The following morning, February 15th, we departed Anse du Colombier, ultimately bound for St. Martin/Sint Maarten just 15 miles away. This short passage afforded us time to make a day stop at Ile Fourche, a small island a couple of miles to the NW of St. Barth's. Here the snorkeling was much better and we saw some interesting file fish.   

After our swim we continued on downwind with the Code 0 and arrived at 1430 in Simpson Bay on the Dutch side of the dual nationality (French and Dutch) island, Sint Maarten. We cleared into the Dutch side for two weeks which cost US$80 in associated fees. But moving between the Dutch side and the French side is casual and we could visit the French side ashore without clearing in and out, back and forth. Nevertheless, $80 for a two week clearance is steep (and that’s the price for the outer harbor—not the more expensive inner lagoon that many people find appealing). You get a year in the Bahamas for $300 (but if all you want is two weeks, it’s still $300). But in Sint Maarten, the high clearance costs are offset a bit by cheap prices on almost everything else. More on this below….

After the customs formalities we took the dinghy into the famous Simpson Lagoon to try to find CatAway – we had diverged with them upon arriving in St. Barth’s as Ken and Joan had already visited St Barth’s a previous year and wanted to arrive earlier in St. Martin and anchor in the lagoon. Find them we did and we made plans to go to a Cruiser Happy Hour the next evening, where we got our fix of tasty (and cheap) french fries. We made a separate trip to CatAway the following day to help Ken install their new house (main) batteries.
  
It would have been cheaper to clear in on the French side, but our arrival and clearing in on the Dutch side was intentional as we had been planning to enter Pas de Deux in the "Around St. Martin Multihull Regatta". This race would take place on Saturday, February 26, starting and finishing in Simpson Bay on the Dutch side. This also meshed with the expected arrival at the airport on the Dutch side of John, Wally, and Larry whom we had lured into coming to the island to join us as crew for the regatta. In fact, John owns a villa on the Dutch side and his local knowledge was extremely beneficial. We had been planning for some time to enter Pas de Deux in this clockwise race around the circumference of the island and our arrival well in advance was intended to allow us to prepare for the race. There is a "cruising" division in the race and this will give Dave a chance to dust off his past racing skills and for us to have some different excitement. Larry and Wally will stay with us for passage onward to the BVI after the race.

The dual nation of St. Martin/Sint Maarten is 37 square miles – almost equally divided – and is the smallest island in the world to be divided between two sovereign powers. The north half is the French side and the boundary line passes through the middle of the very large Simpson Bay Lagoon. The Lagoon can be entered from sea on either the French or Dutch side through draw bridges, but the Dutch bridge is the only one wide enough to allow passage of mega yachts. (It would be very tight for Pas de Deux to get through the French bridge.)   Hence, in the lagoon the Dutch side is the preferred location for mega yachts and there are ample marinas located there for them.

Many cruisers anchor in the lagoon, but there is a transit fee for going through the Dutch bridge so they go through the French bridge and simply transit to the Dutch side of the lagoon if they want to be there. We chose not to take Pas de Deux into the lagoon whatsoever to avoid the bridge fee and to keep from needing to perform our daily water maker operation in the rather “unhealthy” looking lagoon water. We anchored instead just outside the Dutch bridge in Simpson Bay and had a terrific view of Saba, 28 miles away to the SSW. We also got a great show several times a day during the scheduled bridge openings which always resulted in an entertaining boat parade. There are some really huge boats that come and go here…

Sint Maarten is a duty free port and there are bargains to be had on just about everything. Very good bargains. So this offsets the high clearance costs – if you need to buy a lot of stuff – and clearly this is a provisioning draw for the dozens of mega yachts that operate charters out of here. For instance, non-US liquor prices are close to half of what they are in the US. Not a place for recovering alcoholics. West Marine couldn’t exist here as the Budget Marine and Island Water World have terrific prices on boat stuff. The Budget Marine dinghy dock has more dinghies than there are cars in the parking lot. Grocery prices are cheaper than anywhere else we’ve been in the islands. We splurged on a big wheel of Gouda cheese straight from the Netherlands. Heineken beer? Cheap. Budweiser? Not cheap. Go figure.