St Maarten/St Martin 14 August 2016 Newsletter Other newsletters Contests | Restaurants | Bargains and Happenings ISLAND NEWS

Weather: In the week before today there were three clear days, three days with a chance of rain, and one partly cloudy day. Total rain was less than a half inch. The daily high temperature was 86 or 87F dropping to only 81F overnight. Today is listed as partly cloudy and the next nine days clear with about a sixth of an inch of rain scattered about. It will be hot as the high temperatures are predicted to be two days at 88 and the rest at 87F. The overnight low temperatures will be 81F for nine days with one morning only dropping to 82F. Hope your A/C works! Here's the detailed forecast from Weather Underground and here's one from the Weather Channel. Sunset tonight will be at 6:39 PM. That provides 12 hours and 45 minutes of sunshine, less than the last newsletter and it's all downhill until late December. The full moons for 2016 will be 18 Aug (this week - have a romantic dinner at Daniel's by the Sea or Big Fish on the eastern side of the island), 16 Sep, 16 Oct, 14 Nov, and 13 Dec. The photo on the right was taken from Cliffhanger on Cupecoy Beach. It no longer exists and the beach access has been closed.

SXM-Beaches: On the left are the rocks behind Coco Beach on Orient Beach, a good place to be over the coming week based on the weather forecast! On the right is a kite surfer off Palm Beach Restaurant. Below is a panoramic scene of the beach chairs at Kakao Beach.

Mushrooms of North America by Roger Phillips. (used from $10 to $20) Given the weather in the northeast US lately, we are using this book more than ever. From Library Journal: In this beautifully illustrated book, Phillips vividly presents the world of mushrooms. Unlike the photographs in other guides, which are taken in the field, the more than 1000 color photographs featured here were shot in the studio in order to capture both the external features of mushrooms as well as their internal anatomy. Each picture includes specimens representing various stages of growth, and the accompanying annotation describes the anatomy of the cap, gills, stem, and spores. In addition, the author explains where the particular species of mushroom is found, its season of growth, and whether or not it is edible. Amateur mycologists as well as professionals in the field will find this book an invaluable guide. Highly recommended as a basic library reference source.

Sapphire Beach Club: The big news is that Jeff Berger says that Bruno Sitbon will be taking over Sapphire. The timeshare owners group on Facebook has a posting from Kimberly Mosser saying her recent two week stay in a building 3 end unit "was fabulous!!!" She included several photos of the remodeled unit and more comments. 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 the Tarzan swing on Random Wind. If you want your own boat with or without a captain, check out ReveMarine in Marigot's Marina Royale The Herald ran a press release saying that Divi Little Bay just opened a 100 foot pier that will be used by Aqua Mania for round-the-island trips, champagne brunch sails, sunset sails, and adventure tours. The pano below shows Andrey Melnichenko's motor yacht A sailing past our balcony. This 300 foot beauty cost $300 million and is for sale as he built a larger sailing yacht for $450 million.

Travel: KLM has announced direct flights to SXM. What, you say, didn't a big KLM plane land in SXM three times a week. Well yes, but they didn't return directly to Schipol in Amsterdam. The story was that a fully loaded 747 could not take on enough fuel to go all the way back to Europe because of the danger posed by Sentry Hill off the eastern end of runway. Heading west toward the Caribbean isn't really an option most days as we are in the easterly trade winds most of the time. Thus, the jets took on enough fuel to get to Curaçao where the longer runway allowed enough fuel to be loaded. This did add 4 to 5 hours to the already 4-5 hour journey. They appear to be putting a newer A330 on the route and can reliably take off to the east with enough fuel to reach Schipol. The Daily Herald reported that Customs Department and Nature Foundation recently worked together to seize almost 500 lbs of conch shells from departing passengers. Most of the conch on the island is in the French side Marine reserve stretching from Créole Rock off Grand Case to Orient Beach. Obviously it is not legal to take conch from there, but "conch shells and certain species of coral fall under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species and thus require a special permit to be able to transport them, alive or dead as shells. The Nature Foundation is the designated authority to issue these permits."

After almost four months, airport officials told The Herald that the cones blocking off most of the drop-off/pick-up stopping zone increased security. Probably so, but it made life worse for both terrorists and fliers. The Herald reported on the latest quarterly conference call from Norwegian Cruise Lines. Basically business stinks. Given the terrorism in Europe (Nice, Paris, Belgium), terrorism in the US (California, Florida), the coup in Turkey, and Zika in South America and the Caribbean, no one wants to travel. Inter-island cooperation The Herald reported that the Dutch side and the French side got together to discuss a wastewater treatment plant in Cole Bay. They certainly need that and some action on garbage as the pondfill dump regularly combusts, wafting its wonderful perfume all over the cruise ships in the harbor and everyone else in the area. The locals must be getting used to this problem but it probably comes as a surprise to the tourists. On the right is a photo that Barbara Cannegieter posted on her facebook page.

Crime: On 9 July Wendy Montulet (22), a Belgian tourist staying at La Flamboyant in Nettle Bay went jogging and never returned to her hotel. Her body was found in the brush in Nettle Bay and the prosecutor in the case said that she died of multiple puncture and slash wounds, consistent with those inflicted by a knife. A man was soon arrested and shipped to the jail in Guadeloupe where he was murdered.

Over the weekend of 9-10 July, the post office was burglarized and $80,000 was taken.

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: A new specie of fish was found by the Curasub, a submersible operated by the Smithsonian Institute's Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP). This bright orange-red scorpion fish was found at deaths of 300 to 500 feet), in waters close to Curaçao. The press release printed ran in the Daily Herald has more info. 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: The Herald wrote that Dominica leads the Caribbean in the percent of renewable energy production. The article states that 28 percent of their electricity comes from hydropower (???) and wind, while the next paragraph says that they have already spent US$20 million on geothermal and that solar and wind show great potential, possibly making the island self-sufficient by 2020.

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:
2 October to 18 December | 18 December to 12 February

same cast of characters as current contest

Chanteclair Last high season, shortly after the ides of March, we headed over to Marigot's Marina Royale for a lunch on the water at Chanteclair. Twice in a row we have had the good fortune to find a parking spot along the road next to the Crossontiere Restaurant. There were spots in the large lot by the cemetery. We took a table inside as the weather had been horrible over the previous week. As the shot on the right shows, it was a fairly nice day and it stayed that way all through lunch. We ordered water and a glass of the Robiteau Pinot Noir (7€). The butter and bread were quite good (left), better than the finette we get at Sarafina's. Martha had the red snapper ceviche (center, 13€) and I had the chicken ravioli with a foie gras topping (right, 19€). Both were quite good. With water and another glass of wine our bill came to 54€, about $60. Service was quite good so we added a bit more.

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. Having posted this info, I must admit I have heard nothing from Mila since the notification of summertime hours. I have heard from someone who said the restaurant was closed.

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. If you are looking to purchase gift certificates for island restaurants, check out L'Escargot Restaurant, Piazza Pascal, and La Villa. Treat your friends at your favorite restaurant! Below is the list of annual closings for several restaurants.

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.