St Maarten/St Martin 14 April 2013 Newsletter Other newsletters Contests | Restaurants | Bargains and Happenings ISLAND NEWS

Weather: We departed rather swiftly (see Travel below) but as we packed on Sunday (Mar 31) and departed on Monday we noticed that the weather was warm and calm. Later that week the wind picked up, as did the marine haze. Win some, lose some. The breeze dropped the heat index a bit but the haze obscured the view of any islands. It stayed that way until Thursday (11 Apr) when Saba was visible again, but she was gone on this morning. The photo on the right was taken from Airport Road. That is the top of the airport terminal with beautiful sunlit clouds above. The sunset panorama below was taken from the balcony of our condo. 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 6:28 PM, three minutes later than the previous newsletter. In 2013 plan on full moons for 25 Apr, 25 May, 23 Jun, 22 Jul, 21 Aug, 19 Sep, 18 Oct, 16 Nov, and 17 Dec.

SXM-Beaches: Sunday (31 Mar) was an OK day at Cupecoy although the swells were getting bigger. Monday showed lots of dry sand at baby beach, wet sand at the middle beach, and no sand at Shore Pointe. By Tuesday the whitecaps showed that there was a good breeze and middle beach was gone while baby beach was eroding. The marine haze precluded views of any of the islands. Wednesday was calmer but baby beach was smaller. Thursday was a beautiful day, still hot with good breeze and a nearly clear sky. The seas have calmed down and sand is beginning to fill in the pools at Shore Pointe, as it diminishes on baby beach. Still room for plenty of chairs at baby beach. There was more sand in front of Shore Pointe on Friday, along the cliffs next to middle beach, and sand at baby beach and calm waves. Saturday had calm water with the current heading toward Shore Pointe, along with the sand. Baby beach held 10-20 chairs, but there was a very steep incline to the water on the eastern end (photo right). Sunday morning showed another boulder added to the blockade such that even Dany is parked in the lot. That's the way it was back in the 90s, so it doesn't seem so bad to me.

	On Monday, there was a lot of sand back at Short Pointe, some at baby beach, and the water is calmer than it was. There was lots of sand at Shore Pointe and only room for a dozen chairs at baby beach. The boulders are still in place, but Dany's pass-through spot is open. By Thursday there was calm water, lapping waves, lots of sand at Shore Pointe and not so much at baby beach. Same on Friday and more of same on Saturday. Cupecoy appears to be moving into its summer phase with little sand in most locations and quite a bit at ShorePointe. On the left is Lassie playing on the cliffs and on the right is a sunset photo shot through the leaves of the agave cactus growing on the cliffs in 2005.

Beach reading: The Prisoner by Ed Arre - (not on Kindle or $16 for the paperback version) - Former navy explosive expert Peter Carew thought he had put his troubled past behind him and found anonymity and peace on the Caribbean island of St. Gregory. As partner in a successful marine repair operation his life is uncomplicated and trouble-free until the mysterious Albatross slips into the harbor in need of repair. The bellicose Frank Sharp is secretive in the extreme yet has enough money and nerve to get what he wants and he wants his ship back in operation now. While Peter and his crusty partner Mitch Danks pull out all the stops to complete the complicated repairs, a group of modern day pirates have other ideas for the ship and what looks to be valuable cargo. The pirates get more than they bargain for and Peter Carew is pulled into a dangerous game of international intrigue as he tries to rescue his friend from the murderous Sharp only to find he holds yet another man's life in his hands. Ed Arre is the pen name for Ed Regenye,a native New Jersian, currently resides on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten with his wife Judith. A former newspaperman, public relations and marketing consultant, Ed worked in New York and London before retiring to St. Maarten where he writes fiction fulltime. Ed has authored four novels - The Prisoner, Deadline and Rapacious, all set in the fictional island of St. Gregory, and Terror which is set in London.

