Simpson Bay Sint Maarten (Part 2)

The following day was ‘solar panel day’. After so long in conception, albeit with little bits done here and there, it was great to get moving on the meat of the solar panel project. The immediate job was to work on a temporary solution to mount the solar panels and with that done we became self-sufficient on power without having to run the generator daily. The batteries ideally need a little power for a long time to get fully charged which is not the best use of the generator because that should really be used at much heavier loads.

The stainless steel tube fitted and the solar panels properly attached on their adjustable brackets position. Just need to tidy up the wiring now

Whilst I worked on connecting the panels to the regulators and tying them up with rope so that they faced the sun, Nicky went ashore and found FKG, the stainless steel fabrication workshop recommended by Don. They had 25mm stainless steel tubing in stock (hooray!) and could make up what we needed from my drawings in just a few days; we were well on the way to the permanent solution for mounting the new panels which is pictured above.

View over Simpson Bay Lagoon. The Causeway Bridge in the centre of the picture approximately marks the boundary between Dutch Sint Maarten and French St Martin

Charlotte explored ashore whilst I worked on the solar panels and did some carpentry because the new outboard motor clamps didn’t grip out outboard motor stowage plate on the pushpit. Meanwhile Don drove Nicky around to drop off gas bottles for refilling before they returned to the apartment so that she could make good use of Anne’s enormous washing machine. The route to the gas filling station went up over the hill overlooking Simpson Bay Lagoon giving Nicky the chance to get some photos of the view.

Simpson Bay anchorage in the far mid-ground.  Look carefully and you may see BV anchored off the beach

Sint Maarten/St Martin is a part Dutch, part French island, though the border is hardly obvious except in Simpson Bay Lagoon, where the Causeway Bridge approximately marks the boundary. The only real difference between the 2 sides of the island is that on the Dutch side prices are in US$, whereas on the French side they are in €. The apocryphal tale of the division of the island between the French and the Dutch goes as follows: Rather than fight over the land a Frenchmen and a Dutchman started walking towards the centre of the island having started at opposite ends. Where they met would mark the border. To make things interesting, the Frenchman was armed with a bottle of wine to drink on his walk, the Dutchman with a bottle of gin. Gin being stronger than wine, the Frenchman walked further across the island and so the French ‘half’ is a little larger than the Dutch ‘half’. It’s a nice thought!

Saturday is half day closing in Sint Maarten so that morning was particularly busy. Don and Nicky went out again to retrieve the gas bottles (one of ours and one of theirs). Don’s taking Nicky up to the gas bottle refilling station was hugely appreciated by us. The filling station is quite some way from Simpson Bay and we would have been unlikely to have found it on our own. The various chandleries provide a gas bottle collection and refill service (get the bottle back the next day) but only on set days of the week which, of course, did not coincide well with our visit, so Don’s help was invaluable.

The iguana which lives on Snoopy Island keeping an eye on Charlotte zipping past in the dinghy

Charlotte whizzed me around to pick up last, bits and pieces from the chandleries and supermarket (somehow we had also fitted a couple of mega-shops into our time in Sint Maarten but had still managed to forget/eat our way through something vital) and then I had to deliver the old engine to the outboard engineer, buy more petrol and, as the shops were closing for the weekend, collect the stainless steel tubing from FKG. We had planned to leave that afternoon and sail round to Ile Tintamarre, which had been recommended to us by Ade and Sam on Nevabut what with one thing and another we just ran out of time. So, we decided to stay another night which gave me time to help Brian on Bragmend a glassfibre hole in his dinghy and also to start fitting the stainless tubing to effectively complete the solar panel project. Better still, it gave us time to host sundowners on board. Unfortunately, by the time that we made the decision to stay, Don and Anne had already made other arrangements for the evening so they did not come over, but Brian and Agnes (SYBrag) did, as did friends of theirs, Loz and Martin on Tikka, who had arrived in the anchorage that afternoon. Anne and Jonathon (SY Sophia) had headed back towards Antigua the previous evening after bubbly sundowners on Bragto celebrate Agnes’ birthday, so we were ‘only’ 7, but it was great fun and hopefully we’ll have the chance to catch up with Anne and Jonathon in the Chesapeake and to host a ‘thank you’ barbecue with Don and Anne in Maine over the summer.

So, bright and early on Sunday we went to hoist the anchor and move on, only to have the chain keep jumping off the windlass – the chain we had been supplied was the wrong stuff! Measuring it I could see that we had been supplied with 30mm pitch chain not the 28mm pitch chain we had ordered (and as marked on the barrel in which the chain came). That extra 2 mm makes a big difference! So, somewhat frustrated, we stayed put for a further day, during which time I finished the permanent fitting of the solar panels. Happily, getting the chain exchanged the following day wasn’t difficult, just time consuming, but it took quite a lot longer that I/we had hoped so we never did make it to Tintamarre (one for next time!). Instead, we set our sights on an overnight passage to the BVIs. After too many days at anchor off Sint Maarten, and now into the final week of Charlotte’s holiday, it was time to find some different beautiful beaches.

Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten