St. Maarten Reunion of Good Friends

The month of January went by very quickly as we reunited with many good friends, some from the States and several right here in St. Maarten.  We have been timeshare owners here in St. Maarten now for 20 years, so we have made some good friends each time we returned.  We spent a day with Butch and Debbie who were here on vacation from their home in Pennsylvania.  We met them last year on their first visit to St. Maarten and will see them again next year when they return.  Dwayne is our dear friend who we met here in St. Maarten back in 2007 and we have remained friends ever since.  Dwayne is our go to guy for anything we need or want and is so helpful.  Dwayne and Neil are great people and lots of fun.  We will be spending a lot more time with them while on the island.

Our very good sailing buddies from Michigan, Doug and Jean, arrived in St. Maarten to spend a week with us at Oyster Bay Beach Resort.  We had the best time showing them around the island, as they have never been here before.  It was so good to see old friends!  They said they loved the island so much, they want to return again.  (Must have been the great tour guides they had!!). Capt. Alan and Capt. Colleen have been our friends since 2007 when we first took their snorkeling tour, which was the best snorkeling three island tour ever!  They took us out on their boat recently and we stopped at Tintamarre Island and Pinel Island.  There will be many more get togethers for us.

We are finding many different places to meet other cruisers and sailors.  One such place is Lagoonies, a bar with a great happy hour and restaurant.  Many places on the water host events, seminars, flea markets, live music and special happenings.  There is much to do here, including Harmony Night in Grand Case with a marching band and Mardi Gras dancers marching down the main street to great drum beats.