Special Opening times FRENCH bridge St. Martin June 2009

We have been notified that the bridge openings for the FRENCH (Sandy Ground) bridge on the French side of St. Martin will be modified for the dates of:

• 28 MAY through 6 JUNE 2009

Remember that traffic leaving the lagoon go first, then traffic into the lagoon. Watch for the light to change.

Times:

• 6:00 am
• 8:15 am
• 2:30 pm (except Sundays & Holidays) Pretty sure Monday is a holiday
• 6:00 pm (note that 5:30pm opening is not mentioned)

This is probably due to the fishing tournament.

Normal times will be in effect again beginning June 7, 2009

• 8:15 am
• 2:30 pm (except Sundays & Holidays)
• 5:30 pm

NOTE that the Dutch bridge will be closed during June 2009 SEE PREVIOUS POST

Cat Blogging Friday: Buffy & Willow

It was hot in the boatyard. Here's a photo of Willow tummy up catching the breeze from the fan...



They still had their appetites though.



They are very happy to be back at anchor again. They can run around and be outside at night.



It's 5pm and time for all of us to have some quality time together. I think I'll have a Pastis tonight... Bob will probably have his tot of rum.

Have a good evening!

FREE MP3 Songs on Amazon

Hello, Just a quick post to share with y'all that Amazon has some FREE songs available...

I haven't had the time to check them out yet, but wanted to let you good folks know ASAP.

Here's the link for the MP3 music. Look in the right-hand column for the freebies (there's a link to over 500 songs) & also towards the bottom of the page.

I just downloaded Strange Overtones by David Byrne and Brian Eno for FREE. I told Bob to look at this post so I bet that he'll be taking advantage of free songs this evening.

Enjoy!

New Regulations for Entering Panama : 48 hr minimum advance notification

This information was in my mailbox this morning (28 May 2009) from the folks at Sail-World.com. You can see it here, or read below...

48 hour arrival notification requirement now for Panama

Yachts contemplating being in Panama or wanting to transit the canal any time soon should know of a change in regulations.

Joining other countries of the Pacific like Fiji and Australia, Panama is now requesting that yachts notify their arrival into Panama at least 48 hours before their arrival.

It is worth remembering that this is the MINIMUM, so that it is possible to notify the authority before leaving your previous port of call.

There is a new official document, which can be downloaded and printed out and either scanned and emailed, or faxed to the Panama authorities. To access the document, click here.

Full information about all aspects of the requirements can be obtained on the website: www.amp.gob.pa

If you are interested in a crewed yacht charter for Panama, contact Paradise Connections Yacht Charters.

Blowin' in the wind - Bob Dylan & So It Goes

It is so nice to be back at anchor and be blowin' in the wind.

Such a clever segue (yes, that's spelled right!) to mention that it was 46 years ago today, May 27th back in 1963, that Bob Dylan released his album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" which included the classic song, Blowin' in the Wind.



Let's celebrate !

HOT days in boatyard

Day 12 in the boatyard... Can't believe it's been that long, but according to the calendar, yes! We hauled out on May 13th.

Bob just finished sanding the old antifouling bottom paint but we'll wait until tomorrow (Memorial Day Monday is not a holiday in SXM) as we have to tape over the red boottop that we just gave a 2nd coat to this morning.

Lots of other things to do in the meantime though :)

One of the nasty things about being hauled out "on the hard" is the mosquitos... another thing is the heat... It's HOT inside the boat! Right now the thermometer behind my head says 95.5F (35.3C). Friday afternoon it was over 98F (37C)...

But, a couple of things that we do appreciate here at the Island Water World boatyard in St. Maarten is that we are on asphalt and not dirt... no mud and less dust!!! Also, I like their shower. No hot water but that's not really necessary... but there are still mosquitos... So It Goes...

Hope to splash on Tuesday afternoon.

