SXM: June 3-11, 2014. Random thoughts.
Flight down on USAir through Charlotte was fine. Had FF 1st Class tickets. Not sure that the FF 1st class will be as easy to get in the future as in the past. It seems there is less availability and more miles required for what is available this winter.
When we were going through immigration on arrival, the woman in the immigration booth startled us by asking us for our ID card we finally realized that she was joking about how many times we had come to Sint Maarten as shown on our passports. Not too bad a wait for luggage.
The other Joseph was waiting for us with his Unity sign and we were on our way. Michael was not there to do the paperwork first time that has happened I guess everybody gets one day off every few years. It was helpful to Joseph in doing paperwork that I had a copy of the email thread with Michael about the price of the car everything included. I know others have favorite car rental places but Unity has been good to us for years and we see no reason to change. Unity had Sharons phone and a SXM Privilege Card that Sharon (or her delegate) had put with the phone that was waiting for us. Sharon, of course, is the Queen of SXM! We never used the Privilege Card I forgot to take it with us when we might have used it. I also did not use the phone except for one brief business call. Almost no one wanted to talk to me during this trip which was excellent!
We drove over to Palm Court where Cecile has two third floor units to rent directly at a good price. Cecile formerly managed the Palm Court and has some kind of lease on two of the units. She also works with Wind Adventures they have a new sail cat and I think they had a charter over the weekend. It is available for charters and excursions. When we saw Bruno, we felt a little guilty about not having checked with him for this trip about availability at Paradise Bungalows. We think his units are better appointed the beds are better in my opinion Brunos bungalows are a little nicer - but Ceciles units are closer to the beach and to the Village, and the pool at Palm Court is a little bigger. You really cannot go wrong with either place if you are willing to have things very simple and you want to save your money for things other than lodging.
Jeannie (Shop N Drop) had delivered all our groceries to the room and into the refrigerator great job as always. Go Jeannie! We have been spoiled by no more stopping at Grand Marche on way from airport. One of these days we are going to figure out the perfect grocery order. No matter what we do, we seem to use things differently every year but this year we were pretty close.
Hit the beach about 3 pm on this arrival day and we had some good beach time before eating in the room and getting to bed early. As usual, every day, we got up early and went to bed early. We ate only two suppers out when we went to the Rib Shack after a day on the Scobitoo and at Le Piment on our last night on island.
Wednesday the 4th took the Prickly Pear snorkel daysail on the Scobitoo. Philippe was Captain and Alice (?) was First Mate. Very nice day. Only about 18-20 pax on board nice people very enjoyable day. Snorkeling OK at Prickly Pear but that reef does not seem to get any better. Ate at the Rib Shack in Grand Case this night. Good food at a good price. Parked in the municipal lot across from Calmos police and Gendarmes were seen around no problems.
Thursday the 5th went to Divi Little Bay. Told the guard at gate that we were going to beach and having lunch; she let us right in. If you just say you are going to the beach, I think they want you to park outside the gate and walk in. The beach was in great shape. The snorkeling along the rocks was very good this day. The visibility was fantastic. Lots of cruisers coming to Tiki Hut and on cats. When the wife took her second snorkel and I did my usual walk up to Fort Amsterdam, I could look down at the TIki Hut and easily see the bottom of the water. I do not remember having quite that good water clarity before.
There was no Divi sign at the entrance to the Fort. The chain link fence that Divi previously had put up and the government made Divi take down - was only up on either side of road into Fort there was no gate and no barrier to entry. I think there was one new interpretive sign, but I am not sure. Grounds looked OK same as usual. It looked like someone had done some work on the radio building but I do not know to what purpose.
The Divi resort was renovating the Sea Breeze restaurant and pool, and the front desk area. The beach past the Gingerbread Cafι at Belair had more sand that we have seen in years. I think the last time we were there in February 2013, the water was up against and under the Gingerbread Cafι now there is a good amount of beach between it and water.
