Lots of Boat Work, Good Food and Great Times with Friends in Sint Maarten

We LOVE Sint Maarten! It is especially good for live-aboard cruisers with several great chandleries, lots of live-aboards, beautiful beaches and great food.  We spent four weeks anchored in the Lagoon and completed most of our work list.  We also reconnected with some cruisers from the Salty Dawgs and made some new friends.  We had lots of good food, including a fancy dinner at Ocean82 in Grand Case, shawarma at Little Jerusalem, excellent pizza at Pizza Italy, good food with a great view of the bridge show at Sint Maarten Yacht Club and barbecue ribs at the Dinghy Dock, Captains and the Lolos (Local food, Low Price).  The two downsides were that the French side, especially Marigot, is really hurting from the lack of business due to Covid and secondly, we couldn't enjoy the water as much as we usually do because of being anchored in the Lagoon (not so great for swimming).  I guess that helped in getting our boat work done.

Lots of sailing mega yachts with red masthead lights, required for >100 foot tall

Joli, anchored in the Simpson Bay Lagoon, is dwarfed by the mega yachts at the marina behind us.

THE LIST

Before and After painting in the master cabin

 

Changed out the lock sets on three doors

New batteries for the 12-volt bank

Lots of lugging of batteries back and forth

Old batteries lined up on the dock

Lagoonies - one of our favorites

Nice view while we were waiting to get our Covid tests for entry back in USVI

LAGOONIES!!! 

Bryan installing chafe guard on our new main halyard

LaSucriere - another favorite

Good life in the lagoon

Trip out the Simpson Bay bridge after 4 weeks in the Lagoon

Nice sail between St. Maarten and St. John

Moon rise as we approached St. John while being very careful to stay out of BVI waters

Rainbow in Francis Bay our first morning back in USVI