St Maarten/St Martin 3 July 2016 Newsletter Other newsletters Contests | Restaurants | Bargains and Happenings ISLAND NEWS

Weather: It's summertime but while it has been cloudy or overcast, there has not been too much rain. On the right Captain Trevor and Diane are showing off on Random Wind's Tarzan swing, but you are supposed to notice the mostly cloudy sky in a photo from late June. The next ten days will have six clear days with a chance of rain on four days. The biggest rainfall will be 0.11 inches and the total will be about a quarter inch. It will be hot as the high temperatures are predicted to be two days at 87, seven at 86, and a cool spell dropping down to 85F one day. The overnight low temperatures will be 80F for nine days with one day only dropping to 81F. Here's the detailed forecast from Weather Underground and here's one from the Weather Channel. Sunset tonight will be at 6:52 PM. That provides 13 hours and 11 minutes of sunshine, about the same as the last newsletter a month ago on the other side of the solstice, which is to say that we have already had the longest day of the year and it's all downhill until late December. The full moons for 2016 will be 19 Jul, 18 Aug, 16 Sep, 16 Oct, 14 Nov, and 13 Dec.

SXM-Beaches: Tintamarre was well known for it's secluded beach and nude mud baths. Alas, the mud is now protected and nudity is no longer permitted. Moreover, there are signs warning anyone leaving the beach that poisonous trees await. Binkie van Es posted some photos of Tintamarre on the Pirates of SXM facebook page showing what actually awaits. For the most part, it is not dangerous and according to Mark Williams, you will find the ruins from a time when Mr. D.C. van Romondt lived there producing the best butter in the Caribbean. He was known as the King of Tintamarre. He was also the owner of Mary's Fancy plantation. The beaches move around a bit all the time as winter storms in the US send waves crashing into the western side of the island and hurricanes come in the summer, usually from Africa and damage the windward side. JimCandD had a post on TTOL saying that in mid June they walked the beach from the Perch to Coco Beach. The beach was narrow until Pedro's area and then past the rocks in front of the new construction it is narrow again. After the new "huts" the beach opens up to as wide or wider than it has been. Below is a panoramic scene of the Divi peninsula taken from Great Bay in Pburg looking west. Not much beach here, but the other side is Little Bay.

Breakdown by Jonathan Kellerman - $15 (Kindle) - From Amazon: Jonathan Kellerman has been universally hailed as the master of psychological suspense, and the blockbuster new thriller featuring Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis confirms his status as today's preeminent practitioner of saber-sharp storytelling. Psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware meets beautiful and emotionally fragile TV actress Zelda Chase when called upon to evaluate her five-year-old son, Ovid. Years later, Alex is unexpectedly reunited with Zelda when she is involuntarily committed after a bizarre psychotic episode. Shortly after Zelda's release, an already sad situation turns tragic when she is discovered dead on the grounds of a palatial Bel Air estate. Having experienced more than enough of L.A.'s dark side to recognize the scent of evil, Alex turns to his friend LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis for help in finding out who ended Zelda's broken life. At the same time, Alex is caught up in another quest: the search for Zelda's missing son. And when other victims vanish from the same upscale neighborhood, worry turns to terror. As Alex struggles to piece together the brief rise and steep fall of a gorgeous, talented actress, he and Milo unveil shattered dreams, the corruption of a family, and a grotesque betrayal of innocence. With each devastating revelation and damning clue, Alex's brilliant mind is challenged as never before and his determination grows to see a killer caged and the truth set free. We downloaded the audio version of this from our local library.

Sapphire Beach Club: The timeshare owners group on Facebook has a posting from Debbi Becht on the condition of unit 143. It was not perfect, but was made pretty close to perfect after a call to the front desk brought up a toaster, coffee pot, and TV plus a maintenance guy to fix the safe and the low water pressure. On the right are some colorful boats heading past our Caribbean balcony. The pano below shows the lagoon in the foreground, a cruise ship in Marigot Harbor, and Créole Rock off Grand Case in the distance. It was taken from our lagoon side balcony. 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 the left is Random Wind. Recently she was awarded a 2016 certificate of excellence. On the right is Lambada coming in from her evening sunset sail. The pano below shows gasoline heading into the harbor. Those tanks are towed to gas stations to fill their underground tanks. Given the recent British vote, many markets, including oil, are in turmoil. Nonetheless, gasoline has been less expensive on the French side for several years.

Crime: The gas station killers were sentenced to 22 years and 15 years according to the Daily Herald. They murdered an uncooperative attendant at the Sol Station in Cole Bay getting $1370. Shortly thereafter one of the assailants robbed the Sol Station in Simpson Bay where the attendant was more cooperative. He was not harmed and they got $1439. The bill for the funeral of the murdered gas station attendant cost $6215 and was paid by Ronald Tackling, the owner of the station.

Alcohol: I'm drinking a 2010 Gevrey-Chambertin. We got it from Sylvain at Select Wine Cellar. It was in the case of wine that we brought back to the US in 2013. We have been ageing it in our cellar for a few more years and served it at a birthday party for a friend in Salem, NY. Rental Cars: Michael at Unity Car Rental has an offer for my readers: Rent an economy car during the summer and he will upgrade you to compact car at no extra charge. Just reserve online and mention the SXM-Info upgrade from economy to compact in the comments section.

