Make Mine St. Martin - boating in the Caribbean Area

Boat/US Magazine, Jan, 2000 by Becky Squires

Boaters planning to explore the Caribbean usually have one primary question -- "'Where should I go?" There's only one answer to that -- "What are you looking for?"

Ranging in size and topography from miniscule and flat as a pancake to big and mountainous, each Caribbean island has its own unique style, with much of its culture depending on who colonized it -- Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, or Spain.

Still, certain generalities can be made between the eastern (everything east of Cuba) and the western Caribbean (the countries and islands of Central America.) You'll find more of the accouterments of "civilization" in the east, including such amenities as working telephones, ice cream and duty-free shopping. The eastern Caribbean has more visitors -- read "tourists" -- than the western Caribbean, and many more facilities for them. On the other hand, the western Caribbean is strewn with Mayan ruins that, centuries later, are still revealing the mysteries of their ancient culture, while the history of the eastern Caribbean was written primarily by pirates and generals:

But whatever the differences, every country shares what's most important from a boater's perspective: the glorious Caribbean Sea and the tropical trade winds. Once you decide to visit the Caribbean, where you go really depends on what you want to do once you get there. To help you decide, we've put together a couple of week-long cruise itineraries that allow you to sample the plusses of both sides.

The first is centered around St. Martin -- with side trips to Anguilla and St. Barts -- in the eastern Caribbean and the other (in our next issue) in the western Caribbean nation of Belize.

St. Martin

More than 350 years ago, France and the Netherlands divided the tiny island of St. Martin in half -- France got the northern part, and the Netherlands, the south. One story, relates Chris Doyle in his terrific Cruising Guide to the Leeward Islands, is that the French and the Dutch were way too civilized to fight over who got what. Instead, a Frenchman armed with a bottle of wine walked in one direction and a Dutchman equipped with a flask of gin took the other. Their meeting place became the new boundary and, because gin is more potent than wine, the Frenchman made it a little further.

Even though everyone on the island has gotten along famously since those days, and there's no perceptible border between them, a casual visitor can readily discern the difference between the two sides. The Dutch side is more commercialized, more built up, and a tiny bit more efficient. The French side has the best food this side of Paris. The whole island is duty-free, and the shopping is terrific everywhere.

It's easy to get around St. Martin by bus or taxicab -- and you should definitely take a tour -- but the French side has the more picturesque anchorages. If you're chartering a boat in St. Martin, you'll pick it up in beautiful Oyster Pond, where you might be tempted to spend the whole week. Give it a day instead, and then head for the town of Grand Case, on the north shore of St. Martin.

Food is what France is all about, and it doesn't get any better than in Grand Case, which boasts a beautiful harbor to boot. Once you're ashore, you'll see one long street, lined with flower-bedecked restaurants featuring the finest in French cuisine ... mostly at French cuisine prices. But even if you're on a budget, Grand Case is too good to pass up -- there are open-air barbecues right by the dinghy dock, serving up everything from conch to ribs at prices that make it pointless to cook yourself. You can work off some of the calories by going snorkeling at the northern end of the anchorage.

Then head for Marigot Bay, outside the French capital of Marigot. There's a new sea wall and the once rolly anchorage is a lot more settled now. Whether you walk down the streets filled with sophisticated shops or head for the huge open market held on Wednesdays and Saturdays, you'll feel more like you're in France than in the Caribbean. The MATCH supermarket just a few blocks from the dinghy dock is a real plus: You can load up with baguettes, cheap French wine and pate, and loll about in your cockpit, eating like a millionaire on a six-pack budget.

Orient Bay, where people go to get tans without strap marks, is one of the most famous and beautiful beaches in St. Martin. You can get there by boat, but unless you're a very experienced skipper it's better to leave the boat in Grand Case or Oyster Pond and take a cab. It's easy to while away a whole day just walking up and down the beach, exploring the many makeshift stalls where vendors sell everything from tropical-hued pareos (scarves) to homemade coconut bread.

Anguilla and St. Barts

While its ambience makes St. Martin a wonderful place to visit, nearby Anguilla and St. Barts are wonderful places to boat to. Both islands are just a half-day trip (at most) away from St. Martin, and you can either take your own boat over or hop on one of the ferries that depart daily from Marigot to both islands.