St Maarten/St Martin 1 March 2015 Newsletter Other newsletters Contests | Restaurants | Bargains and Happenings ISLAND NEWS

Weather: Last Sunday squalls passed by all day long, stopping in the late afternoon, making our dinner at Pizza Galley quite pleasant. The first sunset pano below is from that evening. That's Les Mamelles, the hills in the French lowlands. Stew Leonard 's estate is on the top of the one on the left and at some point Jackie O owned the estate on the top of the other. On Monday a few squalls came through but the next pano shows the sunset with a cruise ship heading into the pink clouds on a wonderful evening. On the right are two cruise ships coming on Tuesday morning at 6:45AM in rather gloomy weather. Saba is slightly visible between the ships. Twenty minutes later the red spinnaker came by against a still grey sky (below left), but about two hours later as the snorkeling boats came around, the weather was beautiful. We went out on Celine Too's sunset cruise and took a beautiful sunset photo that evening (see below). Wednesday started with thick clouds and haze obscuring Saba. We shopped and had lunch at Champagne Bistro, but when we returned, Martha spent most of the afternoon at Sapphire's pool. The sunset featured a green flash.

Thursday appeared to have been ordered up by the tourist bureau - sunny, a bit of a breeze, plenty of sun, and 82F. Friday was a lovely day but too breezy and with a bit of rain around 7PM. Saturday was quite windy and there were several showers in the morning, but the afternoon was fine. Sunday seems much calmer - no whitecaps on the Caribbean or lagoon. Saba is visible but hazy (see the Sapphire pano below) and it is possible to discern Statia, if you know where to look.

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 6:18 PM providing eleven hours and 47 minutes of sunshine, six minutes more than last Sunday. For 2015, the full moons will be 5 Mar (the opening party for the Regatta!), 4 Apr, 3 May, 2 Jun, 1 Jul, 31 Jul (a blue moon), 29 Aug, 27 Sep, 27 Oct, 25 Nov, and 25 Dec.

SXM-Beaches: Wendy K reports: "The sand has filled in the pools at Shore Pointe and there's sand at baby beach. Lapping waves at 8:30 this morning. No sand by Ocean Club until you reach Rainbow." The photo verifies her previous report that at least one of the boulders has been moved, opening up the free parking lot at Cupecoy. That is a major change in policy here in Cupecoy. Access has never been been restored after being denied. For many years Cupecoy Beach Club (CBC) had public access, no sign, just an iron gate that opened in the morning and closed when Cliffhanger Bar closed for the evening. Needless to say, this allowed all manner of undesirables to infiltrate the grounds of CBC. About the same time that The Cliff and Rainbow were blocking all access to their properties, CBC quietly and quickly blocked off their entrance making a solid blockade from Mullet Bay to the far side of Ocean Club. You can still see the outline of the door in the now-solid wall at CBC.

Beach reading: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole - It was a Literary Fiction and Classics Editor's Recommended Book in 1996. They said: "I once went to the French Quarter in New Orleans, and there they were: the old, dented hot dog carts, designed and painted to look like giant rolling frankfurters, exactly as described in A Confederacy of Dunces. You'll have to read the book to find out why I spontaneously cracked up there on the street, laughing at the memory of the book's hero, misunderstood genius Ignatius Reilly, eating through his cart's inventory. That's only one hilarious moment among many from this novel, one of the cornerstones of the newly recognized Southern Wacko school of literature. " I agree. This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has sold over three-quarters of a million copies and continues to earn critical acclaim. It is the story of Ignatius J. Reilly, a "Don Quixote of the French Quarter," and is a masterpiece of human folly and tragedy.

Sapphire Beach Club: We are in our condo (Unit 255) at this time. The pool is clean and full, although a section of the bottom is failing, allowing some water loss. The alternative is to drain it in high season and fix it at all deliberate Caribbean speed. All three buildings have only one working elevator each. Other than that, we have A/C, hot and cold water, beach towels, and maid service. The pool bar/restaurant is open. The condo will be available in early April at $1000 per week or less until 15 December 2015 when the rate rises to $1500 per week. You'll get a 10% discount from Unity Car Rental, one of the longest running and most trusted agencies on the island, and several more coupons as well. Check the calendar on our website for available dates. On the right is a view off the balcony: a sunset cruise going by and below you can see a bit of Saba as the sun was rising this morning.

