St Maarten/St Martin 28 March 2010 Newsletter Other newsletters Contests | Restaurants | Bargains and Happenings ISLAND NEWS

Weather: Sunday afternoon got up to 84F and with little breeze the heat index hit 90. On Monday I awoke to a totally overcast sky followed by welcome rain. After that it cleared up, the breeze freshened, and the humidity dropped, so even though it was 86F, we were quite comfortable with no A/C. On the left is a sunset photo taken that evening from the cliffs above Cupecoy. Monday was a spectacular day, although there were scattered (and welcome) showers. Tuesday was more of the same, reaching 84F by 9AM, but staying there into the afternoon. With a good breeze, it was quite comfortable without A/C, as the humidity was down. We even got a hint of Saba through the haze. Wednesday and Thursday just kept getting better.

By Friday the wind had tacked to the northeast (the usual direction for the tradewinds) and was blowing at about 10 mph. The humidity had dropped to 62%, making the heat index essentially equal to the temperature of 84F. Saba was quite visible and one could make out Statia (35 miles out), but St Kitts at 55 miles, was still hidden. It sprinkled a bit as we drove to dinner. The photo of Saba on the right was taken on Saturday morning as the sunlight raked the north side of the island. You can see the houses marching from the airport at the lower left up the hill toward Mount Scenery with its rain forest. The peak is lost in the clouds, as usual. Eventually the road curves south at Hell's Gate and passes through English Quarter and Windwardside, finally reaching The Bottom. Here's a map. SXM is almost due north of Saba. The box shows the current local conditions and here's the detailed forecast from Weather Underground and here's one from the Weather Channel. We passed the equinox, which is to say the sun reached the equator and we have more than 12 hours of sunshine per day. Sunset today is at 6:21 and the moon will be full tomorrow - great for dining on the sea. Think Grand Case. The full moons in 2010 will be 29 Mar, 28 Apr, 27 May, 26 Jun, 25 Jul, 24 Aug, 23 Sep, 22 Oct, 21 Nov, and 21 Dec.

SXM-Beaches: After some 3 months, the sand is back at the main "Shore Pointe" beach at the far northwestern end of Cupecoy. There are still lots of rocks exposed, but sand enough for a couple of dozen chairs. There was also a bit of sand at the middle beach just south of that, north of the monolith, and in the corner and northern portion of the baby beach. The water was reasonably calm on Saturday.

Beach reading: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson Publishers Weekly says: "Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family's remote island retreat north of Stockholm, nor do fiction debuts hotter than this European bestseller by muckraking Swedish journalist Larsson. At once a strikingly original thriller and a vivisection of Sweden's dirty not-so-little secrets (as suggested by its original title, Men Who Hate Women), this first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker. Hired by octogenarian industrialist Henrik Vanger, who wants to find out what happened to his beloved great-niece before he dies, the duo gradually uncover a festering morass of familial corruption—at the same time, Larsson skillfully bares some of the similar horrors that have left Salander such a marked woman. Larsson died in 2004, shortly after handing in the manuscripts for what will be his legacy." The movie is just now making its debut, but the book's American publication coincided with the downfall of Lehman Brothers. The book is about the crimes of corporate bigwigs and actually has a passage that says: "A bank director who blows millions on foolhardy speculations should not keep his job” and also “A managing director who plays shell company games should do time.” We listened to the audio version last summer, but the paperback is available for $5.50.

		Construction: Porto Cupecoy is moving along. There is still not a lot open, nor are their many "residents", making something of a catch 22. It's a pretty lonely place to locate a business at present. The Bateau Ivre (Drunken Boat), an outdoor bistro, is open on some days and looks lovely. The views from the waterfront are also beautiful. The sign is a little difficult to read but Moulin Fou will be opening an outpost here. The story I hear is that Thai Fou at Maho will give up on Thai food, keeping sushi. Blooming Baskets and Shipwreck Shops are also on the sign. It appears they will have a watersports shop.

Sapphire Beach Club: We are in our condo until mid-April but it is available after that for $900 to $1000 per week until 15 Dec, when high season kicks in. You'll get a 10% discount from Unity Car Rental, one of the longest running and most trusted on the island, and many more coupons as well. Check the calendar on our website for available dates. For those of you who wish to sell or rent their week or unit, we have opened up the Sapphire Beach Club website for that purpose. We charge $25 per year. If you wish to rent or sell your unit, send us some text (and $25 to esk@sxm-info.com via Paypal). If you wish to rent or buy a unit without high middleman fees, check out the website. Given the large assessment that Sapphire just levied, there may be a lot of sales. At present, there are 20 sales and/or rentals available directly from owners. Given a 25 to 35% standard rental commission, there should be some bargains in eliminating the middleman and dealing direct.

Activities: On Tuesday night at Peg Leg Pub we caught the first set of Cover to Cover, which is Bob and Dave, a guitar, a lot of professional backing tracks, a closet full of clothes, plenty of props, and years of experience covering the hits from the fifties to the almost present. Not only do they cover the songs, they vamp the singers. That's Mick Jagger on the left and Elvis on the right, complete with hair and a blue lamé jacket. Yes, it should be gold lamé, but the price of gold is a bit high at the moment.

