Beaches: Cupecoy, over the weekend of 1 March, was still larger than it has been in years. There was even beach at the end of the parking lot next to Ocean Club. And it's all still there on the 15th. Bay Rouge is getting a bit rocky, especially to the right of the entrance. Bay Long, Mullet Bay, and Simpson Bay are still doing fine. <br><br>Weather: It has been quite nice recently, bordering on hot. The rain has decreased to scattered squalls and the island is not quite as green as it was. <br><br>Tourism: Except for the time around the Regatta, the roads, beaches, and restaurants have seemed less full. <br><br>Heineken Regatta: If you haven't been on the island during the Regatta, you have missed the biggest parties that this island throws. It's always the first weekend in March, starting with an around the island race on Friday, then a race from Simpson Bay to Marigot the next day, and finishing with a race from there back to the Dutch side. Some people take it seriously, some people take it with a lot of Heineken. Combine all this fun with Mardi Gras and the resulting French side carnival and this is one tough place to get any work done over the last week or two. Steve Fosset of ballooning fame was here on his mega-cat Playstation. He and Richard Branson of Virgin Airways, etc, also a balloonist, sailed the cat to the fastest time ever in the around the island race (about two and a half hours!). They celebrated at Temptation Restaurant in the Dutch Lowlands. <br><br>Sailing: We sailed around the Heineken Regatta on Friday and anchored in Simpson Bay lagoon for the night. At first light we headed out to St Kitts, about 50 miles SSE. Given the generally easterly tradewinds, it is tough to go SSE and we eventually were headed around the lee side of Statia, where there is a large oil tank farm and then down the lee side of St Kitts to the capital Basseterre. It took 10 hours to go 55 nautical miles and given the 5 to 7 foot seas and 20 to 30 knot winds, there was a considerable amount of horizontal motion also. This is not unusual in the wintertime, but things calm down in late April until November, discounting the occasional hurricane. No other island compares with SXM for activities and restaurants crammed into such a small space, and Kitts is no exception to that rule. Kitts though twice as large as both sides of SXM, has half the population and considerably higher hills. The size and hills create some weather which means that there is enough rainfall to have rainforests and vast sugarcane plantations. Wild monkeys roam the vast empty spaces, especially on the southern part of the island which didn't even have a road until the last decade. The scenery is great, with lush, green, wide open vistas, but the beaches are not so good (even topless is outlawed), and the restaurants don't compare. <br>We spent our first night in Basseterre's harbor. The next day, after customs, immigration, etc formalities, we took a five hour taxi tour of the entire island for $80 with tip and spent the night in the marina (only $15 and the water was free - coming from SXM where it was 12 cents a gallon, this was a treat). We walked around Basseterre the next morning, bought two large yellowtail snappers from the fishermen at the seaside and sailed south to Ballast Bay. We snorkeled over to a large reef, seeing trunkfish, trumpet fish, tangs, sergeant majors, a ray, a moray eel, numerous baby conch (about two inches long), and lots more. Next morning at dark:30, we pulled the anchor and went around the south side of St Kitts, turning NNE and running up the coast toward SXM. About ten hours later we anchored in Simpson Bay, cracked open a bottle of Pinot Noir, and awaited the 5:30 PM bridge opening to enter the lagoon and tie up at Simpson Bay Yacht Club. If you want a charter, try Nautor's Swan Charters (011 590 590 87 35 48), Sun Yacht Charters (011 590 590 87 30 49), or Sunsail (011 590 590 87 43 41). Some do with and without captains. <br><br>RESTAURANTS <br><br>The Euro started at a 10% premium to the dollar in early March. In this newsletter, we have made the conversions on French prices to dollars, although the prices really are Euros in the restaurants, and subject to currency fluctuations. The Dutch side officially uses Netherlands Antilles Florin (NAF), but the exchange rate is fixed by the government. Everyone accepts (lusts after is closer) dollars, so