Sint Maarten and the sights of Maho beach

Friday morning saw us catching the ferry that goes from Gustavia St Barths to St (Sint) Maarten. A pleasant 45 minute ride with some wave action and  we were again at...Immigration!!. All very quick and then a cab ride to our hotel. We were getting a little concerned as it was about a 30 min ride and of course no meter!. Anyway it turned out to be very reasonable.
We had booked the hotel from Saba at the recommendation of Donna the Taxi. We had looked at the Maho Beach hotel and it was expensive but the "Royal Turtle Inn" was way more reasonable and located on Simpson Bay and not far from Maho Beach.
What is the attraction on Maho Beach, topless European women and guys in Speedos? Not really! Once again it is ...airplanes.

The airport at St Maarten is short by international jet standards at around 7000 ft and the easterly approach (normally used) is over the ocean, then over Maho Beach (about 50 ft (15m) wide and a road (maybe 30 ft (9m) and then the threshold of the runway. There is a bar off to the side and watching the planes land is a popular past time for locals and visitors. The bar even has a sign that details the expected arrival times for the major carriers. So you can sit at a nice beach bar with a cold beer and watch airplanes all day. What is not to like about that!!

I think we arrived around 12.30 and had walked from our hotel, maybe a mile or so. Just enough to work up a decent thirst!


There are lots of comings and goings of the small aircraft like the ones we flew to Saba and St Barths, and some regional carriers. There are large signs that warn people about jet blast, particularly from departing aircraft and we saw several people who were apparently invincible who stood (at least for a while) behind departing aircraft. Not too clever.

LIAT Dash 8 landing. I would say he had this just right.

 

Us with Maho Beach in the background

US Airways A319. A tad low but OK. Note the sign warning of the jet blast

Air France A340 departing non stop for Paris

 

The aircraft is VERY close to the road and takes all of the runway as it is relatively short

American 757 from Miami "on slope"

  Earlier I had seen a DHL Cessna Caravan make what looked like a deliberately low approach to give the crowd a thrill, but he did not come close to the 727 freighter that landed soon after the American 757. Fortunately I got a shot and Candida got one a second or so later

I think his wheels are maybe 10 ft over the heads of the people and he cleared the fence by about 5ft!!

And he was down. Spectacular!! Not smart but spectacular

We wandered back to the hotel before dark and after an attempt to get dinner at a local restaurant we gave up and came back to the bar and restaurant at the hotel. The food was excellent and not too expensive, so we had a nice evening even if we were awakend early by the inevitable roosters!!
Our room was adequate and the place was very small, maybe 8 rooms, but the dinner and breakfast the next morning was excellent and we had a good view of Simpson's Bay

Onward to St Barths

Morning came soon enough and we had to be at the airport by 6.45 for check in and the inevitable Immigration!
All went smoothly and we were in St Maarten before 8am to a mostly deserted airports and a connection at 9.45 (in place of the original 11.00)
Again the flight was about 10 or 12 minutes over blue water and passing many small islands. I think the pilot climbed to 2500 ft. On this occasion there were 4 passengers and I managed to get the front center seat that placed my view out of the windshield between the two pilots.
Saba is said to be one of the most challenging airports, but frankly from a passenger perspective unless you KNEW this you might be unlikely to notice. This cannot be said of St Barths which I rate as among THE most exciting landings I have observed to date.
The runway ends with a public beach and then a bay, and at the approach end there is a hill about 300 ft (90m) tall that terminates where the runway begins. The good news is that the runway is over twice as long as Saba. I estimate that the pilot approaches at about 8-10 degrees. To put it in perspective a normal jet approach is 3 degrees. He basically dives at the runway and flares at the last moment lands and crams on the brakes and reverse thrust. It is all quite controlled and normal for them, they may do it several times a day, but it was a fantastic experience for me. I went back the next day for a couple of hours to watch them from the ground and gained a different perspective.

A Cessna Caravan over the traffic island

Looking down the runway from the hillside

A Winair Twin Otter shows the descent angle

Occasionally someone does not make it in style, and the results can be seen in the image below. I think it is the same aircraft featured in the video link St Barths botched landing

Aircraft with blue tail and collapsed left main gear

Once again Immigration, this time French, and now we are in the Eurozone, and it shows. We grabbed a cab to the hotel, which like most things here was not very far, except for the traffic and ongoing street reconstruction that basically routed half of the island traffic past our hotel on what would normally be a quiet side street. We decided to go down to the beach a couple of hundred yards away, and also just look around and had lunch at a very nice  French bakery that opens way early for breakfast and closes at 1.30 for the day. We swam in the bay and our initial location was ill advised (by us) as there was coral only a few yards out and we were in to it before we knew it. We retreated and moved down the beach for a while and later in the afternoon made our way back to the hotel,passing the local cemetery (a sight to behold) and  relaxed by the pool and removed coral splinters from our feet (or at least most of them!) A good lesson early on.

Graves all decorated with (plastic) flowers

We discovered that not having a car on St Barths is a distinct limitation, so we booked one for the following morning. A combination of that and the traffic limited our dinner options. We discussed this with Melane who had welcomed us to the Hotel Normandie when we arrived and seemed to serve breakfast, run the front desk and clean the rooms all with excellent humor!

Melane. She seemed to do it all

Petit dejuneur a l'hotel

Outside the hotel

She mentioned several places and briefly mentioned "Le Portugal" literally just around the corner and a hang out for the Portuguese workers who do seasonal work on construction sites on the island. So kinda basic but once they figured out that Candid was Portuguese speaking everything changed. I do not think the lady who is part owner saw many women in the place anyway and was delighted to talk and eventually made us some dinner in spite of the fact that they do not serve food other than at lunch time!!. Food was basic but very good and reasonable (for St Barths) and a way better experience than some fancy place in my mind.

Le Portugal. Good food!!

We spent the next day with the car. Candida indulged me once again and we watched airplanes for a while and then just wandered around the island for the rest of the day.

St Barths coastline

Nice location for homes

We found the sister shop from the bakery at the other end of the island and had lunch there and found some good vantage points for views and saw a couple of oddball vehicles including a couple of different vintage Land Rovers, and I was able to explain the history and significance of these vehicles both from the 60s is my guess. We also saw an all electric vehicle complete with baby seat!!, and a Mini Moke a variant of the original Mini. My guess is somewhere mid 60s for a vintage.

60s vintage Land Rover

Late 50s or very early 60s version (narrow headlights) Also had a plate from Jersey Channel Islands

A Mini Moke. VERY basic transportation

Small all electric vehicle with child seat!!

It is a beautiful island but so much more the "tourist destination" and place of island homes for the wealthy, and not so much "our style" like Saba!!