Fly-By Visit with Dottie and Dirck

In the early days when our daughter Christa was dating her husband-to-be, Nash, our extended families began sharing holidays together.  Always a fun and eclectic group with an adventurous spirit, we shared Thanksgiving at the Cape Cod numerous times, Christmas at Jackson Hole and Lake Taupo, NZ, and many more adventures together over the years.  Now we alternate trips to Hong Kong to share our two grandkids, Quinn and Conner. We are very fortunate to have had this bond for all these years. 

We got an email from Nash's mother, Dottie and her friend Dirck, saying they would be coming down to Sint Maarten for a much needed winter break from Boston. We mentioned we were anchored in Simpson Bay Lagoon as a reference point of our location.  They found a great guest house nearby called The Horny Toad, of all things, right on the beach about a 5-minute walk from our favorite dingy dock at Barnacles Pub. Perfect!

We were certainly ready for a little diversion from our “chores” and a chance to visit and tour around the island with D&D sounded like a great idea. They arrived Tuesday afternoon and we headed over for a visit. We were immediately luxuriating in the spaciousness of their unit with a large kitchen, living/dining area, flush toilet and a huge shower.  Walter staked out a place on their huge couch and almost fell asleep. We shared some drinks and snacks out on the deck and watched the sunset. Dottie, slightly our senior and an energizer bunny with lots of ideas, prepared a delicious dinner of roasted chicken and asparagus.

The next day we took a dingy tour of Simpson Bay Lagoon, visited the town of Marigot on the French side and had lunch at “Serafina" a popular bakery/ restaurant.  We sat and chatted between rain squalls and finally headed back to our boat before the next squall hit.  We sat out in the cockpit and enjoyed some drinks and snacks before heading back to D&D's for a swim in Simpson Bay.  For dinner that night we walked down the beach to a lovely restaurant, “Characters” and had some great tapas.

Dottie, Dirck and Meryl for sundowners on Flying Cloud.

We had a few things to catch up on the next day so we let D&D enjoy their beautiful place on the beach and invited them over for dinner.  I decided to prepare “Stew Fish in Gravy” (Grenadian Style), along with rice and salad.  It’s a delicious dish we learned from our cooking lessons with "Esther and Omega" back in Grenada last year.  Following dinner we had the opportunity to see photos and videos of Dottie’s recent 5-week trip to Ethiopia.  She had some terrific photos and her videos were amazing.  Ethiopia is definitely a third-world country few have the opportunity to visit and we enjoyed learning more about its people and culture. Thank you Dottie.

Our plans for Friday, our last day together, were to rent a car and see some of the island.  We had to run a small errand on our way to get our Sodastream cartridges refilled with CO2 at an industrial gas supply company.  It turned into somewhat of a scavenger hunt as it was very tricky to find.  (see our blog post on refilling Sodastream bottles). Thank God both Dottie and Dirck speak fluent French or we would never have found the place.

We continued on to Ilet Pinel, which is supposed to be one of the best snorkeling spots on the island.  You ride a small boat out to the island and can snorkel on the reefs on either side of the beach. It has two restaurants and a beautiful beach with fairly clear water for swimming. We all snorkeled and checked out the scenery. Walter asked two topless French ladies from Paris if they would keep an eye on our belongings while we snorkeled.  They jokingly said they weren’t planning on going anywhere too soon, so no problem.  Anyway, after snorkeling everyone thanked them many times over, especially Walter and Dirck! 

Boat ride out to Ilet Pine

Beach on Ilet Pinel

After snorkeling we drove to Grand Case on the northeast side of St. Martin, which has a wonderful beach and some great restaurants. We ate at one of our favorites, Sky's The Limit, and enjoyed some cold beers and a huge plate of ribs with numerous sides. 

After eating so much it was good that hiking was next on our agenda.  We headed to the rainforest area of Pic Paradis to Loterie Farm, a renovated sugar plantation turned into an eco preserve where you can wine, dine, climb, hike and glide over the treetop canopy.  The ropes course and zip lines looked like a lot of fun but we opted to do the hike up the trail along a small stream and eventually up to a view point. After that we took in the comfort and ambiance of the treetop lounge and had some drinks.

Tree house lounge at Loterie Farm.

 

 
The next morning we swung by "The Horny Toad” to say good-bye to Dottie and Dirck as they headed over to St. Kitts for a couple days.  We thanked them for coming and sharing some fun times with us. They mentioned they had a five-hour transit at the airport on their way home the following Tuesday and planned to walk over from the airport to “Characters"  for a little swim and brunch.  Unfortunately, we were back in the midst of our solar panel installation and couldn’t get over for a last minute swim.  We told them to be sure and wave to us as they flew over us in the harbor. 

We have to give them credit they sure know how to squeeze in a lot in a very short time.  We on the other hand will probably still be here working on boat projects ad infinitum.