Animal Rescue Web Site

I have forgotten for the past couple of days (we are busy in the boatyard) to go to The Animal Rescue Site and click on their "Click Here, It's Free" button. It doesn't cost anything as it is their sponsors who pay and 100% of the sponsor money goes to charity.

I should probably sign up for their Daily Click Reminder program :)

So, I just clicked and this came up on the screen.

That's a lot of bowls and I'm glad that I'm a small part of it.

Have you clicked today??? CLICK HERE NOW to go to the site.

BBQ Grilling Tips Memorial Day Weekend

It's Memorial Day weekend which is sort of the unofficial beginning of Summer for most people, and it is time to get the BBQ out and start grilling!

The people over at Lifehacker.com have put together a very informative post:

Top 10 Skills to Master Your Grill

Monday is not a holiday on either side of the island of St Martin, but we did have one last Thursday.

For those of you who are suddenly inspired this weekend to take a sailing vacation this summer or are looking for a quick getaway, check out Paradise Connections Yacht Charters

• Website: http://www.paradiseconnections.com
• Yacht Charter Blog: All About Yacht Charters
• European Barging: All About Canal Barge Charters

Have a great weekend!

Earthquake in Sint Maarten / St Martin / SXM

Well, that was something I wasn't expecting !!!

Bob & I were watching a DVD and at about 8:56pm (AST & EDT) the boat started shaking. I thought that someone had hit one of the jackstands that are holding the boat upright (we are currently on the hard in the boatyard). It woke up the cats and had them looking around.

Turns out it was an earthquake !

Being on a boat in the Caribbean, you can expect problems with hurricanes (we had Hurricane Omar last season), but I never thought about possible damage from an earthquake when you are out of the water.

Lots of tweeting going on right now about an earthquake in California near LA.

Hope they'll have something on the radio news tomorrow morning.

Composting Toilet for Boat

We are still working on our composting toilet installation. The plans we have made for working today have been changed due to the threat of rain though... So It Goes :)

Here's a photo of the box our toilet came in. I believe it is from a Swedish company, but I love the words on the box... Torrdass, Privy, and Puucee...



Way back in the 70's I was in a choir that performed across Sweden. We learned some simple phrases like "Do you want to borrow my Bible" and "I really like your omelettes" but "puucee" was not in our vocabulary. I'll have to look that up when I have time... ya, right :)

Simpson Bay St Maarten Bridge Closure June 2009

This information is from today's (18 May 2009) The Daily Herald (Sint Maarten newspaper)

SIMPSON BAY BRIDGE REPAIRS DUE FOR JUNE

SIMPSON BAY--The Simpson Bay bridge is due for repairs to be executed all through June, Simpson Bay Lagoon Authority Corporation (SLAC) announced on Sunday. The various repairs will be carried out by Dutch specialised maintenance company Hofman Sliedrecht B.V.

Because of the repairs, the bridge will be closed for maritime traffic from Monday, June 1, to Sunday, June 14. Depending on the progress in the execution of the repair work during the first two weeks, the bridge will open only one day per week at 6:00am, permitting vessels to depart and enter the lagoon.

While repair work is being carried out underneath the bridge deck, the bridge will not open for vessels and no maritime traffic will be allowed to pass under the bridge deck. The passage will be blocked by a pontoon. All small/low maritime traffic will have to make use of the narrower passage under the bridge at the Coast Guard and police station side of the channel.

During the second half of the repair period from June 15 to June 30, road traffic intermittently will only be able to make use of one lane over the bridge. Signs and lights will indicate which lane is in use. Security officers will give directions during the daytime to ensure a smooth flow of traffic.

During the road repair period, traffic will be interrupted for short intervals when necessary to install the scaffolding, to deliver material to the worksite or to position a bucket truck. This work will be done from 5:30am to 8:00am, when road traffic is lightest.

In the last week of repairs, Rijkswaterstaat (the Dutch authority for waterworks and bridges) inspectors will be present to inspect and make an assessment of the condition of the bridge structure. They will put their findings in a report to SLAC.

