{"id":10714,"date":"2026-06-21T20:19:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T02:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/syfrenchkissinglife.com\/?p=10714"},"modified":"2026-06-22T15:33:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:33:38","slug":"sint-maarten-to-bermuda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/syfrenchkissinglife.com\/?p=10714","title":{"rendered":"Sint Maarten to Bermuda"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From St Eustatia, we sailed to the Dutch side of the island known as Sint Maarten (Saint Martin is the French side). We kept the boat on the French side last year but the Dutch side is much nicer and safer (in our opinion), if more rolly. From either side you can enter the massive lagoon but we did not as you must pay to anchor and there are strictly limited crossings (bridge openings) in and out. While we waited for our departure date to Bermuda with the Salty Dawg rally, we looked into getting a new outboard for Ginger. The 15hp we have is fine unless we have another person or a bunch of gear and then it just isn’t powerful enough to plane (the fastest, most comfortable and economical speed). Alas, after days of looking at the couple of places that have them, no one had the required engine controls we needed. As it would have been duty free and the labor rate is only $45\/hour, it would have been cheaper than what we later got installed in Hampton, Virginia at $175\/hour. But then, we were able to get one with electric tilt which we really wanted. So, John stayed on the boat for a week as Tess flew back to visit her parents. He kept busy cleaning the bottom and changing oil and filters in the engines. He found a small leak in one of the heat exchangers but fortunately Sint Maarten actually has boat parts! (And we now carry spare gaskets for this item…) Some friends we sailed with in Central America were on island so we got to see them a few times. John also found his way to Carnival here on the Dutch side for another version of this Caribbean extravaganza. Due to extreme traffic and very limited roads, he ended up walking over 8 miles in the middle of the day. Though the costumes were great and the music loud as ever, it was barely moving forward so he walked the route to see it all and then walked back. Nothing quite like the spectacle of Carnival in Martinique. When Tess returned, John went down to Maho beach, a spot famous for the jet blast of planes taking off. He filmed her plane landing almost close enough to touch and the jet blast from a \u201cheavy\u201d (big jet) takeoff was intense. One of those, “They’d never allow this in America!” things as it could easily knock you down if you weren’t ready for it, never mind the risk of eye damage from flying sand and debris. But it was pretty cool!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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