In his recent novels Ed has increasingly incorporated familiar people and places in his work to make the novels more appealing to those who are familiar with St. Maarten. In his latest book, Rapacious, a supporting character role was auctioned for charity and Ed successfully wove the life of this real person into the fabric of the story. He is currently updating The Prisoner in light of significant international developments to make this 'What If?' novel even more thought-provoking. The new edition will be out in early 2013. Which brings us to this announcement by Roland Richardson: The long-awaited edition has arrived on on the island with a brilliantly conceived new ending! Meet the Author, Ed Arre, have your copy personalized, and share in a toast to his success! Come to the Roland Richardson Gallery Museum at #6 rue de la Republique in Marigot on Friday, 19 April from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. RSVP appreciated, phone: 0590-87-32-24.

Sapphire Beach Club: We just left our condo at this time and it looks fine. The unit is available until when we return in early January. 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." On the right is a shot from our balcony showing Saba on a clear day in March.

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-Activities: Just before we departed, we caught Ronnie and Peter at Buccaneer Beach Bar. They play from 6:30 until 9:30 on Wednesdays and Saturdays. As the sun was setting around 6:20 it was lighting up the sky in the background

Traffic: A large sailboat got its mast caught in the Sandy Ground bridge at the afternoon opening on 4 April stopping traffic for four hours while the mast was cut off. Didier from Mario's Bistro was stuck in traffic in Nettle Bay for so long that he never made it to work. Neither did many customers as their 60 reservations turned into 25 by the end of the night. Travel: Some days it pays to listen to Jeff Berger. I note that Jeff and the airport have now adopted SXM as part of their website name. Thank you both. However, this compliment is because he mentioned that many airline flights were being canceled (and consolidated to increase load factors). In our case United claimed to have notified me before we even left that there was a time change on some of our itinerary. Apparently, shifting a departure time by 24 hours is a time change, even though the flight we booked was canceled. It didn't seem very important to United, as they didn't shift the connecting flight bringing us from Newark to Albany, so we were scheduled to have a bonus vacation day in Newark. Second prize, two vacation days in Newark.

I certainly don't remember any email and couldn't find one even though I tend to save them. My first hint of trouble was the email on Sunday containing our boarding passes. As they arrive 24 hours before departure and I expected to depart on Tuesday, I was surprised. Surprise turned to horror as I realized that the flight left on Monday, giving us about 20 hours to pack up the condo. I then had the good sense to check the connecting flight and found that they hadn't rescheduled it. I called and got that done (including the cat) and we started packing. We managed to finish packing, have a final dinner at Skipjack's, get a few hours of sleep, and board our plane. As usual, the connecting flight was delayed and we got home in the early morning on Tuesday.

	Nature: On the right is a pair of red-winged blackbirds. Not exactly SXM material, but it does indicate that spring is coming to the farm. It has been so cold that the daffodils are just emerging from the ground. Our office is well over 100% solar-powered and our hosting company servers are about 130% wind-powered.
Small Island story: Further to the use of SXM in domain names, I have purchased SXM-Medical.com. Currently it has the names, locations, and phones for various medical facilities on the island. It was purchased in anticipation of a boom in interest in medical facilities when the new hospital goes in across from Skipjack's. The project, like almost all others on the island, is moving slowly after the Theo/BadBing/Illidge bribery incident.

Winners of the contest starting 14 April 2013
Caribbean View Condo - half price summer rental (May-October) - Alexis Guarrasi
Lagoon Pub Crawl - two for one ticket - Wayne Burton
Skipjack's - $50 off a dinner for two - Rick Weaver
Marci's Mega Gym - Two for One week with a shake - no entries
Random Wind - $40 gift certificate - Wayne Burton
SXM-Privilege Discount Card - One free monthly card - Rick Weaver
Select Wine Cellar - Wine tasting and a bottle of wine - Wayne Burton
Piazza Pascal - $50 off dinner for two - Wayne Burton
Escargot Restaurant - $50 off a dinner for two - Alexis Guarrasi

Current Contest:

now to 14 April 2013

The BIG news is that Pizza Galley, home of the best pizza on the island is now a contest sponsor!

