As a resident of St. Maarten, we don't get out on boat trips as often as we'd like, but every now and then when friends come to visit, we treat ourselves to a day off and join in on what the visitors of the island do. Earlier this month we had friends visiting for 10 days and on their "Bucket List" was an all-day boat trip. I've been on Spellbound before but it's been years and was before Hurrican Irma. We booked the around the island trip, with a stopover on Tintemarre. What an absolutely fabulous day! Ian has two boats now since Irma and we were on the originally one which is cozy, comfortable, sails like a dream and has everything you need on it. We were picked up by dinghy at the Sint Maarten Yacht Club dock by Ian and his dog Ginger who is quite an amazing and entertaining girl. We motor-sailed to Creole Rock in Grand Case and stopped to snorkel. The weather was perfect that day and visibility great. Then we sailed to Tintemarre island, an uninhabited island which is a territory of the French side. My friends couldn't get over the color of the water. We swam, went ashore and explored, and drank rum punch on the beach that Ian brought out to us in the dinghy. Had a beautiful lunch of barbque chicken and ribs made on the back of the boat, ceasar salad and pasta salad which was really tasty and everyone loved it. Ian plays great music and we were lucky to have really fun other people as fellow passengers. Olga, his crew, is French and super friendly and professional and really looked after everyone. Bottom-line, I need to go out on Spellbound more often... and HIGHLY recommend!!
