TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin West End of Simpson Bay Slammed With Sargassum

Not a pretty sight first thing this morning. The winds continue out of the SE and will switch to the E this evening.

Wow, that's very unusual!

Really nasty. The guys there at BSV are pretty good about cleaning the beach. I imagine the stuff on the El Z end will be there for a while.

I just took this picture a couple of minutes ago in Simpson Bay - there's a big blob heading towards the beach. In the military this would be considered "incoming"

Yuck and double Yuck.

It was a lot worse not long ago on the French side beaches and even Mullet Bay. In our experience the sea grass normally gets to be sand fast and water ok to swim in plus if you're at beach bar they normally rake it up fairly quickly. Not that bad imo.

"if you're at beach bar they normally rake it up fairly quickly"
Maybe in a perfect world but I've been at some Orient beach bars where they never tried to clear it last May. Probably the same bars now. Doesn't make it fun to walk the beach.

When we stay at BSV the guys are always out very early raking it away and cleaning the beach to perfection, assuming there is anything to get rid of. If there is anything there at all it usually collects by the d-boat and cliffs end of the beach. Not to sure as to what EZBeach used to do.

Pat this is beyond a few men with rakes.I do not Fault the staff of BSV at all, they all have been wonderful. We left for our daily morning walk down Simpson Bay Beach way beyond The Horny Toad. When we left there were 2 guys starting to rake and when we returned there were none, it's overwhelming for any amount of men to clean this mother nature event. Three hours later when we returned it is worse than when we left. It would be a big big task for machinery to clean this up. Again I must say that it is NO FAULT of the staff at BSV, it's just overwhelming at the moment.

It's going to take more than a few good men. Current view from the pool deck.

Mother Nature sure has a mind of her own. If anyone can get the job done it's Emmanuel and his crew. It's a lot of work for them but as others have mentioned they are there racking and bagging it in the mornings. We've been staying at BSV for the last 13 years and if there is sargassum they are cleaning it up.

And mother nature isn't taking that away anytime soon.

Fabila this is beyond raking and baging. I know Emmanuel is good but this is beyond him. I hope I'm wrong. It's 1 to 2 feet deep and would take a thousand bags. I hope they have a plan because it stinks.

Whale Tail--It looks really bad.

Looking back, I'm so grateful that the beach was beautiful for your special day!

Carol - It is really really bad. The comments about raking it up, is not the reality of what is happening. Thankfully all our planning for our vow renewal worked out perfectly a week ago today. But this situation will not be solved tomorrow. This is a view from immediately in front of our villa

So very sad to see the size and scope of the sargassum accumulation. We have NEVER seen it any where as bad in this area of the island - other areas for sure - but not along Simpson Bay Beach. And at BSV Emmanuel is always out early and making his piles of debris before most are even up to see it.

Happy your event was last week and this one.

Any chance to move to a different resort? One that isn't as affected.

We will see what tomorrow brings. We would rather not. Again this is beyond BSV 's control

Scuba--Seriously?? Simpson Bay Beach is historically about the least affected by sargassum, on the whole island. Move somewhere else and you may get the same thing.

Never seen it at Divi, Simpson Bay Resort or Flamingo before. But no guarantees.

So, how's it going there now, Whale Tail? Hope it's getting better.

We stay on Simpson Bay a lot. Never much of a problem over many many years. Friends at Mary’s Boon said The beach is clean and gorgeous today.

Carol - Our routine since we got to BSV has been to get up and have breakfast, then go for a long walk on Simpson Bay almost to the end. When we left this morning Vickey had brought in more manpower and there were 5 men raking and bagging and then dragging the bags to the small dump truck, our neighbors told us that they saw them open 3 boxes of bags each box containing 100 bags.They were making progress and were leaving the fresh stuff by the waters edge for later because it was the wettest. We gave them water bottles and off we went for about 3 hours. On the return trip we stop at Karacters for rehydration and saw another blob infront of Saba headed to BSV. The weather network said the wind was out of the east but the boats anchored in Simpson Bay were pointing SE. I guess the water current and wind can differ.
Vickey told us that he has only seen it this bad only once in the past. The crew deserves alot of credit for their efforts, but they are fighting a monster. The last picture is right now at 4:45. Their struggle continues. Bless them for all their efforts.

Looks like they have another full day of raking tomorrow.

Wow, I'm sorry this happened to you, Whale Tail.

We feel sorry for the workers trying to keep on top of this. But it is what it is. Soon we will be walking down to Karakters for dinner and a night of Alfredo and his band, should be good. Then a taxi ride home.

OK, sounds like a wonderful evening!!