St. Martin: April 25-May 12, 2010
Click on the above thumbnail for a map during this time period
Grand Case
The huge bay at Grand Case, St. Martin, is a marvelous place. The
water is clear and clean, and the bottom is a mix of deep sand and grass.
Among the creatures that enjoy the bay -- especially the grass -- are many green
turtles. People enjoy Grand Case too; the main street is such a long
stretch of shops and restaurants that guide-writer Doyle calls it the
gastronomic center of St. Martin. Folks show up every night from all over
the island, and also from the anchorage, which tends to thin out in the mornings
and "fill up" every late afternoon/early evening. Well, "fill up" is
an exaggeration; lots of vessels show up, but the bay is so large that there is
always plenty of room for more.
When we first arrived at St. Martin, we went in to the Lagoon, since windy
weather was due soon, and Grand Case can be more than a little rolly if the
waves have too much of a northern component. But after doing some
shopping at the Lagoon's chandleries, buying, among other things, 7 gallons of
bottom paint, and waiting out the strong winds, we moved out to Grand Case.
Eventually, Devi and Hunter (Arctic Tern) completed enough of their
boat projects to be able to also move from the Lagoon over to Grand Case. For two days running we went snorkeling at the north end of the bay, circling
the island named Roche Creole. The soft and hard corals are "good, but not
great"; not as healthy and abundant as sites we have visited on other islands --
there is a lot of fire coral, however -- but the fish population was
impressive, a consequence no doubt of regulations which forbid fishing or
spearing in the vicinity. The resulting experience was in marked contrast
to what we had in, for example, Barbuda. On the second day of snorkeling
we all decided to focus on seeing how many different kinds of fish we could
identify. The crew of Tusen Takk II sat down after the swim and
identified 31 species, including species as diverse as a cute little red-lipped
blenny and an unflappable (but flapping) spotted eagle ray. (Complete list available on request; just send a $50 bill in
a self-addressed envelope to our snailmail address, and label the outside
envelope "fishy".)
There is an interesting array of floats near the shore of Grand Case that
creates in effect an Olympic-sized "pool". We have seen plenty of kids
horsing around on it, but never an organized practice or race.
We are in the process of ordering poles for our flopper stoppers.
We will write more about that as we complete the installation after the poles
arrive. We mention it now, because we got email from Wayne Thomas
(Fluke) telling us we were being watched. Wayne discovered a photo
showing Chuck up on the mast of Tusen Takk II
as he investigated how best to attach the support lines to the flopper stopper
poles we have ordered. The photo was on the blog of the ketch
Magnolia which was anchored at our stern. The website is:
http://billdietrich.byethost8.com/Magnolia/MagnoliaLog.html . The
photo is under his May 8th posting at
http://billdietrich.byethost8.com/Magnolia/Picture.html?Pics%2FClimbingMast-2010-05-08-GrandCase.jpg,Mast. Barb caught a snap of Magnolia
as it left our anchorage and headed to the north, presumably to visit Orient
Beach.
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Green turtle in Grand Case Bay.
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Another turtle; this one with a prettier head!
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Rub-a-dub-dub eight men in a tub...
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... and then there were nine!
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Roche Creole island, as seen from TTII
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Ketch Magnolia, who posted on his blog a picture of Chuck up on the mast
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"Pool" created by floats on the beach of Grand Case.
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Ridge Walk
While we were at Grand Case and the Terns were still in the Lagoon, we
decided to met in the middle and hike a ridge. We met at Rambaud,
and walked together on a road up to Pic Paradis, where we found the ridge trail.
We came back down at Colombier, and once again followed a road back to Rambaud.
There, we separated and each couple caught a bus back to our respective
anchorage. Along the way from Colombier to Rambaud we passed a tree
bearing a seed pod. Devi recognized it as a Sandbox tree pod, and insisted on
doing a little harvesting. The pod gathers internal tension as it
dries; ultimately it explodes with a BANG, spraying individual seedlings
everywhere. The seedlings are greatly valued by local jewelry makers and
cruising hobbyists alike; see the pictures below.
