run) along the sea shore in opposite directions.  When they met on the other side, that's where the territory line was drawn.  The french ended up with 54 sq. km and the dutch had only 32 sq. km.  It was noted that the french gentleman drank wine before his walk and the dutch gentleman drank gin.  The french claimed the difference between these beverages was to blame.  While the dutch blamed the french walker for running!

Legend or not, we entered Simpson Bay Lagoon through the dutch draw bridge and enjoyed both the french and dutch sides equally.  The dutch side had all the marine chandleries and grocery stores while the french side had the local outdoor market, yummy bakery, cool wine shop and apparently a nudist beach.  Yep, leave it to the frenchies to have a nudist beach.  They are always naked.  Whenever we anchor near a french boat, they are always naked!  Some just shower naked on the back of their boat in broad daylight while others are naked all day long.  And they don't seem to care if you are glancing or staring.  Anyway....  Although I can not say I witnessed the nudist beach personally, I did hear some really great stories.   During our 2 week stay in St. Marrten, we anchored in Simpson Bay Lagoon (dutch side), had a short stay at Palapa Marina (dutch side), anchored in Marigot Bay (outside the lagoon on the french side), and anchored again in Simpson Bay Lagoon (french side).  Oh, and we left St. Marrten through the french bridge.  So we just about covered it all.  No favoritism here.

 The day that we had the rental car, after we were done provisioning, we spent the last 4 hours driving around the small 87 sq km island.  We left Simpson Bay Lagoon on the dutch side and drove counterclockwise.  This is the view from the hilltop leaving the Simpson Bay area looking south.

 Simpson Bay Lagoon.  The dutch side in the forefront and the french side at the top, past the bridge.

 Phillipsburg, one of the major cities of the dutch side about 30 minutes from Simpson Bay Lagoon.

Entering the french side.  We noticed there was no sign when we re-entered the dutch side on the other side of the island.  Hmmmm...

Oyster Pond is the first town after crossing over to the french side

Oyster Bay Harbor

We stopped at the marina to look around and grab a cold drink

Moving up the north east coast of the island.  This is a very popular place for kite boarding and surfing.

Marigot Bay is the largest city on the french side, located on the western side of the island.  

Just when we were warming up to the french, we had a rather confusing altercation going through the french draw bridge.  As we left Marigot Bay back into Simpson Bay Lagoon, we were first in line of many boats ready to go through.  The outbound vessels have right of way and then the inbound vessels get their turn.  No problem.  We heard the bell sound, saw the bridge go up and no one on the other side.  We proceeded under a green light.  The width of the bridge, mind you is about 30 feet wide with a channel as wide leading to and from.  We are 21 feet wide!  There was not a lot of extra room.  As we made it into the narrow channel, I saw a boat coming and then saw the green light turn red!  We were confused wondering if our eyes were playing tricks on us.  We slowed down but were still in a forward motion.  The bridge operator came out to see if the light was working and raised his arms in a big X for our benefit.  Oh $%it!  Now what?  We pulled back the throttle and Craig made an aggressive 180 degree turn, which would have been impossible if we weren't in a catamaran with 2 engines that can spin on a dime.  The boats behind us all started to peel off in all directions as quickly as they could to get out of the way.  Who does that....turns the light red when a boat is committed to going through a narrow channel.  Geez.  Then to top it off, we finally got the green light, and just as we approached the mouth of the narrow channel leading to the bridge, another, smaller power boat, came through.  Clearly he had a RED light!  We had to slow down and wait.  Craig and I looked at each other and shook our heads thinking "what the f___ man." Clearly this bridge operator failed boat traffic in bridge school.  I was so close to calling the bridge operator and asking what the protocol was because it seemed to change with each attempt!  We felt lucky to have escaped without running aground or into the bridge or another boat.  In the end we just laughed it off as another crazy french experience.

Yummy bread at the french bakery

It was really hard not to buy one of everything!

But we managed to enjoy a few goodies  

St. Lucia Part lll, last but not least

After nearly 2 weeks of visitors, Chris, our last visitor, arrives.  We celebrated his Big 5-0 birthday the night he arrived before Lizzy and Malia flew home.  Cari hired chef Joel to cook up a birthday feast at the 'Butterfly House'.  It was a spacious and comfortable home, perched on a palm tree covered hill overlooking the Caribbean Sea.  Simply breathtaking!

Finally, a man to hang out with!!

Chef Joel prepping for dinner.  Kate got many cooking tips from him.

Our feast of Mahi Mahi with creole sauce, salted fish and boiled bananas, veggies and plantains....

....and bananas flambé with ice cream for dessert!

Liv and Lizzy waiting for their ice cream

The following day, Cari took Lizzy and Malia to the airport while Chris sailed with us from Rodney Bay back south to Marigot Bay to their next rental house.  

While in Marigot Bay, Chris and I got hair cuts and Cari asked the woman in the salon if she had any tips for getting the braids out of Olivia's hair, which were showing signs of dreadlocks.  Instead of giving us tips, she went straight to work.  She was ten times faster than Cari and I put together!

The view from Chris and Cari's house in Marigot Bay.  So beautiful and peaceful.  We all spent one night off the boat in real beds, enjoyed the pool and long, hot showers!

We brought the 'provisions' and we all cooked a delicious meal in the big kitchen.  It was so fun listening to music, serving up painkillers and eating outside on the veranda.

