St. Martin is French, Sint Maarten is Dutch. About six miles north of the island of St. Martin is Anguilla, which logic would dictate is…British!
From Marigot you can easily see Anguilla (pronounced ahn-gwee-la) in almost any weather conditions, it’s that close. Anguilla boasts an extensive system of national parks and protected reefs and islands, unfortunately the government of Anguilla makes it prohibitively expense for a boat our size to actually visit them. They’re rules put is in the larges size class for a Cruising Permit, meaning it would cost us the same $330 per week to cruise that someone in a 200 foot megayacht would pay. Or $90 per day, with two days needed if you want to actually stay over night. Smaller boats get off easier, but we’re at a critical point where it gets really expensive for us even though it’s a rounding error for someone with a boat that has a paid crew of a dozen and measures their fuel consumption in gallons per minute.
Not that I’m bitter – it’s a lovely place and I’d love to see more of it but it would be nice is they’d rethink their cruising permit rate structure.
If you stay in Road Harbor (and only Road Harbor) there is no need for a Cruising Permit so that is what we opted to do. You can rent a car for less money than a single day permit, so the best way to see the main island is to anchor in Road Harbor and rent a car.
Road Harbor and the town (village?) of Sandy Bottom is a small place with a few beach bars and restaurants, a pretty beach, and a few small shops. It’s a decent anchorage and a jumping off point for the rest of the island, and it also is where you clear in and out of customs.
We had a nice casual mean there at John-o’s place, one of the beach front bars that used to get some celebrity traffic in the past even though it’s an out of the way place.
Renting a car, we decided to see as much of the island as a we could. We drove from one end to the other checking out more than a couple of the lovely beaches. There are the “primary” roads, which are paved and on which you drive on the wrong side unless you are a mad dog or an Englishman. They are also fond of rotaries which are especially intimidating and confusing if you’ve not driven a car on either side of the road in months – especially the “double rotary” where one feeds into another.
The “secondary” roads are a lot less confusing, as they really aren’t wide enough to worry about a “side” per se. Also they tend to be a lot less paved, so the “side” you pick sometimes has to do more with avoiding ripping the bottom out of the car than what the driving laws specifically say.
Tourist map in hand, we set out for a nice place to just hang for a bit – a beach, maybe some lunch and a cold drink. After a couple of false starts and stops we decided on the Palm Grove Bar & Grill, also known as “Nat’s Place.” This took us off the primary roads for the first time, as we drove down windy dirt and sand roads towards a seemingly empty horizon. Eventually we came across a place that looked as if the next hurricane to pass within a few hundred miles would blow it over – Nat’s Place!
It’s obviously very casual. Shoes optional, Nat offers reasonably priced good food. A shock, really, based on some of the meal prices we’d seen in beach front restaurants, but I suppose we aren’t paying for linens and a sommelier here. It was a quite nice lunch on a breathtakingly beautiful beach in the middle of nowhere – what’s not to love?
After lunch my father and I sat in the shade of the restaurant while the rest of the group went out for a walk on the beach and some splashing around. Eventually we had to leave, since we wanted to see more of the island and perhaps pick up some things to bring back to the boat for breakfast the next morning.
At the other end of the island there is a well known Trattoria (who’s name escapes me – we didn’t eat there) located on yet another breathtaking beach. This one is on the South side of Anguilla and has a lovely view of St. Martin from the restaurant and the soft sand beach in front of it.
Eventually we headed back to the boat, though not after an interesting experience trying to do a small bit of grocery shopping. I guess it was some time since the last supply boat came, because the big grocery store on the island was near empty! I’ve never seen anything quite like it in a place that wasn’t days from a bankruptcy closing, yet this store was considered one of the best places to provision. Probably is, the day after the boat comes.
I’d love to come back to Anguilla and spend some time in her parks There are some beautiful islands around the main island and every beach we stopped at was suitable for a post card. Hopefully some day the Anguillan government will make it a little more affordable for those of us with bigger boats that aren’t mega yachts to come and stay!
