St Martin, St Marteen

St Martin/St Maarten

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St. Martin/St Maarten is a half French, half Dutch Island situated close to the northeastern end of the Lower Antilles. The French half has some good European style shopping, but is is much easier to shop there if you have at least a rudimentry knowledge of French. The Dutch half is more typically caribbean. The language is Dutch, but English will get you by with few problems. The ship anchors on the Dutch side, and just a few blocks off the beach you will find one of Jimmy Buffets' favorite little shops, The Last Bird in Paradise.

We have been to this island three times. The first time, in 1988 on a cruise aboard the Festival, we shopped on the French side and went snorkeling off a secluded French beach. There were just us, two teenagers from Chicago and a honey moon couple. The poor groom had lost his ring in the water just as it dropped very steeply into deep water. Wayne tried to find it for him but it was gone. Shelly had one of the teenagers cameras around her neck on a long strap when she realized she was standing in chest deep warm salt water. She doesn't hold other peoples cameras for them any more.

The second time, in 1995? on another cruise aboard the Festival, we went snorkeling from Pinel Island, a small island just offshore from the French side. The snorkeling was pretty good, but the best snorkeling was in water to rough for Shelly. On the boat back to St. Martin, Shelly took her favorite photo. Unfortunately it is not yet scanned

On the third time, in 1997 on a cruise aboard the Seaward, the port in St. Marteen had been destroyed by a recent huricane and the ship has to anchor offshore. The passengers use a tender to travel from ship to shore. The dock our tender came to was a temporary dock. It seems the movie Speed II had just finished filming their dramatic climax right on the beach were arrived at and the beach and docks had not yet been cleaned up from the movie and hurricane.

Click on the icons below to see some pictures taken in St. Maarten

Harley shop

Port

On the fourth visit, in 1999, on a cruise aboard the Fascination, Wayne did something very interesting. Now there is a 'St. Maarten 12 Metre Challage'. This is an oppotunity to race a real 12 Metre Americas Cup around a real, but shortened course against other 12 metre racers. Wayne raced aboard the True North IV as mainsail trimmer, against the True North and The Stars and Stripes. Yes, the real Stars and Strips. These boats were purchased from the owners and used as training boats to train people wishing to become future Americas Cup crewmen. Our crew outperformed the other two boat crews, but the pure speed of the Stars and Stripes ran us down and beat us by half a boat length. This is a four star adventure and highly recommended. Contact Metres12@hotmail.com if you would like to try this.

Click on the icons below to see some Americas Cup Racing pictures taken in St. Maarten

Short rest after traing before the race

Racing -view of Stars and Stripes from my perspective

Racing -view of Stars and Stripes - this got close shortley after this picture was taken

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