TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Beaches are Awful

Just checked the Holland House web cam for the SXM Port, and the beach is covered with sargassum! Then checked Maho Beach by the Sunset Beach Bar, and that is covered in rocks! Neither beach is usable right now.

Those two beaches are really mostly used by cruisers. I am sorry to hear that seaweed is there in P'burg, but don't know about anywhere else on island. I just tried to check out Dinghy's webcam, and the lens is covered either with salt or rain, but I don't think there is sargassum there in Simpson Bay. No one has said anything about seaweed on Orient either.

Orient on this past Sunday and Tuesday had very little seaweed!
Overall conditions on Sunday were the best we have ever had on Orient.
no seaweed, and a very nice breeze (last couple of times we have been there over the past few years there was insane amounts of sargassum with extreme winds). Tuesday winds were picking up a little (we were at Kontiki from 9am-noonish) but no horrible seaweed at all.

I would guess that it is the wind direction that determines which beaches may have seaweed at any given time, when other beaches will be clean. Last year we had seaweed at our Divi beach in late Feb. for the first time we had ever seen it there in 25 years.

There were strong winds out of the south for a few days earlier this week that brought some seaweed in to Great Bay. We walked down the boardwalk Tuesday afternoon and there was some seaweed on Great Bay beach, but not too much. The problem was the surf rolling in. Would not really be able to swim at all and most all the boats normally moored in Great Bay were gone to shelter.

We’ve been here for a month so far and the beaches on the Dutch side are in bad shape, Mullet Bay, Cupecoy, Maho, Great Bay. The temp this morning is 21degrees. Last night was the first time in St. Maarten my wife and I wore jackets and we’ve been coming here for seventeen years. It looks like nice weather is coming and hopefully the beaches will come back.

Just checked it, they cleaned off the lens! Must have rained again last night, the tables are still wet! Beach looks good and the waves are calm.

I've been at Dawn Beach for about a month and with the exception of about 1 week of still manageable seaweed, it has been beautiful here. You just never know. And yes, last night was a little cool.

I am constantly amazed at how fast Maho beach gets built back. It's like the middle of the week never happened!

It's not full sand today, but much better than yesterday or the day before!