According to work schedule, the permanent repairs will be finalised by Sunday, June 30. After June 30, the bridge will open again during the regular opening hours.

SLAC will keep the maritime sector and the public informed about the bridge opening times on a weekly basis or as soon as there is any change in the schedule. All facility holders, docks, piers and marinas will receive information by fax or e-mail, or will be visited by SLAC employees.

SLAC advises the captains of all vessels to decide whether their vessels will stay in the lagoon or outside in Simpson Bay during the repairs when the bridge cannot open.

For further information one can call the SLAC Collection Office at the police station in Simpson Bay next to the bridge, tel. 545-3183 or the bridge operator on VHF Channel 12.

Last year's maintenance work was delayed by a few weeks from their planned closures, but you never know... they may be on time this go round. Best to be prepared.

RECIPE: Flexible Casseroles

This morning while zipping through my various RSS feeds I noticed a post on Lifehacker.com titled: Improvise Easy-Peasy Dinners with the "Flexible Casserole Recipe" [Food]

which I then followed to TheSimpleDollar.com that Lifehacker had referred to:
Some Thoughts on the Tightwad Gazette’s “Flexible Casserole Recipe”

This gives a recipe from Amy Dacyczyn’s Complete Tightwad Gazette, of her framework for a simple, quick casserole:

1 cup main ingredient
1 cup second ingredient
1-2 cups starchy ingredient
1 1/2 cups binder
1/4 cup “goodie”
seasoning
topping

Main ingredient: tuna, cubed chicken, turkey, ham, seafood, etc.
Second ingredient: thinly sliced celery, mushrooms, peas, chopped hard-boiled eggs, etc.
Starchy ingredient: thinly sliced potatoes, cooked noodles, cooked rice, etc.
Binder: cream sauce, sour cream, can of soup, etc.
“Goodie”: pimiento, olives, almonds, water chestnuts, etc.
Topping: cheese, bread crumbs, etc.

Check out Some Thoughts on the Tightwad Gazette’s “Flexible Casserole Recipe” for some interesting variations.

This book is available on Amazon.com



Enjoy!

Sunday in the boatyard

Very quiet in the boatyard today as it is Sunday and the Montessori school next door is closed, Island Water World is closed and there doesn't appear to be anyone about in the complex on the other side of us.

We have been working on our composting toilet installation. We seem to be trend setters... After we built a catamaran in the 80's, they became acceptable and then hip, a few years ago after installing our first electric motor in So It Goes, the a catamaran charter company had a few Lagoons in charter with electric motors. Will their big color ad in the charter issue of Cruising World this fall be announcing that they've gone green with composting toilets :)

Back to work!

Interesting iPhone app for working while walking

Here's an interesting post from Lifehacker.com ...

Email 'n Walk Lets You Multitask Without Getting Hit By a Car
iPhone only: Email n' Walk overlays an email composition window on top of the view from your iPhone's camera, so you can type out an email and watch where you're going.
Read more...

I'll have to get this when/if we get an iPhone.

GPS news from Sail-World.com

Here's a link to an article that was mentioned in today's email from Sail-World.com

Don't throw away your paper charts! - GPS failings to come
Here's the LINK

Now days, everyone depends on GPS... not just us boat folks. It seems to me that those people in government should be able to find a few bucks to keep this system up and running. I'm sure they have GPS in their cars, cell phones, de-coder rings, dog collars, etc. so it's to their benefit, too.

Music on AMAZON.COM

This month (May 2009), the editors at Amazon.com have hand-selected 50 great albums, a mixture of new music and perennial favorites, which are now available for just $5 each. There is something for everyone here.

Check it out!



Click on the banner above to begin shopping.