We got to Pineapple Pete at about 9:35PM, just in time to catch the opening song from the House of Blues and More. From the right, that's Alex on bass, Youmay singing (also doing trumpet and getting some amazing sounds out of a cowbell), James on drums, Amin and Ronny on guitars. They swapped lead and rhythm guitar roles all night long, sometimes in the same song. By the end of the night Amin was fretting Ronny's guitar as Ronny plucked a solo. Yes, these are live action photos, not studio shots, and that explains why Youmay and Ronny have microphones in front of their faces. Sorry guys. Toward the end of the night we had a guest harmonica man and Jim B, an ex-pat with some resemblance to Santa Claus, came up and astounded the crowd, not with "Jingle Bells", but with Led Zeppelin tunes. He sure didn't look like Robert Plant in his prime, but he sounded like him. Then again, Robert Plant no longer looks like Robert Plant in his prime. He's 61.

Again, this is not a very strenuous activity, but you can watch the NCAA tournament at Pineapple Pete's ESPN bar and at Bonita's Cantina. Bonita's outfitted the front room with a new bar and two big screen TVs, just in time for the Superbowl. The back dining room also got some new and better TVs as soon as Bonny and Bryan took over. A chat with Bryan revealed that he had seven receivers, so he can have one group watching the the tournament, another watching the six nations rugby matches, and a third watching soccer. That leaves plenty of room for boxing and tennis, if they should intrude. The next bit of news is that Bryan is offering a contest entitled Stump the Chump during the tournament. You may remember that Bryan got his MBA at Oklahoma Joe's in Kansas City. That's Masters of Barbecue Administration. His loyalty to Kansas cost him a few pulled pork sandwiches as the Chump was stumped when UNI (home of my maternal ancestors, Northern Iowa anyway, none of them went to college) beat the Jayhawks. Come on in and get your share of the fun, maybe even your share of some pulled pork.

Crime: The Gendarmes caught somebody who stole a laptop computer from a patron in a restaurant within half an hour. This is an amazing change. In earlier days, you couldn't find a policeman within half an hour. Now they are responding and catching petty thieves, and not so petty thieves. While dining in Grand Case, we usually see two or three truckloads of Gendarmes heading down restaurant row in the course of an evening.

GEBE: We didn't notice any trouble at Sapphire or at Marci's Mega Gym in Simpson Bay in the morning or while we were at any of our dinners, but the paper reported that they had some troubles.

Nature: There have been a couple iguanas killed crossing the road near the airport and I've seen a couple others trying to cross safely. Their recent peregrinations are caused by both the very dry conditions and the construction for the runway extension. An old bit of folklore says that there were no iguanas here until a delivery of pet iguanas came into the airport. The box was dropped and broke open, releasing all of them into the swamp that many years later was filled in to make parts of the new airport. Our office is well over 100% solar-powered and our servers are about 130% wind-powered. Small Island story: The governing coalition tabled a budget, several amendments were made, and everyone went home to read it all - somewhat less dysfunctional than usual.

The only prize that hasn't been awarded in the Regatta Contest is the two for one week at Marci's Mega Gym. I think that speaks volumes about my readers. They must all be in such fabulous shape that they don't need to exercise. Congratulations. I too have six-pack abs, although mine are named after the reason they look like they do. The sleek motor yacht is "berthed" in what landlubbers call Galis Bay, based on the road signs in the area. People with good maps can see that it is called Bay of Potence or Bay of Portence. Potence in French means gallows in English, making it pretty close to Galis Bay. You can actually see the ship on Google Maps. It has deteriorated somewhat since that satellite passed over.

I asked the winners to tell us about their experiences. Here's the first, from Oizeau Rare: We had a table with a view of Marigot harbor and all the comings and goings at the waterfront. There was a nice breeze on a hot day, and we love the Caribbean colors of the gingerbread trim and louvered shutters. We started with a bottle of my favorite, but expensive, red Badoit extra fizzy water (6€). The Guigal Cotes du Rhone (24€) was slightly cool, and perfect with the bavette of black angus beef (16€), accompanied by a toasted baguette slice with melted goat cheese, a bit of ratatouille, red cabbage, potato puree, and of course those wonderful frites. The tartare de boeuf (right, 15€) was served with the traditional raw egg yolk, a crispy salad, and frites. The total bill came to $86.

Current Contest:

28 February to 25 April 2010
Caribbean View Condo - half price summer rental (May-October)
Lagoon Pub Crawl - two for one ticket
Skipjack's - $50 off a dinner for two
Select Wine Cellar - Wine tasting and a bottle of wine
Random Wind - $40 gift certificate
MMG 2000 - Two for One week at the gym with a shake
Tijon Perfume - One free bottle
Peg Leg Pub - $50 off a dinner for two
PassportMD - Six months free service
Radiant Gems - $50 off a purchase of $200 or more
Lighthouse at Oyster Bay - $1000 off a summer week (June-October)
Piazza Pascal - $50 off dinner for two

Read our rules, visit the websites of these sponsors, find their contest codes, and enter them on our entry form.

