Sometimes it’s good to get away somewhere wonderful and relax while staying with a friend. I did that recently by visiting my old pal Richard Pook and staying on his yacht moored at St Martins in the Caribbean - and you can do exactly the same thing because he takes on paying guests at a very reasonable rate…

You can read all about that here - https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/41577414?adults=4&check_in=2022-05-13&check_out=2022-05-15&federated_search_id=1008a541-ab6f-4768-80ba-4bc91a84390b&source_impression_id=p3_1651145983_bFysGleshRfWgNzx

Basically, Richard’s 50 foot long sailing boat is moored off Marigot which is the capital of the French side of the island and in my opinion a much nicer place than Philipsburg which is the capital of the Dutch side. 

There’s still a lot of damage in evidence right across St Martin left by Hurricane Irma in September 2017 - it was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record and was followed by hurricane Maria two weeks later. To be honest I was a little shocked over just how much damage was left over five years after the event - partly because I’ve been to St Martin several times before and remember how the place was before the big winds destroyed so much. 

But there is one way of helping the islanders and that is to visit the place and enjoy what the island has to offer - which, in my opinion, is quite a lot. 

If we just take Marigot as an example, there’s a wonderful new area of pop-up style bars and restaurants operated by local people - called lo-los I believe, right there on the dockside near to where Captain Richard moors his RIB when he goes to town shopping. We ate out there several times and it was good food and great fun. 

We also dined out in the strangely named but excellent Enjoy SXM Restaurant where, I must say, the food and value was as good as I’ve found in this part of the Caribbean. 

One find day we caught the local bus north up to the Rambaud area where we alighted to stroll over the hill to reach dramatically situated Loterie Farm, tucked under the highest peak on St Martin. This place is a nature sanctuary set deep in 135 acres of mainly wooded valley with hiking trails and zip-lines alongside a pool and lounge area. That all seemed a bit touristy for our purposes - not to say expensive - so we contented ourselves with having a drink and a first class lunch at the restaurant. 

On another occasion we drove a hire car further north to the wonderful coastal community of Grand Case - a town which is renowned for is fabulous seaside bars and eateries that line the beach from one side of the bay to the other. 

I will be adding further articles on our visit to St Martin soon, but thought I’d get a mention of Captain Richard’s boat and the AirBnB deal you can enjoy at the website above.