Here are some more Amazon music links you may find interesting:

• 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 100 Greatest Romantic Albums
• 100 Greatest Singer-Songwriter Albums
• 100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums
• 100 Greatest Jazz Albums

Not hauling the boat today! Nasty weather

We didn't haul out today as planned. It has been squally since midnight and this morning we were still have periods of heavy rain.

When I called Henk at Island Water World this morning it was just solid white over that way. They wouldn't be able to haul us out before noon, as the boat that was leaving was still in the slings and would be splashed at 11am at the earliest.

So... tomorrow! Hopefully the weather will be better.

Just took this photo. Quite windy, but the sun popped out. It hasn't rained in at least an hour, so that's progress :)

With these whitecaps we won't be going anywhere in the dinghy...

WiFi problems? Might be your neighbor & not ISP

Here's a post on SLASHDOT, titled:
Baby Monitors Killing Urban Wi-Fi

Read here:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/11/1335208

In Simpson Bay we don't have many baby monitors, but there are LOTS of megayachts during the season, each with at least one WiFi network onboard...

Back when I used to work on the Leylon Sneed in St. Thomas USVI, we used hands-free, walkie-talkies when docking. There was one cruiseship dock that was famous for its baby monitor interference... fortunately we had BIG fenders :)

WiFi Hotspot news from MacWorld

This is an interesting WiFi article from MACWORLD titled: Wi-Fi hotspots get a second wind

I hope that we'll have more hotspots that are more reliable and affordable in the near future. This is a topic that cruisers discuss even more than toilets and anchors!

A good cause : ANIMAL RESCUE SITE

Here's a good cause (amongst so many!): The Animal Rescue Site

I should put them as my browser's start page so I'll remember to click on the "Click to Give Free Food & Care" button.

.

Today, May 10, 2009 is the last day of their special offer of $5 off of items in their store.

We bought a couple of daypacks from them a few years ago and we were impressed with the quality. They were very well made.

We are going to add The Animal Rescue Site to our side bar. Please visit and click on the "Free Food" button... It is sponsored and won't cost you a thing...

Handy Tip - EGG SUBSTITUTES

Saw a reference to this post today and thought we'd share it, too! I'm going to check out other items on http://tipnut.com/ as well and hopefully add more things to our cunning plan :)

Egg Substitutes: Handy Recipe List
If you run out of eggs while baking, an egg substitute is a quick fix since chances are you have something in the pantry that you can use. READ MORE...

We did real well on our transatlantic passage with eggs, but the eggs we have here in St. Maarten are super-refrigerated like everything else which is sometimes even to the point of being frozen. Their storage techniques makes veggies go off very quickly.

Installing Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (MAC)

We just received the Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (MAC version) that we ordered from Amazon.com the other day when they had that killer sale!

Before installing I remembered to run DiskUtility and do a Verify & Repair Permissions. It had quite a few files to change the permission on from our new HP printer installation.

So, that done, I popped in the disk to install PSE6. I was surprised that it didn't automatically launch the installation, but there was a ReadMe file, so I read that. Didn't say much and it didn't say anything about how to install.

This is a screenshot of what appeared after inserting the CD:

I double-clicked on the folder with the stripe and the camera that says "Adobe Photoshop Elements 6" next to it and it gave me another directory.

I didn't want to mess things up, so I Googled for "problems installing elements 6 for mac" or something like that. That took a while trying to read this and that. (You may have a problem if you had previously installed a trial version, but this wasn't my case).

Seems like everyone has this problem. Why can't Adobe just give a simple "how to install" instructions?

I started to rant but I have spared you and deleted it :)

What it comes down to is, double-click on the "Setup.app" file and then read a book or take a nap. I think it took close to 30 minutes. I was getting worried that it had stalled and wondering what to do (the "progress" bar had just a teensy bit to go) when I heard the CD drive make a noise and the bar moved again and then after a couple of minutes it finished. HURRAY!

I launched the application and entered the serial number. I opened a psd file, made a change, did "Save for the web" and it worked finest kind.

Hope this helps.

