When sailing St Martin what is the best anchorage to visit? Watch our Sailing St Martin Video and then read our 13 reasons why our favorite spot to drop our hook is…(watch to find out)!
Sailing St Martin – And The Best Anchorage Is (drumroll)
Sailing St Martin – 13 Reasons To Drop A Hook at Grand Case
1. Entrance into the harbor is easy and the bay is massive allowing for easy anchoring.
2. The seabed offers fantastic holding ensuring that your anchor will stay dug in so that you don’t drag.
3. The bay suffers minimal swell so the boat, wether it’s a monohull or catamaran, enjoys quite a steady and calm setting. Other bays around St Martin have a terrible swell and very unsettled.
4. The color of the water is beautiful and it’s provides for a wonderful refreshing swimming area. Swimming off the back of the boat is a delight or if you anchor close enough to land you can easily enjoy a swim to the beach.
5. The beach in Grand Case is long and has fine soft light sand – perfect for a beach day or a sunset walk.
6. Access to land couldn’t be better – there is a very sturdy dinghy dock allowing ample room for all the dinghies in the bay.
More reasons to anchor in Grand Case
7. Once ashore, the community trash receptacles are a short distance from the dock.
8. There is a massive variety of exceptional restaurants and bars when you’re not out at sea sailing St Martin. You can get a cheap and cheerful BBQ meal, enjoy a Michelin star gourmet dinner or simply relax on an outdoor patio facing the sea while sipping a gin and tonic or dry white wine. Of course, there’s a dedicated ice cream shop too if your sweet tooth needs a fix.
9. There are several boutique clothing shops, amazingly beautiful jewelry offerings, small grocery stores, nicknack shops and even a tattoo parlor.
10. A fantastic pharmacy is within walking distance providing medication, toiletries, and loads of beautiful smelling French creams and potions.
11. There’s a bakery open every day providing fresh pastries and bread.
12. After a fifteen minute walk you’ll find a huge super market, laundromat and ATM machine in addition to electronic stores, a massive bakery, a hardware and lumber store, clothing shops, a frozen food store and a variety of other shops.
13, There’s a tiny airport in the town with planes flying in from Guadeloupe and Martinique so watching them land over the beach is fun. There aren’t too many planes and they’re small so they don’t make much noise. The benefit of having the small airport around is that there are a handful of car hire places on our doorstep – whenever we need a car, we don’t have to go far to hire one.
Are there any downsides?
Unfortunately there are some downsides to anchoring in Grand Case when you’re not out sailing St Martin.
- Like the rest of St Martin, the results of Hurricane Irma are still very apparent. It seems as if every other property along the strip is in ruin – even the Church is still in bad shape.
- There are pockets of construction here and there but some places look like they’re not going to be touched or cleaned up ever.
- At times, usually on a Sunday, the music pumping from all the bars can get a little loud. Thankfully it usually gets turned off early unlike most of the other Caribbean islands that have it raging until 3 or 4am in the morning.
- Getting wifi at the bars and restaurants is either not on offer or terrible signal. On the other hadn’t, our Digicel package works great in the anchorage.
- Another potential issue are the charter boats – we’ve had quite a few SunSail and DreamYacht Charters anchor in front or near us and they often drag – not due to poor holding but failure to know how to anchor properly…but you find that at most anchorages. You just have to keep your eye out for the charter boats.
Overall, however Grand Case is a fantastic location to explore for a few days or stay for weeks.
There are several hotels in the area so if friends or family want to see you but not stay on the boat it’s a great spot to meet at. The people are super friendly. Their’s good snorkeling and dive sights nearby. And even at the beach you can have someone bring you food and beverages! It truly is an anchorage that has it all.
So – check out Grand Case and let me know what you thoughts. You can leave them in the comments below.
If you’d like to get an early preview of our videos and watch them without adverts, please consider becoming a Patreon Patron. You can find more details on that at Patreon.com/SailingBritican.
