We got an early start this morning since we had a boat to catch at 9am. We left Princess Heights at 8am. It usually takes us about 20 minutes to get to Simpson Bay.  Today I felt like I was back in Atlanta rush hour traffic and it took us 45 minutes! We made it through the traffic jam and stopped at La Sucriere in Simpson Bay to grab some croissants and chocolate crosissants. Crystal had been looking forward to these all week and they did not disappoint!
We arrived at the Lady C floating dock to board the Bluebeard 3 Heineken Boat for our day sail to Prickly Pear. Prickly Pear is a small uninhabited island located off the west coast of St. Maarten with a stunning beach and crystal clear water:
The sail over is just under 2 hours and the seas were pretty calm so it was awesome to just sit up on deck with the breeze bowing and take in the beautiful scenery:
When we got to Prickly Pear we went snorkeling and saw lots of great fish including a blowfish, stingray, and baby sand shark. We also saw a huge school of fish swimming in unison that was pretty cool. Unfortunately we missed the sea turtles and baracuda that a few other people reported seeing. Last year we made the mistake of snorkeling without shirts on and we both got REALLY bad sun burns. We did not make that mistake again this year and came armed with my windsurfing lycra shirts and SPF 50! Glad to report that there was no sunburn for us this year although it looked like lots of other people on the boat made the same mistake we did last year.
After snorkeling, we had a great lunch on Prickly Pear and spent some time walking the beautiful beach. On last year’s return sail we had a drunk teenager go overboard! I am glad to report that this year’s trip did not provide that kind of excitement! The crew of Bluebeard 3 does a fantastic job at taking care of everybody on board and it was another great day. We highly recommend this trip to anyone visiting St. Martin.
After getting back to Simpson Bay we headed to Skip Jacks for dinner. We got a table on the water over looking Simpson Lagoon. I ordered grouper stuffed with crab and Crystal ordered shrimp linguini in a white cream sauce. Both dishes were outstanding and the total bill came to $53. I put this meal in a tie with our dinner at Big Fish on Sunday for our best meal on the island. We might have to make a 2nd trip back to Skip Jacks.
