TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Tues/Wed

Yesterday the hotel began removing the sargassum from the GC beach. This is a multi-day exercise as thy rake the grass into the water, some comes back, the rest goes out to sea. Repeat. I thought it was strange, but it appears to be working. The major obstacle is that the beach is below a sea wall, so access is very difficult for things like Bobcats, utility vehicles, and other items used on accessible beaches. Plus, there's not enough beach to bury the stuff without digging a 10 foot hole. We still have Petite Plage and the pool for water activities, so no great loss.

The water is absolutely perfect--temp this morning in the shallows was 85--skin temperature so it's barely perceptible. Despite the ideal water temperature, the air is way too uncomfortable. I seriously doubt we'll come back in September, unless we just get the overwhelming need for an SXM trip like this time. Ok, so I give it a 50/50 chance. Right now the winds are still and the dew point is 79!!I'm now inside composing this report.

Life continues at a slow pace, with lunches being our main meal of the day. We went to Le Taitu Tuesday, as they had just reopened the day before. We were disappointed at the meals, but wrote it off to reopening miscues (we hope) and will be back. Mrs. C finally scored beef bourguignon which was under sauced and over salted. I had the chicken in blue cheese sauce, also skimpy on the sauce. We did make our concerns known, so we'll see how future lunches compare. Their lunch offering is a good deal at 17.4 Euros for a drink, plat, and cafe. Just don't pay in $. I didn't ask this time, but in May the tab was $20 US. I have no problem with this exchange rate so long as they disclose it, which they do.

Wednesday's lunch was at Le Champagne, one of our few excursions to the Dutch side. Aside from the food, a great thing about this restaurant is you can buy a bottle of wine from the wine store next door at retail, and enjoy it for lunch. Normally we have a bottle of pinot blanc set aside in the cooler for our meal, but we'd drunk the last bottle back in May, so Sylvain recommended a bottle of Sylvaner, also from Alsace. It's not a fruity as the pinot blanc, but did pair very well with our grouper. Oh, the grouper was excellent. Minimally prepared and pan fried in a lightish coating, it was moist and super flavorful--one reason I keep seeking out grouper. We also had an appetizer of beef carpaccio, which is the best yet that I've had on this island. The toasted pine nuts sent it over the top.

Life continues at a slow pace. We have put 170 klicks on the odometer of the rental car in our 10 days, so we do get out somewhat.

Attached are some sunrise and sunset pictures from some of the better weather days--well, one is from a stormy evening.

That makes no sense, for them to rake the seaweed into the water, but perhaps they expect the regular prevailing currents to take it away from the area?

Beautiful pictures! I do love some sunset pictures!

Where is Le Champagne?

Le Champagne is in the Orange Grove shopping center. If you cross the causeway from the airport/BSV, hang a right at the round about, pass the ACE Hardware store, take the next right and the strip mall is on your immediate left.

We'll see how this "organic" sargassum removal process works.

So they shove it out to sea to head to another beach? OK.

cruzer--OK, thanks. No wonder I didn't know where it was, as I don't travel that section of road very often.

Carol, also, if you remember where the Harley Davidson store was, it's in the little plaza across the side street.

Yes, I remember that. Thanks.