A visitor in early April said:

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: On Saturday night, after dinner at Bistrot Caraïbes, we dropped in at Blue Martini, next to the pay parking lot, to hear the Remo & the Barbwire band - pretty good Reggae, draft Heineken, very good people watching, and even the wait staff is easy on the eyes. That's Emily on the left.

Celine Too: On Tuesday night, before dinner at Cugini, we went on a sunset cruise with Neil on Celine Too. For those who haven't been keeping up, Neil was in the process of building Celine Too when a freak hurricane (Gonzalo) hit the island last fall with essentially no warning. Another boat went over the top of Celine and destroyed her. Celine Too was put into service earlier this year, so there were about four months when Neil had no boat. He's back and all the usual trips are in operation. As we headed out from the slip behind Barnacles, we saw Venus (Steve Jobs' yacht) at Porto del Sol Marina. It's the strange-looking one on the left side of the photo (right). We snaked through the rather crowded end of the lagoon getting a shot of the causeway and a close-up of the anatomically correct rock formation. We circled the lagoon and at sunset I got the panoramic shot below as we were heading back. We made a stop at the lagoon end of the runway and caught a large Air France jet heading in our direction. The trip is $40 per person for about an hour and a half trip with free-flowing drinks and some snacks.

Groceries: On the left is Thursday's lunch on our sunny Caribbean balcony. It stared with Guadeloupe melon, a squeeze of lime, and air-dried meat (jambon sec de montagna, 26€/kilo, about $14 per pound). This was followed by munster, morbiere, and petit Billy with a tranche of paté de compagne. All of these came from Super U in the Howell center on the east side of Marigot. The bread is a third of a banette from Sarafina's on the waterfront in Marigot. The wine is a pretty dry rosé from Sylvain at Select Wine. The view beyond the table skips over the pool directly beneath our balcony to the villas along the waterfront and then to the Caribbean in the distance.

Shopping: On the left is is a shot of the Blue Mall from our lagoon balcony. The link goes to their site which details all the shops that are there. On the right is Porto Cupecoy. It doesn't have nearly as many shops but may have more restaurants. Both have parking, but only the Blue Mall has a free covered garage. You'll note that there appear to be two large yachts and a large sailboat at Porto Cupecoy.

Alcohol: On Tuesday we had a white Burgundy tasting with Sylvain at Select Wine Cellar, ordering lunch from Champagne Bistro next door. I had bought Drouhin's Cote de Beaune at Bacchus (23€, $26) in the Hope Estate Shopping area and asked Sylvain what he had that was similar. He had just received a pallet and with a bit of work extracted two 2012 vintage exemplars: one from Chantal Lescure ($37) and one from Jean Fournier ($36). 2012 is supposed to be a slightly better year for white Burgundies but I thought that Drouhin's wine, especially at its lower price, was quite good. Use the coupon on Sylvain's website to get 10% off on his list prices.

	Nature: On the right is the mother dove in the center with her two recent babies on each side. The mother has a black ring on the neck. The fledglings will get one as they age. Mother is sitting on two eggs trying to get these two slackers out of the house. Our office is well over 100% solar-powered and our hosting company servers are about 130% wind-powered.
Small Island story: An island friend is pursuing a psychology degree via long distance learning. One of her requirements is to conduct a research study on Internet use, personality traits, and the impact this may have on an individual's social life. She needs 300 responses by the end of March. Your responses will be confidential; the survey doesn't ask for your name. It might take 15 minutes. If you can spare that much time click this link to the survey. Thanks much.

The small island stories just keep on coming. On Friday while having lunch at Select Wine, the power went out. Patrick, who was sitting next to me and is part of the family that owns the Orange Grove Shopping Center, counted to five and the lights came back on. No, he does not have any weird super-powers, he merely knows that his shopping center has a five second delay on its emergency generator. But this story is about RBC Bank (again) and may be related to the power failures that GEBE is spreading about Cole Bay and Simpson Bay. You may recall the trouble Wendy K had with them over an inactive account in last week's newsletter. On this Friday, the last business day of the month, the bank's computers were down, meaning essentially every customer's accounts were inactive. Stay tuned for next week's exciting conclusion.

Current Contest: now to 5 April
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
Select Wine Cellar - Wine tasting and a bottle of wine
Piazza Pascal - $50 off 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 ago Sulay entered 33 times for one contest, instead of increasing her chance of winning, she decreased it to zero as I deleted all of them. She did account for about a third of the entries for that contest.