St Martin - Clearing In and Out on the French side

Yesterday we went into the Marina Port La Royale, the marina INSIDE of the lagoon, to get a couple of jerry cans of water.

(Capitainerie - Water Dock - Click for larger image)

While I was waiting in the Capitainerie office, I noticed that someone was checking out. So, I learned something new! You can clear in and out of both marinas. He wanted to get his passport stamped so he'd have all his i's dotted and t's crossed when he enters the USA. Of course they can't do this at the marinas and he was told to go and see the immigration folks over at the Gare Martime where the Anguilla ferries are (where the "official" port office for clearance is located).

See previous post: French St. Martin - Checking In - May 2009

The Capitainerie at the Royale marina opens at 8 or 9am (can't remember) until noon and then 3-5pm, Monday through Saturday, closed on Sundays.

So, if you want to check out on Sunday, do so the day before or go to the other marina in Marigot Bay, Marina Fort Louis.

Ooops! Check Dinghy Painter Occasionally

Yesterday when I went to tie up the dinghy at Island Water World (SXM) I was surprised to find that I had both ends of the dinghy painter... One end had the U-part of the shackle that used to be attached to the bow.

Wow, were we lucky!

Normally for the dinghy painter we make an eye splice in one end of the rope and loop that through the U-bolt in the dinghy so there is not a fastener involved. I don't remember why I backspliced a shackle into this painter, but it doesn't appear that we moused it... either that or the plastic wire tie came off.

This could have been very embarassing, not to mention frustrating and expensive, if it had come loose when tied to the back of So It Goes. Quite often I check to make sure that the dinghy is there. Especially if I hear a dinghy passing by too close at night.

So, check your dinghy's painter and make sure everything's OK.

Mother's Day Gift

Did Mother's Day sneek up on you? I thought it was NEXT Sunday...

Never fear! Quickly get her an AMAZON Gift Certificate that she can receive via email.
.

Star Trek Parodies - Carol Burnett Show

So, I hope those lucky trekkers & trekkies who were able to see the new Star Trek film enjoyed it.

We don't have it yet on St. Martin / Sint Maarten, but I did get a kick out of this Star Trek parody from years past on the Carol Burnett show. Some of the things surprised me!



Engage!

15% off - HARMONY HOUSE Food Sale

Bob did a post on BoatBits about Harmony House's Sale so check it out as the special offer only runs through this Sunday, May 10 2009.

We just made an order of freeze dried vegetables & soup, plus some TVP to help provision for our passage!

Star Trek Parodies - Frasier

I love Star Trek. I wonder what ever became of the photos I took of Leonard Nimoy when he came to my little town in Washington to campaign for 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern... He autographed my copy of his album, The Way I Feel. Even as a fan, I thought that most of the tracks were horrible (Sunny, and If I Had a Hammer, quickly come to mind). Leonard Nimoy on AMAZON. I saw an image on the net of an autographed The Way I Feel... could it have been mine?


This morning, I came across a wonderful skit from the Frasier folks doing Star Trek Voyager.

We were in France and missed the Star Trek spin offs. We were able to rent a few VHS cassettes of Star Trek The New Generation shortly before we left Paris from "Reels on Wheels"... memories... I've never seen Voyager or Deep Space Nine. We did see a few episodes of Enterprise while we were in St. Thomas. Didn't realize it ran so long (2001-2005) as we went to St Martin and we don't have TV on the boat. Might order it from AMAZON.

So, as promised, here's the Frasier parody:



Looking forward to the new film. Just checked our local listings and it's not showing here in St. Maarten. Maybe next week?

iPhone app for Sailors - Wind Meter

Don't know how well this works, but for $0.99 it is worth a try for you folks with iPhones.

Wind Meter - use your iPhone to measure wind speed. Wind Meter works by measuring the volume of the wind on your iPhone microphone and converts it into a wind speed reading.

You can get it here: http://appshopper.com/utilities/wind-meter


Looks fun.