One of the rules is that you should enter each contest only once. You can enter five of the drawings on one entry. Thus, you could win a rather nice vacation at a considerable savings by combining accommodations with dinners and activities.

Future Contests:
25 April to 25 July | 25 July to 31 October | 31 October to 26 December
same cast of characters as current contest

Blue Martini   On Monday we went to Blue Martini next to the parking lot in Grand Case. We ordered the extra fizzy Badoit water in the red bottle and the 2008 Pinot Noir from Pays d'Oc (17€). The water really does have extra fizz compared to the normal Badoit. The wine comes from young vines in southern France. As such, it will not rival the taste of Burgundies, but neither does the price. Blue Martini offers an all you can eat foie gras and cold cuts starter with any fish or meat main course for 35€. This is a much better approach than ordering the foie gras (below left, 15€) and the ribeye (below center, 22€) - better for your wallet, not necessarily for your cholesterol level. Martha had a special pizza (below right, 14€), the Savoyard, with reblochon cheese, potatoes, onions, and lardons (crisp bits of bacon). It's starkly white, but very tasty. We skipped desserts and finished with complimentary flavored rums and espressos. The total cost was about $90 using a 1.25 to 1 exchange rate, quite good compared to real rate. Because we had been spattered with rain on the way over, we ate inside in the nicely appointed dining room rather than in the outdoor garden.

Peg Leg Pub and Steakhouse On Tuesday we went to dinner at Peg Leg Pub. They moved over to Port de Plaisance (with unlimited free parking) about two years ago. In doing so, they lost some of the pub-like atmosphere but they gained a lovely covered open air space with views of the lovely grounds at one of the island's premier resorts. They also brought along all their beers, including Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, and Leffe Blonde on tap. Other big news is that Eric Brown recently bought the restaurant from Jack and Linda Parker who are still aiding in the transition. Not much has changed at this point, just a bit of tweaking. The wine list has been improved and Cover to Cover now play two nights per week (Tuesday and Wednesday) with The Island Drifters playing on Friday. We ordered a Champs Perdrix 2008 Bourgogne ($32) to go with a ribeye (below left, $30) and a special Beef Wellington (below right, $35). The name may be Peg Leg Pub and Steakhouse and the steaks are all USDA choice, but when it comes to the menu, they are more pub-like. Both of our dinners included starch and veg at no extra charge, a welcome relief from standard steakhouse charges. We skipped aps as the Beef Wellington special came with a dessert. As you can see the ribeye had a baked potato (although there was a choice of mashed, French fries, etc) with sour cream, a medley of tasty veg, and a sauce (with mushrooms). The Beef Wellington came with some very tasty smashed potatoes, touch of mango, some mushroom sauce, and some carrots. I really liked the smashed potatoes because of their extra texture. An entire and very tender beef fillet was coated with spinach and wrapped with pastry dough. This was then sliced into rather generous portions, as you can see. The ribeye was not as tender as the tenderloin - no surprise there - but was every bit as flavorful. Our dessert was a black forest cake with plenty of whipped cream. Though we generally don't do desserts, we did this one! We lingered after dessert to listen to the band and had a half liter of Stella and some rum. The total bill with the 3% TOT added was a bit under $110, with tip, $130. Take the extra drinks out and we spent about $120 for two main courses, a bottle of wine, and a dessert, much the same as our usual dinner of and ap, two main courses and a bottle of wine. One of the differences between this and our usual dinner was that this one consisted of two courses of USDA choice beef and we took half of it home. The tenderloin was great the next day on a salad of romaine with roasted red peppers, onions, and Guadeloupe tomaotes.

LE TI COIN CRÉOLE On Wednesday we headed over to Le Ti Coin Créole at the far end of Grand Case. It's possible to walk from the central parking lot, but there is a bit of parking next to the restaurant and a bit more on the street. We got a spot in their lot and walked in to a corner table. We ordered water and the Picard Bourgogne (22€). Créole food is not necessarily hot, but Carl does offer some wonderful home made hot sauce. We used it sparingly because of the Burgundy. A sturdy syrah from Rhone would be better, if you liked really spicy food.       Martha always has stewed conch as her main course and as I always try to have two different main courses, I have the conch salad as an ap (below left, 6.50€). It's amazingly tender conch in a tasty and slightly hot dressing. Martha ordered the crab back for her starter - excellent (above right, 6.50€). Martha's stewed conch is in the center (13.50€) and I had one of Carl's signature dishes, the seafood pasta (below right, 19€). We were both very happy. The conch was tender, the pasta was al dente and loaded with fish, shrimp, scallops, and even a bit of lobster. The total cost was $95. This is real Créole food from a real chef, cooking in the house he grew up in. Honest.