St Maarten/St Martin 9 April 2017 Newsletter Other newsletters Contests | Restaurants | Bargains and Happenings ISLAND NEWS

Weather: Last Sunday was the beginning of a great week, clear, warm, no breeze, and flat water, although the marine haze did thicken a bit. Saba is behind the boats in the shot on the right. It's easier to see it in the enlarged version. On Monday the Caribbean was as calm as a bathtub with few clouds but plenty of haze. Tuesday was also calm with Saba and Statia appearing in the haze. You'll note that it was so clear that I could photograph houses on Saba. (below left). Below center is what I love about being here in our unit. That is the view from our kitchen and my desk. The last photo was at a very clear moment. The weather pano below was taken from our Caribbean balcony and shows Mercedes heading out for her day sail. Today's forecast shows mediocre week. There will be two clear days, two days with chances of rain, and three partly cloudy days with 10-20% chance of rain amounting to 1.1 inches. The temperatures are pretty solid: today and most others 82, remainder at 83 for the high and 76 or 77 for the low for the next week.
Here's the detailed forecast from Weather Underground and here's one from the Weather Channel. Sunset tonight will be at 6:27 PM providing 12 hours and 27 minutes of sunshine. In 2017 the full moons will be 11 Apr (soon!), 10 May, 9 Jun, 8 Jul, 7 Aug, 6 Sep, 5 Oct, 4 Nov, and 3 Dec.

SXM-Beaches: Bay Rouge is named for the pinkish cast of its sand. It's a pretty beach with the Falaise des Ouiseaux (Bird Cliffs) to the west and David's Grotto on the east. The photo on the left from 2016 looks along the beach from the entrance next to the two beach bars over to the cliffs on the west. There is about a mile of mostly sandy beach off to the west of the entrance. The other photo shows the rocks that start the formation that encloses the grotto. It's still there but falling down, and so are Gus's and Raymond's beach bars.

Sapphire Beach Club: Early last week the A/C for buildings one and two failed. It needed replacement and the replacement was taking up a parking spot next to the existing setup. The new unit is more efficient and smaller. The old unit was removed and a new support for the smaller unit was built from poured concrete. It took 24 hours to set, at which point the crane put the a/c unit in place. It had to be connected. That took a bit longer than expected. Sapphire was offering units in building three to those who wanted to move, but we have floor through ventilation and everyone had A/C on Saturday. On the left is Mercedes going out for a day sail, center is Passaat catching the last rays of the sun on a sunset cruise, and on the right is Random Wind enjoying the trip back to harbor after a tough day of snorkeling, Tarzan swinging, swimming, sunbathing, and dining. Someone is riding the bow sprit and that looks like some choppy water.
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-Hotels: The photo on the left was is Bob Baron's Baywatch Villa. It has three bedrooms and three baths and a pool. He's also a real estate agent, so if you want to buy something down here, he's the man to see. SXM-Activities: Dimar Labega is an experienced fitness instructor. He's willing to work at your place, in the great outdoors, or at the Port de Plaisance gym.

Rental Cars: This week's gas report is brought to you by Triple A Car Rentals. I have known Alain Arnell of Triple A Car Rentals for about 20 years. He has always been a straight shooter and there are TTOL comments to back this up. A few years ago he moved to a larger lot and put up a new office on Beacon Hill near the western end of the runway. He's got a good fleet of cars and keeps them working well. Cars, however, do not always cooperate, so its good to know that he gets high marks for quickly sorting out any problem that may arise. Dutch side gas prices have been higher for almost all of the 26 years I have been on the island. Multiply €/liter by 3.8 to get €/gallon. Multiply that by the exchange rate to get $/gallon. Thus, it's about $3.75 per gallon. Dutch side prices have been higher for almost all of the 26 years I have been on the island.

Brand Location Price 1 to 1 Cadisco Nettle Bay 0.91€/l no Cadisco Sandy Ground 0.91€/l yes Cadisco Orient 0.93€/l yes Delta Sandy Ground 0.89€/l yes Delta Savane 0.92€/l no Delta Qtr d'Orlean 0.93€/l ? Blue Galis Bay 1.01€/l ? Artsen Agrement 1.02€/l ?

With the Euro weakening against the dollar, restaurants doing 1 to 1 become less interesting. It behooves those of us with dollars to check the exchange rate offered by restaurants. For several years French side restaurants have been offering better than market exchange rates, especially for cash. However, if a French side restaurant offers a bad exchange rate, ask for your credit card to be charged in Euros. Assuming you followed my advice below and got a card that has no charge for foreign transactions you will get the wholesale rate on the exchange.

There was an article in the NY Times about credit cards and travel benefits. Check it out here.

You should not be paying a currency transaction charge as there are many credit cards that don't have this onerous charge. My United Mileage Plus Explorer/Chase card no longer charges it and gets my first bag checked free for all United tickets purchased on the card.

We now use the Capital One Quicksilver Visa Signature Card that gives us 1.5% cash back - no fooling around with miles. They do not charge an exchange fee on foreign transactions and they do provide rental car insurance. This has been our primary card as airline miles are not as valuable or as easy to use as they used to be.

We always notify our card companies of our travel. Chase and Quicksilver actually accept this info on-line, making it much easier than working through the hell of telephone answering systems.

There are discussions on Credit card Forum and Daily Markets that may help you decide what card is best for you. The first one has a review of the new Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. It gives you 2 points for travel related purchases and then allows you to take 20% off when purchasing your rewards through their Ultimate Rewards portal. It's tempting.