French St. Martin - Checking In - May 2009

We checked in to the French side of St. Martin this morning (see photos below). I thought I was being very clever because last time we were here I got a few extra clearance forms so I could fill them in beforehand and be prepared when checking in.

Well, they no longer use the paper forms. They have two computers in the office for cruisers to use instead. You might want to type with two fingers and do the old "hunt & peck" technique as it is a French keyboard (AZERTY not QWERTY) and there are quite a few differences, such as numbers are upper case, punctuation is different (the M is a ? in AZERTY). Quite fun because I used French keyboards when I worked in Paris. Even though it has been over 10 years, I still sometimes type French words like restaurant wrong because of the muscle memory of using French AZERTY keyboards.

Anyway... We had a pleasant surprise. We were only charged US$8.00.

Back in January of this year, we were told that everyone, regardless of where you anchored, had to pay a 20 euro entrance fee which also includes the first day of anchoring in Marigot Bay. Today we were told that the 20 euro entrance fee is only for boats staying in Marigot Bay, along with the 25 eurocents/meter/day anchoring charge, but for boats anchoring anywhere else (NOT Marigot Bay) you only have to pay the $8.00 in/out fee.

Also, if you anchor in Marigot to wait for the bridge to pass into the lagoon, or if you anchor to do the administrative procedures, you are not charged the 20 euros for that.

Where to check in, Marigot, St. Martin...

[ Click image to enlarge photo ]

This is a photo from the waterfront of the Gare Maritime which is close to the Fort Louis Marina. This is also the dinghy dock for Marigot Bay. Tie up to the right where the flags are to keep out of the way of the ferries. There are some dumpsters for trash towards the right, as well. You'll see it when you get there. Remember to lock up your dinghy.

[ Click image to enlarge photo ]

Here is a picture of the Gare Maritime from the parking lot. Walk down to the end (when facing the building, to the right) of the building, hang a left and you'll see the door for office where you clear in and out.

[ Click image to enlarge photo ]

Voilà! Vous êtes ici! The "Bureaux: Régie du Port". Don't worry as there's always some taxi guys around who will help you if you aren't sure where to go. Knock on the door to let the person in the office know you are there.

We always ask to have our passports stamped. One reason is because the Dutch Immigration police sometimes stop the buses and ask for passports, so it is best to be able to prove that you have checked in to the French side and when :)

Enjoy life on the French side!

Also see newer post: St Martin - Clearing In and Out on the French side

Cool glow in the dark strips

Bob has a post on BoatBits today about some cool glow-in-the-dark strips for your sails.

I'd love to have this on So It Goes!

-

It's good to be back in FRANCE. So It Goes

Wow, it is so nice to be back in France, even if it is just the French side of the island of St. Martin / Sint Maarten. It has such a different feel about it... sort of like France :)

Friday afternoon we paid our ransom to SLAC of 19 weeks of harbor fees, at $20/wk and a $10 fee to pass through the bridge. We upped anchor and entered the lagoon and we are now anchored on the French side (free) of the lagoon.

We attended the Marine Flea Market / Boat Jumble at Time Out Boat Yard at the Sandy Ground bridge in Marigot. It was the last one of the season and was very well attended. We didn't sell our charger/inverter or ICOM M600 SSB with AT120 automatic tuner, but we did come out ahead... we made $67 and spent $14.

We don't like being in the lagoon because of the fouling, but it is kind of nice and WEIRD not rolling as much... we have that "we're aground" sort of feeling. Especially because the last time we were in the lagoon was for Hurricane Omar and we did go aground!

We are planning to haul So It Goes at Island Water World this Thursday. That's the PLAN... we'll check with them tomorrow to see. We were going to haul out at Bobby's Boatyard in the lagoon as we've hauled out two or three times there, but this year they won't let people work on their own boat below the waterline. Sorry, but I don't want to waste my precious and expensive yard time watching the workers work on my boat that I'd rather be working on. IWW is a bit more expensive, but not when you factor in the time lost supervising the workers. Plus, it is cleaner as the boat is on concrete and not in a potential mud puddle. So, no more Bobby's! Although, we'll still do our laundry at Yvonne's.