Friday the 6th walked the beach took a dip and then drove over to Oyster Bay Resort Marina for the 4 hour snorkel with Captain Alan. Paul was apologetic about not reaching us to tell us that there were not enough people interested to do the 6 hour snorkel. We were fine with it we know that they do not get as many people interested in the 6 hour as the 4 hour. They had 17 people for the 4 hour and divided into two boats. Francois was our Captain and Ian (sp?) was First Mate. Good group of people and a good time was had by all. It was pretty rough heading out of Oyster Pond and over to Tintamarre Captain Alan warned everyone and tried to make sure everyone knew what they were going to experience no one backed out one young woman did take three anti-sickness pills. The trip to Tintamarre was very rough!
In a vivid demonstration of why swimsuits are dangerous, I managed to catch my suit on the ladder at the back of the boat when getting off the boat at Pinel that managed to throw me head first, upside down in water, caught on ladder I was not in the situation long enough to know how much danger I was in. The wife saw what had happened and yelled for Ian to get me and he was already moving to jump in and was helping me in a matter of a few seconds. I think I could have freed myself but Ian held me up and either he or Francois got my suit off the ladder. Very embarrassing. Worse, we lost a bottle of beer to the water but, no problem, they handed me a new one and I was off to the beach to walk around.
After this excursion with Captain Alan, we stopped at Paradise View for a drink on the way back to Palm Court. What a great view!
Saturday the 7th we spent the day on Orient at CO and Green Cay (or Isle Verte for the detail oriented). Waited until we paid for chairs and umbrella and then we swam over to Green Cay took about 20 minutes and then we leisurely snorkeled along the island for well over an hour. Great visibility, as was true most places all week. The reef at Green Cay seems to look better every year. One reason, I think, is that few inexperienced snorkelers go to Green Cay we have not seen big groups of cruisers go there for years. After swimming back, we had lunch at Andy and Cheryls. Cheryl, Ross (I think it was Ross back there), and George all seemed to be doing well. Not quite the same and it gave us some pause when eating there and just walking by because we knew we would not see Andy carrying on about something. Things change on the island as everywhere, not always for the best but, it really is the loss of people that makes you stop and think. Compared to those losses, more traffic or more concerns about crime and bugs hardly register.
At CO, Happy Hour is still 2:30 to 3:30 and Willy is as fast and as good as ever. That bell really does demonstrate what Pavlov demonstrated with dogs.
Sunday the 8th. In years past, we took several snorkel trips to Creole Rock from Grand Case Beach Club with Sebastien, who ran watersports there for years. We always had a good time with him. Creole Rock has some of the best snorkeling in SXM. I heard Sebastien had left GCBC and now had a boat for excursions. I had asked about finding Sesbastien and his new boat on this board before leaving on this trip and someone kindly directed me to his new boat, the Funseaker. After reviewing his website, we signed up for his eight hour three island tour: Creole Rock, Tintamarre, and Anguilla (Rendezvous Bay at The Place). Anguilla was absolutely beautiful on this day the color of the water next to the perfect white of the beach is just amazing. It was a fantastic day. Sebastien and his First Mate, Ella, were great. Along with a very nice family of four, we were the only pax a total of 6 pax on a 41 foot power cat built perfectly for excursions. We have gone on daysail/snorkel excursions with a good number of the boats in SXM and we think that this excursion with Sebastien on Funseaker is as good as it gets the only thing it lacks is sailing but a lot of the sailboats do not really do much sailing on a lot of the excursions in any event and this boat is really nice extremely comfortable. We did not miss the sailing on Funseaker. I cannot recommend Funseaker highly enough if you want a day on the water when you can do some snorkeling or other watersports. Sebastien is very accommodating to whatever you want to do. Sebastien says that he has his dream job with this boat and his joy in having this boat and sharing it with others really shows. They do other trips and are available for charters. If another excursion with Sebastien had been available before we left, I would have been tempted to go again.
