Tintamarre Island
On our last day in St. Maarten, we were hoping to get on a boat and visit the neighboring ritzy-glitzy island of St. Barts. Unlike most tourists who had booked their seats on the boats way in advance, our family of 8 loved last minute plans. We couldn’t find any available boat to take us over so we decided to spend the day chilling by the pool, which wasn’t such a bad plan anyway.
I had heard that our resort Oyster Bay Beach Reosrt had a convenience store on the premises, which I had not checked out as yet. We decided to go there and pick up a few things. The store was located on a small deck in a tiny, picturesque marina. The store had tempting treats and was reasonably well stocked, and they sold Nespresso coffee!. Across from them was a bustling dive shop and so we went in to enquire about
the possibility of chartering a boat to St. Barts. The shop was busy and bustling and was getting a big group organized for a snorkeling tour. We started talking to Paul who told us what we already knew- that it was not possible to get to St. Barts and all the snorkeling tours were booked up. He told us to come back in 15 minutes after he sent off the tour group, to see if he could organize something for us. When we went back to see him, he had an idea for us even though he himself seemed unsure about mentioning it.. It was a day off for him and his family and they were planning on taking their boat and going off to Tintamarre Island to spend the day. He offered to take our family along with his and customize a tour for us. We were thrilled with the idea and as soon as we agreed on a price, we went off to quickly get our stuff.
A half hour later we were excitedly getting on to his gleaming white boat . He introduced us to his lovely wife Carol and his children Michela and Victor. It had rained the day before and the waters were quite choppy as Paul maneuvered the boat out of the marina and into the open seas.. It was a very rough ride with the boat slamming the angry waves. Swirling, smoky water agitated around us into dramatic swells. We held on tight as Paul skillfully piloted the heaving boat over the turbulent breakers. With the music blaring on the boat’s speakers, and the wind whipping our hair about in a happy frenzy, we were soaked but exhilarated as we sped away from the mainland. That was one boat ride I would never forget and kudos to our team Paul and Carol for superb boating skills.
As we approached closer to the island and we could see ahead of us the silky arc of the sandy beach, the choppy waters began to calm down. The sea changed from an angry, rough denim hue to a calm and bright aquamarine. We anchored a few feet away from the almost deserted island. There were just two other boats docked there and they seemed to be friends of our hosts Carol and Paul. The water was brilliantly blue and clear as bathwater.
The children in our group ages 18 to 22 squealed with delight as they jumped and cannonballed off the side of the boat into the inviting sea just a few feet below. The bright azure water was bracingly fresh and yet had the perfect warmth to envelop us in a happy mood. We walked on to the island and buried our toes in the fine, glittering sand. Apart from a couple of other small groups enjoying their day, we had this island to ourselves. Leaning back on the warm and sunny beach we surveyed the beautiful vista ahead of us and it could not have been any prettier than any stunning postcard that is out there in any travel brochure.
We had a perfect day at Tintamarre. We explored the small, uninhabited island. We walked through the bramble and bushes to the other side of the island seeing the remnants of the small aircraft that had crashed there a long time ago. We came across plenty of lizards, hermit crabs and goats. As we walked around the isolated area with just the brilliant blue sky above and the expanse of the clear seas around us, we felt like we were the lords of this land.
We went back out to the water and put on snorkel gear and swam around the coastline getting rewarded by beautiful, graceful turtles swimming below us. We floated for a while watching these beautiful gentle creatures nibbling on the sea grass below and then swimming up in languid, fluid motions to the surface to take a gulp of air and swim down again.
We went back on the gently rocking boat where our hosts had on some lively music and spread out a lovely picnic lunch for us. It was a perfect lazy afternoon sipping Rose` wine and munching on potato salad, crusty baguettes with creamy Dutch cheese, rosemary crackers with guacamole.
We lazed and napped on the soft powdery sand under the brilliant cloudless sky. As the unobtrusive sunbeams shone down on us, the slight breeze soothed our sun-drenched skin.
We got to spend time with Paul and Carol, our hosts and tour operators for www.captainalan.com and loved their company. They were a close-knit family and ran a great charter-boat company. They lent a personal touch to everything they did and not for one moment did we feel that we were not part of their extended family. If and when I go back to visit St. Maarten, I would book all my boat excursions with this company in a heartbeat. Paul was a very accomplished captain, skillfully navigating the really rough waters with calm expertise. Carol competently worked behind the scenes taking care of anything and everything in her sweet, friendly, efficient manner.
Heading back to the tiny but thriving Oyster Pond marina, we marveled at how amazing our day had turned out to be on a whim we had not decided to check out the resort’s convenience store we would not have come across Captain Alan’s boat shop. . We were expecting to just laze right by the poolside of our hotel, but instead we had one of the most memorable days we would remember for a long time to come.
