St Maarten/St Martin 20 January 2013 Newsletter Other newsletters Contests | Restaurants | Bargains and Happenings ISLAND NEWS Weather: Last Sunday turned out to be a wonderful sunny day and Monday followed suit. In the early morning there were a few clouds and some rain squalls out in the Caribbean, but I could see Saba, Statia, St Kitts, and I may be delusional, but I think I saw a bit of Nevis poking up above the marine haze. The photo on the right was taken on Tuesday and shows the large patches of clear sky out toward Saba. It's actually a bit cool, getting down into the low 70s at night. With wind chill, that brings out the knit caps on the locals. It has been another lovely week with just a quick bit of localized rain on Thursday afternoon. Below is Saturday's sunset. 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 tonight will be at 5:56 PM. The moon is quite new. In 2013 plan on full moons for 27 Jan, 25 Feb, 27 Mar, 25 Apr, 25 May, 23 Jun, 22 Jul, 21 Aug, 19 Sep, 18 Oct, 16 Nov, and 17 Dec. SXM-Beaches: Here's another photo from Leland Harms. This was taken from high above the Simpson Bay resort looking back over the resort to Beacon Hill and Simpson Bay. Beacon Hill isn't much of a hill, but that's it heading to the left (south) in the center of the photo. It's the area south of Caravanserai Resort. Maho is where that stretch of land meets the rest of the island. To the right in the foreground is the Airport and the long stretch of Simpson Bay Beach. Leland was staying at Atrium and Royal Palm Resorts for three weeks around the end of October. Barring hurricanes, it is a lovely time of the year. If you click the photo, you will see some labels that I added to identify the landmarks. The land above the cliffs at Cupecoy has been scraped again and some clearing is taking place across from Sapphire? Beach reading: Contessa recommends The Two Old Fools series consisting of Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools ($4 Kindle, $12 paperback) and Two Old Fools - Olé ($4 Kindle, $14 paperback), essentially about the adventures of Vicky and Joe retiring to Spain.

In the first book Joe and Vicky move to Spain. Perhaps if they had known what relocating to a tiny village, tucked in the Alpujarra mountains, would really be like, they might have hesitated. They have no idea of the culture shock in store. No idea they will become reluctant chicken farmers and own the most dangerous cockerel in Spain. No idea they will be befriended by an 85 year old spliff-smoking sex-kitten, help capture a vulture, or be rescued by a mule. Life is never dull as they embark on their Five Year Plan. At the end of five years they must decide. Will they stay, or return to the relative sanity of England? Vicky and Joe's story is packed with irreverent humor, animals, eccentric characters and sunshine. In the second book they have finished fixing up their house and look forward to peaceful days enjoying their retirement. Then the fish van arrives, and instead of delivering fresh fish, disgorges the Ufarte family. The peace of El Hoyo is shattered. Vicky and Joe are catapulted (and 'cat' is the operative word) into more bizarre situations and scrapes. Surrounded by the previous cast of eccentric characters, the two old fools muddle through until they are forced into making a life-changing decision.

Sapphire Beach Club: We are in our condo at this time and it looks fine. The unit will be available again on April 2 when we return to the US. The rate ranges from $700 to $1000 per week over the low season. You'll get a 10% discount from Unity Car Rental, one of the longest running and most trusted agencies on the island, and many more coupons as well, including the use of our 2013 SXM Privilege Card that gets you discounts on many restaurants. Check the calendar on our website for available dates. A recent visitor said, "Erich, We had a wonderful time at your condo for the third year in a row. We appreciated the coupons. Hope to be able to do it again next year." You could sit on the balcony and watch the sunset cruises pass by Saba every evening. They come out here because we have the best sunsets.

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 several 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.

SXM-Hotels: The Baywatch at Beacon Hill has been upgraded with lots of new furniture, new pictures and mirrors, newly tiled kitchen, new bathroom light fixtures, sinks and faucets and a new staircase leading to the beach. Check out all of the new pictures at VRBO, enter VRBO number: 328737. Bleu Emeraude in Grand Case is offering a one bedroom apartment for the studio rate from now until the end of January.

Activities: We have booked a daysail on Zuzu and Alain's new 46 foot catamaran (left). More photos to follow. I could tell you about all the great times I have had on Random Wind, but Leland Harms sent me this photo and said, "We went on Random Wind and anchored in the south end of Mullet Bay. The water was as clear as I have ever seen it in the years I have snorkeled in SXM. Captain Trevor likes to get the tourists in the water and then throw bread to the school of jacks that swarm and make the ladies scream. The jacks showed up nicely against the dark bottom of the ship (photo in Nature section). The Random Wind trip is fairly short but very relaxing and friendly."

