"Arriving Sint Maarten" Sint Maarten Travelogue by grandmaR

View of dock area from deck 7

On Saturday night, CNN mentioned that we should set our clocks back to standard time, and so Bob did that. But there was no mention of it in the ship's bulletin, and I knew we would be in the Atlantic Time Zone, so I didn't set MY watch back. We were scheduled to come in to Philipsburg on the Dutch side at 7 am, and were to be on the dock for the first tour at 8:35.

So Bob was thinking that it was 6:30 am, and he could sleep longer, and I thought it was 7:30 and we should get up and have breakfast. We could see from the bow camera that the ship had docked - it had seemed to back into the slip.

The ships clock on the screen said 6:30, but I called the front desk, and they confirmed that it was really 7:30. So Bob got dressed, and we went up for breakfast. They didn't have any spoons or any glasses, although there was still some food. This ship doesn't seem to have much in the way of spoons, and half the time I can only get a round-bowled soup type spoon, which doesn't work well for eating a cup of yogurt.

Entrance sign to cruise ship docks from the bus

I went out on the deck after breakfast and took some photos. There was a water taxi from the cruise ship docks (the A.C. Wathey Cruise and Cargo Facility according to the sign out front) to the town (there was a rotating sign which said it was $5.00) but I never managed to get the sign with the water taxi information on it. There were shops and places to eat right next to the pier. There 's also an information area, and a taxi/bus stand.

Male figurehead on the DESTINY

On the other side of the dock from us was DESTINY a Windjammer - it had a male figurehead which Bob thought was unusual.

Ship with climbing wall behind us

Behind them was the HAL Volendam, and behind us was a Royal Caribbean ship with a climbing wall on the top stern deck, although I don't know which ship it was as I couldn't see the name. Possibly Empress of the Seas.

We got off the ship a little before 8:25. The tour (which was called Discover St. Martin) was to be 2.5 hours and we were to meet at 8:35. We lined up two by two, but finally I had to sit down, so I went over and joined a lady on a bollard until one of the dock people chased us off - they said we couldn't sit there. Finally about 9 we were frog-marched along the dock in the sun to where the buses were. There were two buses full.

Low income housing

He also told us the story about how they divided the island - a Frenchman and a Dutchman started out walking in opposite directions on the shore and when they met again - the line between the start and finish was where the island was divided. The guide said that the Frenchman drank wine and the Dutchman drank gin so the Frenchman
walked farther, but the Dutch got the most valuable part.

The last time there was a hurricane, it destroyed many of the poor people's housing on the island. So these block houses were built to house them.

CSY Walkover sailboat from the bus

We sat on the right side of the bus, and this was the best side to be on because most stuff was on the right side. As we drove out past the boatyard we saw a CSY Walkover (like ours) up on the hard. About 9:15 we crossed over to the French side. The driver/guide teased us by telling us we needed our passports.

Marker on the border

The narrative will pick up on the French side of the island. Unlike the Dutch side, which is part of the Netherlands Antilles, the French side is part of Guadaloupe.