And finally, if you want to come find out what Grand Case is like for yourself, come join us on Britican! You can dinghy or swim to shore, enjoy some BBQ’d ribs and beer while reminiscing about how awesome the sail was from St Barts back to St Martin.
| THE BRITICAN EXPERIENCE - A WEEK-LONG BLUEWATER CRUISING EXPERIENCE | |
|---|---|
 | Julia joined us for a week with her two beautiful children. She had no set of objectives. Her aim was to get an experience. And boy did she! Never having sailed before she took to the helm on day one and never looked back. Julia experience the thrill of sailing, the peacefulness of a quiet anchor, and the deliciousness of a lobster BBQ on the beach. If you'd like to experience what it's truly like to live and cruise on a bluewater sailboat, come join us for a week. Check out our availability here: Click here for more information. |
Other Articles/Videos About Sailing St Martin
- Sailing To St Martin – In order to get our Britican Experiences back up and running (no covid quaranine required – only a negative PCR test and our guests could join us in St Martin), at the end of Hurricane Season, we left Grenada had to pull over in St Lucia to fix our engine and then carried on to St Martin.
- A Spontaneous Sail To St Martin – Join us for a trip from Bequia in St Vincent & The Grenadines to St Martin. Find out what the three-day direct sail was like and why we did it at the beginning of hurricane season when everyone was sailing south!
- Tintamarre Island St Martin – Check out this unihabited island off the coast of St Martin. We found a boat and plane wreck in addition to some awesome wildlife and great swimming.
I knew you’d say Grand Case. My first time there in 2003 was absolutely amazing! And we had dinner at La California. Just incredible. I loved it so much I stayed three months!!! Enjoy!
Yes James…it’s a brilliant place. When we stay on an island or in a country for a long time we always find our special spot. For us, it’s Grand Case in St Martin. Smiles, Kim
Yep, wish we were there! Nice video Kim, it makes rainy, windy, lockdown Wales a bit less appealing today! 🤣
I’m sending you some sunny warm thougths Gary! Smiles, Kim
Wow, you guys are really living my dream. I’m sad to say I’m one of those charter boaters who gets out once a year usually in the Gulf islands off BC or the San Juan islands just below. We did charter once in the BVIs for 10 days which was amazing. You mentioned visiting you on the Britican. Can you tell more about this or chartering in St. Martin (once we all get vaccinated for covid)?
Hey Brent – we did Sunsail Charters in the Med and BVI for 10 years before we bought our first boat. It’s better to learn on a charter boat than your own 😉 Most charter’s are responsible but every so often you get people that just don’t care and are unsafe. Considering it’s not their boat and they don’t realized how bad a mishap can be for boat owners it can be frustrating. That’s why we always keep our eye’s open. So…we’ll be in St Martin until June. From July to November we’ll be in Grenada. You can get the full details on our Britican Experience here: https://sailingbritican.com/liveaboard-experience/
You are apparently getting much smoother water than I’ve experienced. I’ve sailed the area the times and stopped at Grand Case twice. The problem I have always found with St Martin in general is that you can’t get away from the swell. I rock to sleep fine but my mate, well let’s say she doesn’t care for it.
If you haven’t already, check out Prickly pear for a night or two. You won’t avoid the swell but it’s pleasant and pretty much deserted by evening.
Rob
Hey Robert – I’m curious as to the time of year when you had a swell in Grand Case. We stay here for weeks at time and haven’t experienced it yet…but we’ve only been her from October until now. We’ll certainly check out Prickly Pear. Smiles, Kim
What are the current (January 2021) COVID restrictions / requirements for St. Martin?
Hey Earl, To land in St Martin you need a negative PCR test within 72 hours and that’s it. Smiles, Kim
It’s nice to have a “show” that does what the title says. Very genuine. Not that I’m suggesting you don’t always do the same but so many things these days don’t live up to what they advertise. Thank You.