Here's some comments from a past winner:

Future Contests:
5 April to 31 May
31 May to 30 August | 30 August to 6 December
same cast of characters as current contest

Cugini After a sunset tour on Celine Too on Tuesday evening, we drove the short distance to Cugini. They have moved from the corner of Marina Royale in Marigot to a spot between the Simpson Bay Yacht Club and Pineapple Pete. They are a bit hard to spot as there is a large parking lot in front. This location was a not much more than a lolo before Cugini moved in. The wine cellar (right) gives you an idea how much they have improved the previous physical plant. Given the snacks on the boat, we ordered no aps and started with a nice bottle of 2011 Antinori Chianti Classico (below left, about $40). Note the nice bit of crisp focaccia, very nice. Martha had meat lasagne (center) with a bit of salad and I had a seafood pasta (right). Both were tasty and about $25. The total bill with a 15% tip added came to $114. We left a bit more for good service.

Champagne Bistro On Wednesday we stopped in at Select Wine Cellar and ordered lunch from Champagne Bistro. On the left is Martha's chicken plate off the menu. It was very tasty chicken with mashed potatoes and a bit of salad. I had the seafood pasta special. In case you are wondering, I like seafood, pasta, and a tomato sauce.

Le Ti Coin Créole On Tuesday night we went to Table d'Antoine and as we drove in the sun was setting, but there were few lights on. It turns out most of Orient was in the dark. After chatting with Hervé at Le Piment as we watched Antoine's servers clear the tables they had recent set, we finally gave up and headed to Ti Bouchon where we heard good news for Momo (he was fully booked), bad news for us. Sticking with restaurants that start wit the letter "t", we tried Ti Coin Créole in nearby 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 small lot and walked in to a window table. We ordered a 2011 Crozes-Hermitage (right, 35€), an addition to the wine list this year. Créole food is not necessarily hot, but Carl does offer some hot sauce for the adventurous. If you use it, a sturdy syrah from the Rhone works well. We started with the conch salad as an ap (below left, 6.50€). Martha always has stewed Créole conch as her main course It's amazingly tender conch in a tasty sauce (below center (13.50€) and I had the seafood pasta (again!), one of Carl's signature dishes (below right, 19€). We were both very happy. My seafood (shrimp, scallops, and fish) was cooked to perfection atop some al dente pasta and surrounded by local veg. We skipped dessert, but you can check out the Sweet Potato Pudding photo and recipe from a previous article we wrote. The total cost for our dinner was under $90, not bad for real Créole food from a real Créole chef, cooking in the Créole cottage he grew up in. This is the exact same meal we had last season, except we did not have the tasty accras this time. Moreover the Crozes-Hermitage is an upgrade from last year's Cotes du Rhone. We also experienced a limited power failure at this end of Grand Case. It was not EDF's finest hour(s).

News and Changes: We frequently post some dining photos to Facebook. Less frequently we post activities and other things related to SXM or food. If you're interested, I trust you know what to do.

The Heineken Regatta kicks off on 5 March with a party at Port de Plaisance, there's three more parties (two on Kim Sha Beach, and one in Pburg), and three days of sailing. The French couldn't come up with a suitable subsidy, so the party in Marigot got moved to Kim Sha. It makes logistics for the yachties much simpler.

Marigot's Marina Royale is having a Thursday night party from now until 19 March. They also claim to have gendarmes, local police, and private security on patrol. As noted above there is a Friday night party with the a band and local vendors in Orient Village. On the left is the jazzy duo that played on 6 February.
	Mardis de Grand Case (The Tuesday Night Party in Grand Case) runs from 20 January until 10 March 2015, a total of eight nights rather than the usual 12 because of budget cuts.

If you are looking to purchase gift certificates for island restaurants, check out Antoine Restaurant, L'Escargot Restaurant, L'Oizeau Rare Restaurant, Piazza Pascal, and La Villa. Treat your friends at your favorite restaurant! Dino Jagtiani from Temptation Restaurant has produced a cookbook with art work by Sir Roland Richardson, St Martin's treasured artist, and poetry by Laura Richardson, Roland's wife. Together they have poured their shared passion, creativity, and talent to the best of their ability into this magical archive of St Martin's flavors. For further information, please contact Chef Dino Jagiani dinojagtiani@aol.com or Sir Roland and Laura Richardson roland.laura@wanadoo.fr

Here is the current list of the ARCHA members contributing to the security and clean-up of Grand Case. They would appreciate your continued support of their efforts. The sticker is displayed at businesses that participating in this much-needed endeavor.