St Maarten/St Martin 9 June 2010 Newsletter Other newsletters Contests | Restaurants | Bargains and Happenings ISLAND NEWS

Weather: I've been watching the weather on Weather Underground and in early May it was 84F before noon and up to 86F in the afternoon. It's moving into the summer heat. As long as the tradewinds continue to blow, it's not oppressive, especially if you are on a beach. On the left is a shot of the lagoon taken from the Almond Grove area high above the eastern side of the lagoon. The end of the runway is the land at the left center with Maho and Cupecoy running across to the right. I think the island in the lagoon is Grand Îlet. The circumflex (the upside down v, ie the ^) above the I is used in French as an indication that the word once had an "s" in it, ie it was islet, which is still a word in English. In early June it was just a bit warmer, hitting 84F at 8AM but still only reaching 86F. The 80% humidity made it feel quite a bit warmer, but the 10mph breeze, if you were in it, helped.

The box shows the current local conditions and here's the detailed forecast from Weather Underground and here's one from the Weather Channel. Sunset today is at 6:43 and the moon is a waning crescent. The full moons in 2010 will be 26 Jun, 25 Jul, 24 Aug, 23 Sep, 22 Oct, 21 Nov, and 21 Dec.

SXM-Beaches: Galion Beach is the calmest beach on the island regularly receiving the Best Beach for Kids award from the readers of the Daily Herald. It's shallow and protected by a significant reef that breaks the waves produced by the tradewinds. Pat Turner at Tropical Wave keeps the beach clean and provides everything you need for a great day at the beach whether you want nothing more than a good meal, some drinks, and a comfortable chair with an umbrella or if you want much more: kite sailing, sail-boarding, snorkeling, and more.

Beach reading: Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 (Hardcover) by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck. The Amazon review says: "This is the classic cookbook, in its entirety—all 524 recipes. “Anyone can cook in the French manner anywhere,” wrote Mesdames Beck, Bertholle, and Child, “with the right instruction.” And here is the book that, for more than forty years, has been teaching Americans how. Mastering the Art of French Cooking is for both seasoned cooks and beginners who love good food and long to reproduce at home the savory delights of the classic cuisine, from the historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring-green peas. This beautiful book, with more than 100 instructive illustrations, is revolutionary in its approach because it leads the cook infallibly from the buying and handling of raw ingredients, through each essential step of a recipe, to the final creation of a delicate confection; it breaks down the classic cuisine into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalog of recipes; the focus is on key recipes that form the backbone of French cookery and lend themselves to an infinite number of elaborations—bound to increase anyone’s culinary repertoire. Bon appétit!" We have it in our kitchen. When we returned to the US this spring, we discovered that one of our pullets grew up to become a rooster. With Julia's help, we made a fine coq au vin.

Sapphire Beach Club: We were in our condo until mid-April and it is available 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, including the use of our 2010 SXM Privilege Card that gets you discounts on many restaurants. 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. 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: For active addicts, try kayaking. Tri Sport in Simpson Bay, Tropical Wave at Galion Beach, and Sebby at the GCBC activities desk offer kayak trips. At Tri Sport, you start just inside the lagoon and can either explore the flat water and islands of the lagoon, or head out through the Dutch bridge into the Caribbean. At Tropical Wave, you can start on one of the calmest beaches on the island and explore the mangrove swamp or head out to challenge the tradewinds coming across the Atlantic. Sebby sends you out of Grand Case Bay in the lee of Créole Rock where it is generally calm. You can explore the rock, land on its tiny beach, and do some great snorkeling. You can also go around the rock into the Anguilla channel where the tradewinds generally kick up some waves.

Shopping: Jeff, Deepti, Kamal, and Raj at DK Gems say, "If you are thinking about diamonds, think about DK Gems." They take pride in their extensive collection of loose diamonds in every shape and size. Set any of these diamonds in one of their hand-crafted settings and create an exceptional piece that's yours alone. Shop with absolute confidence, as you will get a guarantee on all purchases, certified appraisals, and a lifetime upgrade policy. We have used the upgrade policy to increase the size of Martha's diamond stud earrings one year and to add a surround a few years later. This year we used the design services to rearrange the stones from several recently inherited rings into a stunning pendant.

Groceries: We can get some very good fish at our local Price Chopper here in rural NY. Martha brought home a very nice mahi recently. It was frozen and vacuum sealed at sea, making it as good as fresh fish that has spent a week in the hold and another few days traveling back to port. It's possible to get fresh mahi on the island. The fish market on the western side of the Dutch bridge sometimes has it. Go early (around 9AM) and ask. If they don't have any, somebody may know of a boat coming in later that will have some. If not, Skipjack's Seafood Market on the other side of the bridge will probably have some. We made a pineapple salsa for our mahi. Take pineapple tidbits (no sense paying for the perfectly round version and chopping them up!) add some diced red onion for a color and taste contrast. Add diced jalapenos or serranos, pickled if you like. Pour on a bit of pineapple juice, squeeze in some lime juice and add finely chopped cilantro. No quantities given as they are some vary flavorful items that may or may not appeal, so use more of what you like and less of what you don't like. If you really don't want to cook, just go to Skipjack's and and order the mahi with their pineapple salsa!

Alcohol: In the last newsletter we mentioned that we had used the plastic bladders in various boxed wines to bring rum back to the US. We declared six liters of rum and were waved through customs as the duty was waived. As the rum was declared, smuggling was not the objective. A light weight, non-breakable means of transportation was desired. We actually used this box and bladder, Pinot Evil a VDP wine previously from France (in this case, the French island of Corsica!). It now comes from Hungary and tastes even less like pinot noir. We brought back an empty bottle of the Angostura 1919 rum and we use that for the bladder of Angostura and a decanter for the bladder of Mount Gay. Travel: The July issue of Caribbean Travel + Life had an article entitled "The Feast of St Martin". The first meal mentioned was grilled chicken, rice and peas, and a green salad. Tasty, but a feast? After a quote from Pascal at Auberge Gourmande concerning the availability of fine produce from France, I had some hope for the article. However, it eventually goes on to discuss lolos and says, "the food is consistently tasty, even if it's pretty much the same from place to place." Feast?

I'm dropping the restaurant exchange rate numbers because I am no longer on the island to check them and at 1.2 to 1, it's not so important. Charging your credit card in dollars used to save the 3% currency transaction charge that most cards are now charging for foreign currency transactions. About a year ago my Citibank card said they would charge me 3% just for doing business overseas - even if it was in dollars! I now use a Capital One card and get an excellent exchange rate. The frequent flier benefits can be used on any airline and there are no blackouts. For more info on credit card fees, read this article in the NY Times. They even mention Capital One.