The St. Martin Report

If you ever sail around St. Martin / Sint Marten in the West Indies, as all sailors should, there’s much to enjoy. Foremost among them are the easterly trades. These winds are remarkably reliable, warm, and feel softer than 1,000 virgins lightly kissing your skin. Then there’s the color of the water, which is the bluest of blues. Furthermore, in addition to all the anchorages around St. Martin, including Grand Case, it’s only a few miles to Anguilla, a few more miles to St. Barth, and just a day’s sail to Saba, St. Kitts and Nevis. Mind you, getting between St. Martin and these islands is not like sailing between the islands in the British Virgins, because between St. Martin and anywhere is open ocean stuff, and everywhere in the British Virgins is protected water. Still, if you’re an experienced sailor, it’s worth the effort.

St. Martin isn’t lacking in cheap thrills, either. One of the favorites is watching the boats negotiating the narrow entrance between Pelican Bay and Simpson Lagoon. In order to do this, skippers have to wait until the bridge opens, which it does three times a day, then shoot the narrow gap. In the case of monohulls, it’s not too difficult. But in the case of multihulls and 200+ foot motoryachts, it’s a little more challenging, particularly when the trades are "reinforced" and the current is running strong. A chunk out of the cement on the starboard side of the bridge embankment going in proves that not all captains have made it safely.

The Sunset Bar, located just off the western end of the Queen Juliana Airport, is the site of other cheap thrills on St. Martin. For instance, they offer free drinks to all women who show up topless at their bar. Alas, this is one of those things that turns out to be much less satisfying in reality than theory. There are women who show up topless at the bar, but most people would buy them drinks if they wore burqas instead of going topless.

The Sunset Bar redeems itself by playing host to folks who want to watch the big jets land and take off from Queen Juliana. It’s such a popular activity, particularly when the KLM 747 comes in at 1:55 p.m., that the area swells with spectators. The Sunset Bar does its part by publishing the schedule of jets arriving each day.

While watching the jets land yesterday with Walter of the Netherlands, and Ilonka of Germany, who deliver our Leopard 45 ‘ti Profligate each year from the British Virgins, Walter told us an interesting story. Last April he was the skipper of the Perini Navi Salute, whose 210-ft mast is the tallest aluminum stick in the world, on a delivery from St. Martin to Italy. As they were leaving the island, they passed relatively close to the end of the Queen Juliana Airport runway just as a big American Airlines jet was coming in. The pilot of the American jet apparently didn’t like the additional obstacle to a safe landing presented by the big yacht’s too-big-for-the-Panama-and-Suez-Canal’s mast, because first he veered to the right, then he veered to the left. Finally, he just abandoned his first attempt at landing until the Perini cleared the area.

Anyway, that’s the way life is in this part of the Caribbean, where 20-knot trades feel sooooo good on your skin.