Hi. I'm a lurker and very novice windsurfer (very old board on Lake Sinclair). I'm going on an MSC cruise next week to San Juan, St. Marteen, La Romana, and Cayo Levantado. Anyone know anything about these places and windsurfing. My wife found a windsurf page on the St. Marteen website. The cruise has it's own excursion packages they recommend (some are pretty cool) but none are windsurfing. I don't need blasting wind to have a good time considering my skill level. Others in my party are looking at doing an excursion on St. Marteen where you get to crew an America's Cup type boat ... which sounds cool, and might trump any windsurf at that port.
Anyway, if anyone has anything to share, please do.
Bob
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Bob,
Windsurfing is defnitely availabe in St. Marteen. I don't know if the cruise packages are worth the money, since you can usually go to the spot on a cab or bus, and arrange it yourself. Even if it doesn't save you anything, you might be better of going on your own, as when you get to the spot, you might find that for one reason or other (too much wind, too little wind, etc) you don't want to go.
I went to Club Nathalie Simon on the French side of the island and rented gear. Its was about $60 for a couple of hours, as I recall. May be a better deal if you go for a longer period. The CNS is on Orient Bay, which is a nice beach, and there are some restaurants, etc there. The beach is "topless" so depending on your situation and preferences, that may or may not be a plus.
I just walked up to CNS - no reservation. They have a very nice selection of boards and sails as I recall. The bay is a nice sailing spot - fairly protected so it should be pretty safe. It does get choppy if the wind is very strong, so keep that in mind. The hardest part was launching as you had to get through the shorebreak (something we don't get as much practice with here), but I was sailing a 6.0, so it was reasonably windy that day.
Good luck, and have fun.
I beleive there are also some windsurfing spots on the side of the island closer to the cruise ship port, but don't know anything about them. Usually, you have 4 to 8 hours at each port, so time should not be a problem in going over to Oreint Bay.
Randy
What happens in a black hole stays in a black hole.