Groceries: We stopped in at Simply in Sandy Ground, previously US Market, and found it to be much the same as last year. I got some Morbier at about $8.50 per pound about 10% more than the Dutch side. We also picked up some Tomme, Comté, and Petite Billy, non of which are regularly available on the Dutch side. Jenkins' Cheese Primer calls Petit Billy from the village of Billy in Berry excellent and the ladies at the cheese counter in Simply recommend it. The French side generally has a better fresh mushroom selection. We also stopped at Sunny Market in Philipsburg as they usually have a better selection of fresh veg at good prices. Not so on Monday, but that is true of most supermarkets. They get cleaned out on Saturday and Sunday, leaving the gleanings for those who show up on Monday.

	Alcohol: While Martha was filling the cart at Sunny, I perused the intoxicating spirits aisle, looking for comparisons to the prices I found at Grand Marché last week. One problem, especially at Sunny, is that many items have no shelf sticker, so I got few comparisons. I was surprised to find Grey Goose was cheaper at GM $29 vs $31, as was Johnny Walker Red $27.50 vs $19. Another problem with all this is that I was reading the stickers on the shelf. There is nothing that says those prices will actually be charged at the cash register. I read about $11 for a liter of Jim Beam Black at Cost U Less based on the sticker, but paid $15 when I got to the register. That was still cheaper than $21 at Grand Marché, and cheaper than regular Jim Beam at Sunny ($18.50). I did find my favorite rum at Sunny: Angostura 1919. It has now reached $29 per liter. It may not be my favorite at that price. We stopped in at Select Wine Cellar in the middle of all this commotion on Tuesday and were surprised to see Daniel, late of Da Livio's in Pburg, currently at Daniel's by the Sea in Oyster Pond having a bottle of Gardies with Sylvain. We helped finish this rather large wine from southern France. We haven't seen Daniel since he left Pburg.
We are at the western Dutch/French border in Cupecoy and he is at the eastern border in Oyster Pond. The two points are as far apart as you can get on the island although it's not a long drive, but the route through the Dutch side is impossible at 6PM and the route through the French side features bad, twisting roads in the dark, and takes about 45 minutes. The drive back home through the Dutch side when traffic has cleared only takes about 25 minutes. I told him we had stayed with some friends at their condo in Lighthouse (a short walk away) and had tried, without success, to get a table for six without reservations about two years ago. He said that their kitchen and staff can service the tables for breakfast and lunch, but the kitchen cannot prepare multi-course gourmet meals for all those tables during dinner service. There may be empty tables, but they will not accept customers that they cannot service properly. You have to be impressed by that attitude. We were. Enough to get me to make the long journey on Wednesday evening.

Gas: Cadisco on the lagoon is doing 1.31 per liter and accepting dollars at 1 to 1, so that's about $5 a gallon. We just got our first fill-up and it used most of a perfectly good $50 bill. The Dutch side government sets the gas price and they have aided the consumer by increasing the price from NAf. 2.47 per liter to NAf. 2.56 per liter yesterday. That's about $5.60 per gallon if they give you the correct exchange rate. Sometimes they miscalculate and sometimes they say the price is in dollars. Both are good reasons to go to Cadisco on the lagoon next to the stadium on the western edge of Marigot or between Grand Case and Orient Beach. Both of these stations do 1 to 1, making the gas cheaper and the conversion easier.

	Nature: Leland Harms took this photo of these rather light colored jacks against the dark blue hull of Random Wind. Alert reader Rosann Noel identified last week's nature photo as a Crown of Thorns. Our office is well over 100% solar-powered and our hosting company servers are about 130% wind-powered.
Small Island story: Jeff had a squib about the new plans for the Dutch side calling for several new, large hotels. I certainly agree with his lack of enthusiasm. As soon as the government began a causeway project to reduce traffic congestion, they propose several projects to bring us back to gridlock. This may also have something to do with the clearing at Cupecoy.

Current Contest:

now to 10 February 2013
Caribbean View Condo - half price summer rental (May-October)
Lagoon Pub Crawl - two for one ticket
Skipjack's - $50 off a dinner for two
Marci's Mega Gym - Two for One week with a shake
Random Wind - $40 gift certificate
Peg Leg Pub - $50 off a dinner for two
SXM-Privilege Discount Card - One free monthly card
Select Wine Cellar - Wine tasting and a bottle of wine
Radiant Gems - $50 off a purchase of $200 or more
Piazza Pascal - $50 off dinner for two
Escargot Restaurant - $50 off a 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.

Here's some comments from a past winner:

Future Contests:
10 February to 14 April 2013 | 14 April to 14 July 2013
14 July to 13 October 2013 | 13 October to 15 December
same cast of characters as current contest

SPN Café On Sunday evening we headed over to SPN Café to see the late playoff game on one of their many large screens. Sapphire doesn't have CBS. We had a couple buckets of Presidente (5 beers for $15, but these are 33cl bottles, not the 25 cl from Heineken), chicken saté ($8), and a Montreal all dressed pizza (mushrooms, peppers, and pepperoni, right, $15). Good food and good service, despite the crowd watching the Pats smack Houston.