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Sign on property along the road up to Pic Paradis
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Zip line near the start of the ridge walk: "La Lottery Farm"
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Barb and Devi admire the view from the ridge
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Lots and lots of stone walls on the island -- look carefully to see that they are not all being neglected
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Devi gets some help in her quest for a Sandbox seed pod
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Captured seed cluster
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Appearance of one seedling after the Big Bang
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What the seedling can become in its afterlife
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Grand Case Walk
After Devi and Hunter (Arctic Tern) had joined us at Grand Case, we
decided to get in another hike. Devi had scrounged from a magazine in some
waiting room a couple of pages featuring descriptions and maps of hiking trails
in St. Martin/Sint Maarten. One appealing trail appeared to start at Grand
Case and make its way to Orient Beach by wending along the coast. We took
our dinghy in to shore and followed the main road east through Grand Case,
continuing east along a lesser road when the main road swung south toward the
airport. We soon reached a gated (and high-fenced) community with a locked
gate. Barb noticed a small portal on our left that opened to a path down
to the beach, and we took that further east until we ran out of sand.
Fortunately, we had also reached the end of the high fence, although the
dwellings continued. Giving hearty "bon jour" greetings to the elderly
gentleman sitting in his back patio in the first house past the wall, we walked
first up his steps and then up his driveway to the point where the road
continued east out from another locked gate that exited the gated community.
We followed the road up to a plateau where it branched into three stubs.
We took the leftmost, and it terminated at a cliff with no sign of a coastal
path. We scrambled up to the terminus of the middle path, where again
there was no sign of a coastal path. The rightmost stub led to a house.
Dogs barked as we stood in their yard and peered eastward over their fence for a
sign of a path. Curtains rustled at the windows of the house.
We consulted our maps. Finally, we approached the front door and
shouted "bon jour". A lady stuck her head out of a window, and we
asked if she spoke English. She did! We asked about the
coastal path, and she said it had been gone for many years, wiped out by
hurricanes. So much for Devi's scrounged map.
As we returned down the road and were approaching the gated community, the
gate was opened by a lady who was leaving in her car. She paused and
said hello, and asked where we were going. We told her about the
attempt to follow a coastal path, and she affirmed that it had been gone for
years. She asked if we were leaving via the beach, and we said we were. She asked if we wanted to go back along the road, and we said that we could not
because of the locked gate on the far side. That was no problem, she
said, and without hesitation gave us the "secret" code. (Code
available on request; just send a $50 bill in a self-addressed envelope to our snailmail address, and label the outside
envelope "Sesame".)
So we made our way back to Grand Case, and turned left on the main road
toward the airport. We had intended on walking the roads all the way to
Orient Beach, but soon noticed a dirt road heading up the hill/mountain to the
east. We took that, and soon were up on what we now think was "Pea
Tree Hill". When the path petered out at an antennae farm, we had to
decide whether to return the way we had come, or to do a little bushwhacking. We chose to bushwhack, and eventually, after crawling over stone fences and wire
fences, made our way down the hill to the area of Mont Vernon. We asked
for directions, and were directed to the back roads that would get us to the far
northern end of Orient Beach. Dressed in our hiking apparel, we
passed through increasingly less-dressed folks as we made our way to our
favorite restaurant near the "clothes optional" end of the beach. Along
the way, we passed a number of topless ladies, some of whom were very
attractive, and some of whom, were, um, not. After our lunch, we
caught a taxi back to Grand Case, since the prospect of walking the highway back
had no appeal.
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Panorama of Grand Case from the end of the road to the east
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Goats at the end of the road
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Grass hopper :-) along the road to the airport
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Bushwhacking down the hill toward Mont Vernon
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Tamarind tree where the bushwhacking ended and the dirt road began
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"Refined" Recreational Activities
We don't just go on snorkeling explorations and sweaty hikes.
St. Martin/Sint Maarten is a sophisticated island. There is a very modern
stadium-seating multiplex movie theatre on the Dutch side; last year we saw
Slum Dog Millionaire there, and this year we watched Avatar in 3-D.
And there are of course gazillions of restaurants, with a broad spectrum of
styles and types and price ranges. We have, in our own small way,
tried to take advantage of some of the opportunities that are available. We had a marvelous meal at the L'Auberge Gourmande in Grand Case.
We had delicious mussels (and frites) at one of the water-front
restaurants at Marigot's Marina Royale: La Main de la Pate. We have
returned a number of times to a charming little eatery on the Dutch side that is
run by folks originally from Columbia; Devi enjoys practicing her Spanish there,
and we all enjoy their delicious soups and burritos. Their name is
"Taco Macho". When you are in Sint Maarten, find it. You will
like it.
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