Monday the 9th. After a short morning at CO, we drove over to the ferry and went over to Pinel. Price is now $10 per person RT. Got chairs and umbrella at Yellow Beach, as usual charged $20. I walked over the wife swam over from Yellow Beach to Eco Snorkeling Isabelles office at the snorkel area. I asked what she could offer us on this day and she agreed to give us an excursion. Isabelle and her business have some relationship with the Reserve Naturelle and she does her best to get people to follow the rules about snorkeling within the protected area. This is a tough job because many people do not have a clue they just throw on a mask, snorkel and fins and then proceed to walk over, kick, and touch the reef and everything there. While we were with her, Isabelle confiscated a big bag of bread (yes, a big bag of bread) from a guy who was pretty much tramping along over everything in his way and feeding bread to the fish. It is kind of depressing to see such behavior. Seeing the touching and kicking of the hard coral is particularly painful when you know how long it takes for the hard coral to grow. For our excursion, Isabelle first gave us a talk about the reef she is a marine biologist and is extremely knowledgeable and interesting. We then walked over to the other side of the point, entered the water, and swam outside the outside rope line (if you know area you know what I mean) where the best reef area is. She pointed out things and we had a great time. If you go to Pinel and are interested in snorkeling, you should talk to Isabelle even if you do not want to take one of her excursions. She is very interesting and is doing a good job to protect the reef there at Pinel. After taking ferry back, we drove to CO and hung out at the beach. Saw Cats2 (correct screen name ?) and Tom (I forget Toms screen name) and said hello. I thought I had seen them earlier on another day but the guy that I thought might be Tom (and was) seemed to be lying face down on his chair sound asleep every time I passed by. Some people just find vacation too exhausting!
Tuesday June 10. We drove over to Bay of Prunes for a snorkel. Had a good time, although the current was a bit strong past Plum Point and tired us out pretty thoroughly. The original plan had been to go to Philipsburg for a late lunch but it was a beautiful day and we had not made it to Happy Bay yet, so we went there for relaxation and lunch with Danny (I forget whether he is the Danny with one N or two). He made some great rib plates for us and the beach was looking beautiful as always. One guy was there to show himself off, but after being ignored by the few there, he disappeared - thankfully. Just fyi Happy Bay was CO when we were there this day. After lunch, we drove back to Palm Court, showered and changed, and drove over to Philipsburg and walked around a little. I was extremely proud of the wife who I think for the first time in memory walked past DK Gems without going in. Not enough time or any particular interest for something on this trip. She did buy a few minor non-jewelry - souvenirs as we walked along. After about an hour in Philipsburg, we drove to Boca Marina for Neils Sunset Lagoon cruise on Celine. As JB members, the cruise is free except for the tip. There were not that many people and everyone on the boat was a JB member. It was a good group of people and we enjoyed talking with others on the cruise. Neil and Michael were welcoming as always. After driving back to Orient, we parked the car and walked over to the Village. We ate at Le Piment, which seemed to be doing a great business. I had the beef tenderloin, which was excellent. The wife claimed no appetite and had a little pizza.
Wednesday June 11. We bought our pain au chocolat from Bruno at his bakery Macaron this morning (most other mornings, we got the morning pastries at CO). We chatted briefly. He is ready for a bit less work, after having gotten the Petit Casino, Macaron, and Yellow Sub up and running over the last few months, as well as having Dreams, and the Villa and Bungalows going. He really is one of the hardest working guys I have known. Hung out at CO beach for a last time this trip, before heading back to room and packing up. Drive over to Simpson Bay was very easy not much traffic. Turned phone in at Sharons, bought gas, checked in at airport no line at USAir at 11:30. We drove around past Sunset over to Beachside Villas just to see the area and then we headed over to Unity to turn in the car.
Did not see many mosquitoes but there were some and I got a couple bites. Hopefully nothing bad will come of them. Police and gendarmes seemed more visible than in prior years. Security at entrance to Orient Bay seemed a little more extensive, as well. From what little I saw during my morning walks on Orient Beach, there were nude walkers until 8:30 am or so. Mostly men, far fewer women walking nude. Again, this is just very random anecdotal observation. We parked several times at Club O and they were not charging for the parking. They now have Men and Women signs at the back of the Perch although the signs seemed to be ignored somewhat frequently if an emergency was declared.
Flight back to CLT from SXM was fine until we landed. CLT was a complete mess with the thunderstorms hitting southeast. Waited a long time to get to gate after landing. Airport packed. Flights canceling. Our flight canceled. Signed up for stand by next morning. Would not have found a hotel but for daughter who went online and reserved a room through expedia. Got some sleep before getting back to airport and getting on early flight.
But for final leg of trip home, Great Trip!!!