	Nature: On the right is a bobcat enjoying a stroll about 1000 feet from our home and free range chickens. It's not SXM, but he's a handsome creature. Our office is well over 100% solar-powered. In fact, in six years of operation our solar panels have produced over half the electrical needs for the house, my work shop, and a large animal barn. Our hosting company servers are about 130% wind-powered.
Small Island story: Ray Sidhom, the buyer of Caravanserai, has started yet another lawsuit. He is trying to get the Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs to annul the casino permit of Dunes. The Dunes Casino had a hotel-based casino permit when they were part of Caravanserai which had plans for the required 200 rooms. The parcel was separated when Sidhom bought the remnants of Caravanserai. Sidhom wants the Minister to shut down the Dunes as it no longer has the rooms necessary for a hotel-based casino permit. Read the full story.

Current Contest: now until 2 October
Lagoon Pub Crawl - two for one ticket
Skipjack's - $50 off a dinner for two
DK Gems - $150 off a $500 purchase
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
Ti Coin Créole - $30 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 dinners and activities. I really check and a 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:
22 May to 21 August | 21 August to 20 November

same cast of characters as current contest

Pizza Galley On a Tuesday in mid-March we had dinner at Pizza Galley and another chat with JP. We had our usual wine (a Mont Redon Cotes du Rhone, now a 2014, below left, $26), a small and tasty Caesar salad (below center, $7), and the JP Special Pizza (Pepperoni, Italian sausage, green peppers, mushrooms, caramalized onions, black olives, and mozzarella cheese ($21 with a half head of roasted garlic, below right). There is a wine list, but this is a quality Rhone blend and we think it is fine with pizza. It was a great meal perfectly filling for the two of us and only cost $60 including a tip for the crew. JP stopped by and we heard that they had done well over the Regatta weekend and the new Dock Bar with its very happy hour has been doing well since it opened. We actually arrived early and got a few happy hour beverages from Dan, the bartender. On the way out of Sapphire we got to talking to the family with us in the elevator. They asked where we were going. We said Pizza Galley and they followed. While we were at the restaurant another couple from Sapphire showed up. Good food, good wine, good company on a lovely evening in an open air restaurant.

Ocean Lounge For one of last meals on the island we met two other couples for lunch at the Ocean Lounge in the Holland House Hotel. It's moderne and shiny and right on Great Bay Beach with great views. The menu was loaded with info and looked quite good. When the food arrived, it was even better. Be warned that the prices are commensurate with the quality of the food, service, furnishings, location, and view. We've been coming to the island for about 20 years and never came to this restaurant before this visit. We'll be back. In 2015 it had both a Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence and a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. Below is the view east along the boardwalk and on the right is the view straight out (essentially south) across the beach to Great Bay. In the center is a $16 cheeseburger in paradise. It's an 8oz hamburger made with USDA Black Angus short rib, brisket, and chuck tender beef with Monterey Jack cheese, smoked bacon, lettuce, onion, and tomato, served with coleslaw. On the left is a chicken saté, grilled and marinated chicken on bamboo skewers with peanut sauce, coconut flakes and coleslaw ($17). On the right is the beef tartare, prepared raw beef, shallots, Dijon mustard, and capers served with truffle fries and mixed salad ($22). The fries were fantastic, but truffle oil will do that. Below is our very competent (and strong) waitress bringing over one of the seafood platters that we ordered. In the center is a close-up of the extravaganza. It had grilled lobster, sashimi tuna, salmon, shrimp, ceviche, king crab legs and fresh oysters with sauces, French fries, and a salad ($115). On the right are some of the biggest and best mussels I've ever seen. It was a wonderful lunch.

Chanteclair Bistro has announced a new schedule for the low season. They will be closed on Sunday and Monday and Saturday lunch will be reserved for a cooking class. There is a special seafood menu on Thursday evenings and a 28€ menu on the other nights.

Sabrina and Raphaël have purchased Antoine Restaurant from and Jean-Pierre Pomarico and Chef Pierre-Louis Kesner. They have kept Edouard, the sous-chef of many years who had essentially taken over the head chef position as chef Pierre-Louis cut back on his schedule recently. They also kept the maitre d'hotel, Leonard. They have streamlined the rather large menu, keeping the old favorites.

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. Luc, husband of Florence at La Villa, has reopened Orange Fever without his former partner Olivier. Shanghai Brasserie in Porto Cupecoy has closed, barely making it through high season. The place was smart and the food was good, but the prices reflected this, making it much more expensive than the average Chinese food emporium on the island. Not many people come here to eat Oriental. Fusion has closed. We had been to their Pburg restaurant shortly after they opened and liked it quite a bit. They moved from there to Maho and then to Cole Bay. I heard that the food was still good and they finally had some parking, but it seems it didn't work. If you are looking to purchase gift certificates for island restaurants, check out Chanteclair Bistro, L'Escargot Restaurant, Piazza Pascal, and La Villa. Treat your friends at your favorite restaurant! The parties in Grand Case and Marina Royale in Marigot have ended with the advance of low season. There are still Wednesday and Friday night parties in Orient Village for a while longer.

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. A blue oval sticker is displayed at businesses that participate in this much-needed endeavor.