Today we spent the day on the Dutch/French island of St Maarten/St Martin. It’s unique in that it is an island with 2 nations, no border between the two. We were here once before, in 2016, and so we were curious to see any changes.

The forecast for the day was very good so we decided to have a walk around Philipsberg, the Dutch main town/port and then spend the day on the beach there. We took the shuttle boat from the cruise pier which cost $7 each for a round trip.

The town had changed quite a lot, almost certainly down to the huge numbers of cruise passengers now visiting. The old town is still very quaint with brightly coloured wooden houses and cobbled streets, but there really is nothing authentic left in Philipsberg, it’s all tourist shops, restaurants and bars. It’s a pity really but there’s a sense of inevitability about it all.

The beach was lovely, quite large in a perfect bay. There are a lot of bar restaurants along the back and they all offer loungers and umbrellas plus other enticements. We plonked at one offering 2 beds, 1 umbrella, free wifi, showers and bathroom for $15 for the day for the lot. Seemed reasonable. We had a bit of a “discussion” when the wifi didn’t seem to work….. Eventually after a lively interlude, it suddenly became functional so not sure what was going on there.

Spent about 6 hours under our umbrella and in and out of the water. Just lovely. At one point in the morning, a storm shower came through very suddenly and we cowered under our umbrella while it passed. Heavy rain. Then it was gone as soon as it arrived and that was all for the day – blue skies after that!!!!

When we were here in 2016, we went on one of 2 America’s Cup yachts for a sail and then took part in a race with the other one. It was huge fun, a great trip. The two yachts are still there and we enjoyed watching them racing across the bay.

There were some amazing super yachts in the bay today. Some really beautiful ones, must have been worth an awful lot of money.

At 3pm we packed up and walked back across the beach walk to the shuttle boat dock. We’d just missed one so what to do…… there was a funky little bar nearby so we went in there and had their special offer of 2 x rum punches for $10. They were big glasses and incredibly strong. Wowzer. 2 wouldn’t have been a good idea!!! We called both the girls from the bar and had nice chats.

Got back to the boat around 430, had some food, and then a rest till dinner. We’d had a lot of sun today so we were pretty tired. A good day. Relaxing and just the job.

Had another good dinner. Food is good on the ship. Here are a couple of pix.