In this video, Sailing to St Martin and Blasted by a Jet Airplane, we leave Antigua for Dutch Sint Maarten where we repair our dinghy then cruise over to French St Martin. We head to the airport to stand at the famous Maho Beach to be blasted by a Jet Aircraft on take-off then share Cruising tips and details about our stay here on the dual country island.
#mahobeach​ #sailingandcruising​ #sailingchannel​ #jetwash


Closed Captions (CC):
in this video we sail from antigua to

dutch saint martin

then to french saint martin and we get

blasted by a jet airplane

last time on sailing bella chandra we

did a major repair on our dinghy gluing

the tarantum on more permanently

and dealt with a spun prop on our

outboard motor

hi if you're new to the channel i'm

noelle and i'm dan and we're sailing

bella chandra

we sailed all the way from nova scotia

canada to the caribbean

that's right we're sailing all around

the caribbean now and if you haven't

subscribed to our channel just go below

this video

look for the big red subscribe button

and press that button

[Music]

hand steering sucks no it doesn't i

don't mind hand steering the combination

of the swell and trying to hold this uh

point of sale was just tired

but we had really good weather no

squalls we left

antigua around i think it was 10 p.m

and we should be arriving here in saint

martin

around three or four the next day

so not bad not bad we've been averaging

around five

to six knots downwind dan

did his first time going waiting on wing

he was pretty proud of himself

he also caught a fish while i was

sleeping he caught himself a bloop and

tuna and he's very happy about it

i told him no fishing but does he listen

no he doesn't listen

so i'm feeling a bit better now got

coffee in hand

but i had to be on camera

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

we can just see dutch st martin on the

horizon

and uh we're almost there so it's pretty

nice after a lot of hand steering to

finally get there

our auto pilot works it works better

upwind

downwind you can press the auto button

and it works for

like 10 20 minutes and then it starts to

beep

especially in higher winds but for

yeah big swell throws it off big time

because it makes the sails move and then

suddenly it just

it can't keep up but for about a three

or four hour period last night

i was motoring and we were downwind

sailing at the same time and the

autopilot

liked this one combination so

we were able to kind of get a break for

a few hours this behind me

is saint barts we're just passing same

parts we'd stop at safe parts but

to stop there you need a pcr test and

the pcr tests in antigua were 300

u.s so for us that's 600 us

all together which is absurd whereas in

dutch st martin we don't even need a pcr

test right now because

they trust antigua where antigua had

very low covid numbers

so we can get in there yeah that's what

we're doing

[Music]

[Music]

so we arrived in dutch st martin we

stayed in dutch st martin

for a couple weeks and repaired our

dinghy if you go back and watch some of

our recent videos you can see that we've

been busy

st martin is part of the lured islands

of the caribbean it comprises of two

separate countries divided between

the northern french side called saint

martin and the southern dutch side

called sin martin

spelled s-i-n-t-m-a-a-r-t-e-n

[Music]

st martin is still recovering from the

damage and aftermath of hurricane irma

back in 2017 a category 5 hurricane

there are still many sunken yachts in

the lagoon and damaged buildings on

shore

still undergoing repairs

after some time in dutch st martin we

did our paperwork to go to french st

martin

which is the other side of the island

and noel actually did that paperwork

yeah that was the first time i did a

check-in actually it was like the

easiest check-in

well it was my first time but okay i

can't say it's the easiest checking i've

ever done but it was so

freaking easy like i just walked up to a

computer

enter print get a stamp

done is just amazing and i didn't have

to pay anything

it was it's just so simple to come to

french st martin we just had to sail

around the bottom of the island and

we've been hanging out here on the

french side for about a week yeah we're

enjoying the french side

there's not as much hustle and bustle uh

there's

water areas to walk in large sidewalks

i've been enjoying it for zeus's sake at

least

and french baking in baguettes yeah and

croissants

yeah yeah and and they're very friendly

here

super friendly really good hospitality

so as you know uh noel and i are both

canadians

and we do know a little bit of french

and i grew up

with french and learned french in school

so that's coming in handy here in french

saint martin because

we're technically in france here and a

lot of the people just speak french

just today i took the dinghy to get

water and the security guard at the

marina only spoke french so i was kind

of excited i got to use my canadian

french but

they don't really like our canadian

french that well so if i

i speak to them and sometimes they speak

back in english because

they know right away i'm not from france

you know that place where there's an

airport

and at the end of the runway there's a

beach that

people stand on and when airplanes take

off they like get

blown down the beach we did that and we

got

[Music]

sandblasted

[Music]

uh

oh my gosh we're finding sand and nooks

and crannies that we didn't think was

possible

i tried to brush it off there's no way

it was coming off i still had sand stuck

on me like

two three days later it was fun we

didn't like fall down and tumble over

like some people

have like you've seen in the movies and

whatnot

but yeah people have done it three

friends of ours actually waited for like

this

one of the jumbo jets you know with a

massive

engine and they actually ended up flying

back

like almost into the water there's big

warning signs that say like

danger and don't stand too close an

aircraft zone and all that stuff

but they still let people go there yeah

it's crazy

it was fun i really liked the beach bar

right

by that area it's a really quaint beach

bar

they have some beach chairs there for

you to lay on and relax and enjoy

the bar itself is in the shape of a boat

and the bar stools are just like around

this

the bow of this boat it's really neat so

you just sit there

enjoy yourself a cocktail bottle of beer

and just watch these

airplanes come in and out very low and

the sun's

just there and the beach is there and

it's such a chill spot

[Applause]

[Music]

so we went to the grocery store for the

first time

a few weeks back now and i

had a mini like panic attack it's been

ages since

i've been in a like a large grocery

store

that actually sold you know everything

that i'm used to back in north america

you know

and cheap beer everything's cheap beer

is cheaper than water here

yeah it's not everything's not cheap

cheap but it's way cheaper than

any of the other islands we've been on

for the past seven months

here they have like all the things we're

looking for for the prices that we

expect to pay

back home so it's really cool to be able

to suck up on the things that you love

and find them i just couldn't get over

the price of groceries here is the first

island i've been on that you know the

groceries were actually

quite affordable more so on the dutch

side than the french side

although the french side you get

baguettes and cheeses for a dollar fifty

two dollars

and like you don't see that you never

get cheese for a dollar

fifty or two dollars like that's unheard

of but no here on the french side

everything's regulated and

for items like that coming in from

france all the prices are on par

as to what they would pay in france but

if you want

meats and fruits and veggies and stuff

like that it's better to get it from the

dutch side

you can dingy over or catch a bus buses

are typically around two dollars

for one way two dollars back depending

on how far you're actually

traveling there is some coin operated

laundry facilities here in st

martin it's a little bit of a walk but

it's nothing too crazy

each anchorage if you just like google

map it it'll show you where they're

located and how to get there

you're looking about 7 euros per load

maybe

10 euros per load that's including

washing and drying

but it's almost better for you to just

hire someone to pick up

do all the work for you and drop it off

because it you end up only spending a

few dollars extra to have it

professionally done and folded and

cleaned

thanks for watching if you enjoyed this

week's video please don't forget to

leave us a like

or a comment below we enjoy reading

those and if you haven't subscribed to

our channel just go below this video and

look for that big red subscribe button

and press that button

and if you haven't checked out our

patreon page it's always a good time to

do so

patreon is a place where you can give

back if you like what we do and you want

to support us

thanks see you later

[Music]

howdy

it was a sale i hate downwind

sucks c sucked

everything sucked