Birthday Week – Marigot Bay, St. Maarten, April 13, 2023

Well birthday week started out with a bang since the first thing we did was traverse the Anegada passage, which is a notorious stretch of water connecting the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is known for its high winds, rough sea state, and large swells. It was a bumpy 18-hour ride with 10-15 knot winds directly on the nose and 5–7-foot seas at times. It was the best window we were going to get this time of year, so we took it. This, of course, meant that I was seasick for at least a part of the ride but at least not the whole thing. I did 7 hours of watch, which is the most I have done in any passage thus far. I am improving.

It was worth it since now we are in Marigot Bay in St. Martin. We are on a mooring ball since Simpson Bay lagoon is crowded, stinky icky water and has quite a few derelict boats. The bay is a bit rolly but beautiful and clean! We checked in on the French side since it is free and on the Dutch side of the island, it is not. The French side of the island is also duty free and awesome marine stores.

The first night we were here we accidently met a couple from Austria (she was royalty there) and they gave us the lay of the land since they had been here for 2 weeks vacationing.  We were the only people in the restaurant and ended up chatting with the restaurant owner who was a “healer.”  I had pulled a couple muscles in my shoulder a while back and she offered to do a healing treatment on me so of course – yes!  She said she takes the aura from the plants and transfers it to the hurt area and is able to remove the pain.  I am not sure if it is just psycho sematic or not but my should her does feel a bit better. 

The next night we ended up going to a Moroccan restaurant recommended to us by the Austrian couple, which was AMAZING.  It was built like a fortress and one of the few things that survived hurricane Irma.  As a vegetarian, it isn’t always easy to find vegetarian food, but middle eastern food is very friendly, and I had couscous, roasted vegetables, and chickpeas.  So good.  We even had a belly dancing show with our dinner.  The place was incredible and one of the coolest restaurants we have visited so far!

Sailing Hubby asked what I wanted to do for my birthday and I decided on the tourist activity – Maho Beach to watch the planes fly over. The airport runway ends right across the street from the beach, so the planes have jet blast when taking off and land right over your head. Happy Birthday to me!