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
SXM-Privilege Discount Card - One free monthly card
Select Wine Cellar - Wine tasting and a bottle of wine
Piazza Pascal - $50 off dinner for two
Escargot Restaurant - $50 off a dinner for two
Pizza Galley - $25 off on 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. I really check and while DiscoGolfGoddess entered 11 times, instead of increasing her chance of winning eleven-fold, she decreased it to zero as I deleted all of them. She did account for about half of the entries that were discarded.

Here's some comments from a past winner:

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

Champagne Bistro On a Tuesday in late March we went to Select Wine Cellar to see Sylvain, pick up some wine great wine to bring back to the US, and have a lunch imported from Champagne Bistro. We started with Didier Dagueneau's Buisson Renard from Pouilly-Fumé in the eastern end of the Loire Valley (right, I believe we had an older vintage but the 2010 is selling at $99). It was undoubtedly the best Pouilly-Fumé I have ever had. While we were having this as an aperitif, chef Johann from The Stone Restaurant and his girlfriend stopped into the shop and we all joined in a toast to his 29th birthday. We moved on to a 2008 Nuits St George Les Vallerots from Chantal Lescure ($87), a rather spectacular Burgundy. Martha had a Salade Niçoise (below left, $11.50). Sylvain and I had a special of the day, entrecote (steak) with girolles mushrooms and potatoes (below center, $21). After lunch Sylvain broke out a white cheese from St Aubin, a small appellation in southern Burgundy known for its chardonnay. We had a 1996 Mas de Daumas Gaussac, a maker of spectacular wine in the Languedoc, a region not known for spectacular wine. This was a bit over the hill, but hints of its previous power remained. All in all, it was a wonderful lunch.

From WendyK: We've been meaning to try this restaurant, across from the Marigot Yacht Club, for a while now, as the tables have been full every time I pass by when parking out that way. In early March, we sat in the small area in back, which was quite a bit cooler than down below. It is all open air, but there are ceiling fans. Today was pretty hot and muggy, but once we'd cooled off from our short walk after parking, we were comfortable (photo below left). I believe we were the only English-speaking patrons. Everyone appeared to be French nationals living/working on the island who all knew one another and were regulars at the restaurant. A good sign. The wine "list" was actually a very large bottle (a jereboam possibly) of wine, with the various wines offered on the label (right). We chose the least expensive red, the Bordeaux maison, which was a Chateau d'As Graves '09, and very good at 21€, with a slight chill. The menu was fairly extensive, with nothing I noticed over 20€. But what really caught our eye were the specials which were listed on a mirror across from our table. We both wanted the "onglet grille a l'echalotte'' with frites and salad for 17€, so we could compare to our former favorite spot for onglet/frites, Le Bellevue (photo below center). We would say it was equally as good, albeit a few euros more expensive. The shallot sauce was delicious. The onglet came in one piece, as opposed to thinly-sliced, but was cooked rare, as ordered, and was good and tender when sliced on the diagonal. The frites were home made, and it would be a tough call to choose which were the best. The simple salad of mixed greens was perfectly dressed with a light vinagrette. Out total bill was 57.20 euros, which included a 2.20€.

Mario's Bistro From WendyK: We began with a bottle of flat water (5€) and choose a Cote du Rhone (33€) to accompany our dinners. This being our final meal for the season at our favorite restaurant, we chose our favorite dishes from the menu. Tony had the Thai crab cake appetizer (17€), and I had beef carpaccio, topped with arugula and shaved Parmesan cheese, and served with melted St Marcellin cheese balls (right 17€). Tony had the Chilean Sea Bass with crab mashed potatoes, serrano ham, and spinach (below rignt, 33€) - my favorite, as well, so I ordered the smaller of the two Rib Eye steaks (below center, 30€) offered. It came with choice of potato, and one reason I love it is that it goes so well with Mario's au gratin potatoes. The steak is covered with crispy fried scallions, and served with a Bearnaise sauce on the side (below left). What's even better is we brought half of the steak and potatoes home for Monday night's dinner. We finished the meal off with our usual snifters of Grand Marnier and Calvados.