Had a good week with a little too much wind. It was NE 20-35k from Monday on, with 7-10 foot swells, so we couldn't snorkel in most places and we were double reefed most of the time. Going to windward was not fun, but the boat and crew handled it well.

The charter base is in Oyster Pond on the east side of St. Martin. Here's a video I took from my phone yesterday, a few hours after we came through the same entrance.

This video (see link) was taken from the pool deck of Oyster Bay Beach Resort. There were 7-9 foot swells and breaking seas on shoals both sides of the channel (marked by the 3 red sticks) but the seas didn't break in the channel itself.

There is no margin for error in this narrow channel. If you lose power or steering you will end up on jagged coral reefs. That is why the boat is flying a "hankie" of the jib (we did the same) so if the engines fail or pops foul on a line the wind can still power it inside.

The inner harbor is very well protected.