Our meal of "almost lobster" (the name of the recipe - not mine); tenderized conch pockets grilled to perfection with butter, wine, garlic, onions and tomatoes.  We also fried up plantains and warmed up left over salted fish and vegetables from chef Joel the night before.

 We took Chris and Cari for a day sail to Anse La Raye to walk to River Rock Falls.

 The dug-out boats the locals use for fishing

 Anse La Raye town center

 Walking through town to make our way to the waterfall

We met First Blood along the way, asked him if we were going in the right direction for the waterfall.  The guidebook made it seem so simple.  I should have known better even though we felt prepared with our written directions.  We walked and walked and walked some more.  We heared some frightening loud booms, like dynamite, that made us feel a little uneasy.  We were passed by some dump trucks along the dirt road and even flagged one down to ask if we were going in the right direction.  "Yes, yes, it's that way" the workers told us.  Finally, we saw the rock quarry that was being blasted and decided we had better turn around and head back.  We had plans of snorkeling around the bend from Anse La Raye, and we didn't want to get there too late.  So we ate some lunch beside the river that we knew came from the waterfall.  So close but yet so far.

 Motoring around the corner to Anse Cochon, we plopped in the water to do a little snorkeling.  This is a well known spot with clear water and great fish.

Chris drives us back to Marigot Bay as the sun sets

Leaving Marigot Bay for the last time...I promise

Chris and Cari checked out of their Marigot Bay house, loaded their bags on our boat and we first sailed down to Souferie to see the Pitons before going back north.

Equal Rights helps us with our mooring by the bat caves.  Yes, we've been here before and this won't be the last...

Chris gets a lesson on how to tie up the mooring lines to the boat

We do a little snorkeling around the bat caves and eat lunch

Then we sail all the way back to Rodney Bay, again.  I think this was our third time in Rodney Bay. 

Olivia and Cari enjoy the sunshine on the trampoline

Rain squall produced a beautiful rainbow as we near Rodney Bay.  We quickly anchored between squalls and gave Chris and Cari our foul weather jackets for a wet dinghy ride back to the Marina where they caught a taxi to their new hotel.

A beautiful sunset after the squalls leave the area

 The following morning, while Chris and Cari would be sleeping in and spending the day enjoying their new resort, we went on a sunrise hike with Bob, Christine, Gene and Kat.  We hiked up to the top of Pigeon Island.  That meant we were up at 4:45 am and hiking by 5:20 am.

 Here comes the sun

Ready to hike down and get some breakfast on Virginia Dare.  On our way down, we ran into a sketchy looking dude wearing all black with his hood on.  Although he didn't look like a park ranger he was acting like one and said we needed to pay him our admission fee to the park.  So, he followed us all the way down the hill to where we had our dinghies parked.  He was then becoming insistent that we pay him $96 EC (for all 6 of us).  We were not quite convinced that if we payed him, the money would end up in the park's coffers.  We told him we would come back to the Park office at 9:00 when the park opened.  He wasn't buying it.   Things were becoming a little tense and uncomfortable when Bob suddenly said in classic Bob style with hand motions and head tilting,"OK, look, this is the situation.  We don't trust you and you don't trust us!" And Gene said,  "We're Leaving'."  And we left just like that.  Later we did in fact go back to the park office and pay our admission fee.  When we told the park officers our tale, they all raised there eyebrows and smiled and said we did the right thing.  They had no idea who that guy was. It just goes to show that if it doesn't look or smell like a park ranger, it's probably just another St Lucia con artist trying to fleece you.

The gorgeous pool at the Cap Maison Resort where Chris and Cari stayed for their last few days in St. Lucia.

We enjoyed the pool all day and then made dinner and had our last meal together in the Caribbean, a bittersweet night!  

Enjoying a rum punch poolside

Pina Colada's for the men

Sweet girls

St. Lucia Part I

After getting the boat all pretty, we needed to head to the southern part of the island to meet our first guests.  Along the way, we stopped in Marigot Bay.  It was a very small bay, only big enough for less than 20 boats it seemed.  We tried to anchor in the outer bay, but had no luck with the holding.   We picked up a mooring ball instead, located inside the lagoon, surrounded by mangroves and palm trees.

Sun setting in Marigot Bay

One of the perks for getting a mooring ball was having access to the resort pool (and swim up bar).

After our whopping 24 hour stay, we were moving on, leaving Marigot Bay.  But don't worry, we'll be back.....

  

Our first glimpse of the magnificent Pitons!

Pulling into the bay outside the town of Soufriere.

The bat caves near the mooring ball we stayed on.  We could clearly hear the TEN thousand bats squeaking inside that crack!  There was no mistaking that sound.

See, I told you there were lots of them.

Once on land, we went to the Diamond Botanical Gardens specifically to experience the mineral baths.  

Examples of some of the exotic flowers found on St Lucia (in the Botanical gardens)

   

The rocks turn yellow as a chemical reaction to the sulfur in the water that come directly from the volcano.  The water looks black instead of a pretty blue.  This is typical of volcanic water.  The water changes color each day depending on the metal content and quantity of iron and copper.

The PRE-mineral bath shower

The mineral baths.   Don't we look younger already?

Not sure what this is but it's some sort of fruit (may or may not be edible)

Olivia buys a hand crafted carved and painted piece of wood from the artist's studio