BVIs vs St Martin / Sint Maarten

[Tom and Maje]

Originally Posted by boatman61

My 1st trip to the Islands was Antigua in '68... how things have changed...

Everything has changed since '68.

Maje

[Fullmoon]

The Bight and Sopers Hole have gone up to $30

[gbanker]

As I write this we are sitting on a mooring in the Bight at Norman Island. We choose to pay $30 for the mooring but could have gone around the corner to Benures Bay and anchored for free.
With some thought and looking at the charts one can often get away from the crowds if one wants to. Don't get me wrong however, it is the most crowded place we have ever sailed around.
We have been to St Martin several times and enjoy the resturants and marine stores. Both are, IMHO, better than in the US or British Virgin Islands.
But, for all around good sailing, numerous anchorages, convenient shopping and restaurants and good snorkeling, we prefer the BVIs.
Sounds like you get to the Caribbean often so why not make a trip to St Martin and see for yourself?

[busyengineer]

Actually Seacap I should have been more specific. I meant charter/bareboating/sailing as opposed to "cruising" sorry. Looks like the BVI wins hands down overwhelmingly (almost unanimous) much to my amazement/surprise! Wow!

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by busyengineer

Actually Seacap I should have been more specific. I meant charter/bareboating/sailing as opposed to "cruising" sorry. Looks like the BVI wins hands down overwhelmingly (almost unanimous) much to my amazement/surprise! Wow!

Shouldn't be a surprise when you consider that all the sailing in the BVI's can be done without having to "check out/in" to another country like doing the St Martin area. This is a major "biggie" for charterers interested in maximizing their very limited time on that very "expensive" boat versus wasting a whole day or a major part of it with doing paperwork in some C/I/P offices.
- - Add in the "enclosed" waters that afford reasonable good to great sailing without having to go "outside."
- - Time is the major limiting factor - given only one week (+/- a day or so) and you can see where getting the maximum boat/fun time is critical. Cruisers are in a whole different time spectrum where we normally always allow a whole day to check-in and another whole day to check-out. We are not in a hurry so no big deal.