Sint Maarten: Just Vibes

Location: Lagoon Marina, Sint Maarten

I love this place! The lagoon makes for an excellent dinghy highway surrounded by good food, boats, and mountains. It rains during the night, and almost every morning, I wake up to a rainbow. Sunrises and sunsets are framed by beautiful, pink-gold clouds. The boats are beautiful, the views are great, and, most of all, the people are amazing.

The week started out, as most weeks do, with a bunch of errands. Jem and I were getting a little scraggly with our short hair (there were spiky tufts where spiky tufts should not be) so we went for a haircut. The barbershop is in a little side-road next to one of the marinas and is roughly the size of a large garden shed. I went in to get slightly trimmed, but I had forgotten that the entire length of my hair was that of a slight trim, and so I came out slightly bald. However, as slight baldness isn't exactly a new thing for me, I'm okay with it. I was not okay with the fact that the lady blasted "Blurred Lines" throughout the entirety of Jem's haircut and beard trim, but I suppose that it was an essential part of the experience. After our haircuts, Jem and I went to a small French café amusingly called "Zee Best" and met a fellow originally from Saskatchewan who befriended us after learning that I was Canadian and gave Jem directions to getting a covid vaccine here (they tend to have a surplus at the end of the day).

That afternoon, after giving the boat a thorough wash, we went to the supermarket. Raj, the dockmaster at Blue Pearl, very kindly offered to give us a lift there. The drive was nice; unlike the southern Caribbean islands, this one does not have a culture of liberal honking. Raj was originally supposed to move to the United States, but he stopped here for a tech job and eventually stayed for the next 30 years. Apparently this sort of thing happens a lot in St. Maarten.

So Raj droppped us off, and we entered Carrefour supermarket, and there our eyes popped out of our heads. (Anna's and my eyes, that is. Jem has already seen this part of the world and is therefore used to the finer things in life.) Carrefour dwarfs Carulla. It's the supermarket Garden of Eden. There are yellow and purple cauliflower, duck confit, at least four different types of kebabs, Krave cereal, tom yum paste, and an extensive section of European chocolate. We had to exercise a large amount of self-restraint.

We've spent a bit of time on Flora's boat Ananda. There's a crew of three: Flora (chef), David (captain), and Kyle (deckhand). Ananda is a beautiful 82-foot almost-navy blue monohull with enormous winches, a teak deck, an interior lined with light wood, and dark blue-grey cushions. You can tell that she was built to have a professional crew aboard. She's a polished creation, but I like the bumbling quirkiness of Heaven's Door slightly more. (There's a rusty coconut machete from French Polynesia still resting in a corner of the cockpit.)

Wednesday, Anna and I tried to complete various errands by dinghy. The first was to find the West Indies Maritime School to sign up for a VHF radio course. Unfortunately, I inherited my mother's sense of direction, and so it was quite a while before we found it. (It didn't help that we were trying to find it by dinghy, whereas it is only accessible by land.) After signing up for a course there (the interior is simply lovely, and air-conditioned!) we went to the Sint Maarten Yacht Club (where they make good bloody mary's) and signed up for a temporary membership, which would allow me to rent sailing dinghies with Anna on as a guest. Finally, we went to a dive shop to try to find an open water class. However, once we arrived, we discovered that they were closing that week due to covid, and they were in the process of shedding the last of their documents when we found them. Later we went to Lagoonies (same resto-bar where I used the wifi for the last post) for dinner and met a fascinating man called Jeff, who was from BVI, had a huge mane of dreadlocks, and had twenty-five cats that he fed on two enormous silver platters and whose names were mostly taken from people in Bob Marley's group.

Thursday an inspector for boat repairs came, and was shocked at the positioning of a hatch in one of the bathrooms.
"That hatch is not made to take direct water pressure."
"It was factory-fitted into the boat."
"Doesn't mean it's a good idea."
I can see many occasions where that conversation could be pertinent. By the way, I somehow forgot to mention in the last post that there's a meter-long crack near the starboard hull. It probably explains a lot of things.

Thursday afternoon I went sailing with Anna. We took a Quest, which I had never sailed before. In terms of how a Quest is, it's okay, I suppose. The jib sheets have a bit too much friction, the boat tips either not at all or way too much, and the steering is iffy, but not impossible. Would I recommend it? No. Will I probably do it again? Yes. This was Anna's first time dinghy sailing, and even though we capsized (the lagoon has strange wind patterns), she very much liked it.

Friday I took my VHF course, which was both a lesson in radio functionality and in the negative impacts of a bad powerpoint presentation. I found out that the lady next to me runs a brazilian jiu-jitsu gym, so I went there later this week. That evening, we went to a barbecue at Ananda's marina. I learned from an Italian gentleman named Mauricio from a boat called Ulisses that my name in Italian is short for Adolora which means "in pain." I'm not sure what to make of this information.

Sunday Flora invited us to go ziplining. Anna and I met a few of Flora's friends. Patricia, notably, was from Colombia and we discussed the amazingness of Carulla, as well as where to get good shawarma here. At the zipline place, we went up in ski chairlifts. The mountain had tubing as well, but dry tubing, with a long winding slope made of the type of plastic on which you can ski in the summer. Nevertheless, it was very fun. Even more fun was ziplining upside-down (you sit, and then you flip). We got rained on, but not too much, as we could stand under a roof for most of it. We watched a couple stuck on a chairlift during the entirety of the shower. When the rain stopped, we went up to the top of the mountain that had nearly 360-degree views of the island. From up there, Heaven's Door was nothing but a tiny blip of white. The final zipline was from the top of the mountain all the way to the bottom. One word: zoom. Sunday evening we went to another bar (the Soggy Dollar, on the other side of the lagoon) to see a live reggae band. Various beautiful-voiced ladies from the audience occasionally stood up to sing a song with the band, usually something Bob Marley-related. It was a great day.

Monday we moved from Blue Pearl to Lagoon Marina, which is on the waterfront of Lagoonies. The boat opposite of us, a catamaran called Razzle Dazzle, is home to a lovely Australian family, whose oldest kid (Fly, short for Butterfly) I am now tutoring in geometry. I then had my evening jiu-jitsu class. On my way there, I got the interesting catcall of "Hello beautiful, you have a lovely nose." And then, in class, my nose got smashed in and was decidedly less lovely. Nevertheless, I loved it. I had missed that judo-like vibe. Melissa, the teacher, has placed in multiple international tournaments and is a slightly scary lady. I like her.

Today Anna and I started our dive course! We went on a dive boat around the island, were given a (slightly too) quick safety briefing, and hopped into the water, which turned out to be much, much colder than in St. Vincent. However, we saw some interesting things, notably, an algae-covered walkway, an intact shopping cart, a helicopter wreck, and a strangely elegant statuette of Poseidon. We then had the most massive shawarma known to man (thanks, Patricia) that for some reason included tikka masala, but was still excellent. I finished the day by taking Fly to McDonald's. It's been a good day. We have a few more good days lined up. I'll keep you updated.