We bought gasoline at Cadisco this morning and it is still 76 cents per litre (one euro = one dollar). That was good news.

BVIs changes in Customs / Clearing In - British Virgin Islands

Our friend Kerry, owner-operator of the charter boat Promenade, informed us about the changes in Customs & clearing-in procedures for the British Virgin Islands, and we thought we should also pass the information along...

R/09 Contact: Joseph A. Daley
Information Officer II
Min of Health & Social Development
Telephone: 468-3701 ext. 3122
Email: jdaley@gov.vg

HIGHER SWINE FLU ALERT SEE CHANGE IN CLEARANCE PROCEDURES

Thursday, April 30 (2009) – New customs clearance procedures will be implemented from this Friday, in Government’s ongoing quest to strengthen its effort to mitigate the impact of the dreaded Swine Flu (H1N1) virus on the Territory.

After consultations by the Ministry of Health and Social Development and the local Pandemic Influenza Taskforce, Her Majesty’s Customs has issued an advisory to the boating community.

The advisory states that all customs clearance procedures will only be processed through three designated ports of entry until further notice. They are the Road Town and West End Ferry Terminals in Tortola and the Spanish Town Ferry Dock in Virgin Gorda.

Yachters wishing to dock on Jost Van Dyke, Anegada, or any other sister island are advised that they must clear customs at one of the designated locations. Comptroller of Her Majesty’s Customs Mr. Wade Smith said those precautionary measure will be in force until further notice.

Visitors who fail to comply with the new procedures may be charged with illegal entry into the Territory.

Meanwhile, cargo vessels docking in the Territory will continue to be processed at Port Purcell. However there will be additional screening and inspections by officers of the Environmental Health Department and the Department of Agriculture.
MORE
R/09
Page 2
April 30, 2009

The decision to implement new procedures for clearing customs followed the World Health Organisation’s announcement that the global influenza pandemic alert has been increased from Phase 4 to the more serious Phase 5. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Irad Potter is also encouraging residents of the Territory to restrict unnecessary travel as much as they can amid the increased level of alert for a Swine Flu pandemic.
Several Government agencies have been working collaboratively to monitor Swine Flu reports since the outbreak began, in order to implement measures to safeguard the Territory from its impact. The local Pandemic Influenza Taskforce is led by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Irad Potter, Chief Executive Officer of the BVI Health Services Authority Dr. Ronald Georges, Health Disaster Coordinator Mrs. Dawn Leonard, and Director of the Department of Disaster Management Ms. Sharleen DaBreo.
# # #

I don't understand how doing away with checking in at Jost, for example, is going to help, but... So It Goes :)

St Maarten Summer Bridge Opening Times

It May 1st which means the Dutch bridge on St Maarten (SXM) is changing over to their summer bridge hours.

Summer hours (May 1 - Nov. 30):

• 9:30 am
• 11:30 am
• 5:30 pm

Outbound traffic leaving the lagoon pass through first, then boats can enter the lagoon. Watch the lights on the bridge and at the entrance to the channel.

The Dutch-side bridge monitors VHF Channel 12

There is no change in hours for the French bridge. Same thing as Dutch side in that boats leaving the lagoon (outbound traffic) pass through first, then the inbound traffic can pass. Watch the lights on the bridge.

SANDY GROUND BRIDGE, MARIGOT ST. MARTIN

• Monday through Saturday: Opens at 08:15 - 14:30 - 17:30
• Sunday & Holiday openings: 08:15 & 17:30 (NO AFTERNOON OPENING)

There are a few French holidays for May though, which means no 2:30pm openings on:
May 1, May 8, May 21, June 1... and whenever else :)