don't get NAF and don't take any home as no one else will change them. Now there is a new unit of money that is widely accepted on both sides of the island. Jimbo's Mesquite Grill http://www.SXM-restaurants.com/simpsonbay_east/jimbo) gives out a Jimbo dollar with every drink purchase. Five Jimbo dollars is legal tender for any drink at Jimbo's. No longer do you have to convert NAF to US dollars or Euros. Just stick with Jimbo dollars. In Jimbo we trust, mostly because he has the liquid assets to stand behind these paper dollars. <br>On 1 March, we went to Spartaco (http://www.SpartacoRestaurant.com) in Almond Grove, up above the grocery store in Cole Bay. It's in one of the oldest plantation homes on the island and most of the tables are on the wrap-around porch with pretty good views. The food is Tuscan, the wine list features Italy, and the service is superb. There were six of us, so we started with two bottles of Pinot Grigio from Tommasi to go with appetizers of marinated fresh salmon rolled with eggplant and herbs served with a yogurt sauce, an arugula salad served with sliced sweet pears, parmesan cheese in a honey vinaigrette, and a Caesar salad. Some people stayed with the crisp Pinot Grigio for their fish courses, but some joined the meat eaters in a luscious bottle of Centine Sant'Antimo Castello Banfi. Main courses included fresh salmon coated with apple and lemon, baked, served in a light cream and saffron sauce, sautéed swordfish with tomato sauce, oregano, olives, raisins, pine nuts, basil, and garlic (the red wine was no problem with this), home made ravioli lightly sautéed with mascarpone, gorgonzola, and pears, Fresh black angel hair pasta sautéed with fresh pesto and sea scallops (on the menu, but modified to shrimp - no problem) served in a light cream sauce, and baked ossabuco served with fresh tagliatelle. We added a few desserts and coffees as we lingered on the porch, eventually paying a bill for a mere $300 including the added 15% service charge. Francis, the valet, had our car waiting at the entrance. We were hoping for a better one. Other than that, it was a lovely evening. <br><br>On Monday (3 March) we stopped in at Sitar again. Ricky has a new chef from India and he has brought a new dish: chicken 65. He says it is all the rage in India. The strange name is because the chef who came up with the recipe named it after his address. It is chicken, marinated in yogurt, served piping hot in a with lots of Indian spices. The peppery heat is variable, but tenderness (from the marination process) and tastiness (from the spices) are the basis for the dish's appeal, regardless of the level of peppery burn. We also had some garlic nan bread, a baked mixed vegetable dish in a creamy sauce, and lamb masala. Masala is typically made with cardamom, coriander, and mace, but individual chefs oftentimes tinker with the recipe to good effect, as in this case. With three ice-cold beers (required as we ordered maximum spiciness!), the total bill was only $54. (http://www.SXM-Restaurants.com/lowlands/sitar) <br><br>On Wednesday night we went to Mario's Bistro as part of a party of six. Being a large party, one cannot sit at the waterside, and tables are more readily available, but reservations would be a good idea (011 590 590 87 06 36, no website). Knowing the portion sizes, we only ordered two aps for the table. Good mussels were available, and when they are Mario makes mussels in a tomato broth with melted cheese. It's pretty messy if you want to get all the goodness out of and off of the shells, but it is worth the trouble. Dinners included a snapper, swordfish, flank steak, tuna steak and a Chilean sea bass with shrimp. The sea bass was a lovely piece of fish and Mario must have been on an Indian kick as both the snapper and the sea bass came in a set of Indian spices, including peppercorns that exploded with flavor. The flank steak was tasty and moreso because of a light Béarnaise-like sauce on the side. It also came with scalloped potatoes slathered with enough cream and camembert to do away with price supports for dairy products, if he ever gave this recipe any east coast restaurants. One dessert was shared by six people: the chocolate cake with a liquid chocolate center and a scoop of ice cream.<br><br>On Thursday seven of us went to Montmartre in the Dutch Lowlands for a great dinner. Many of the dinners are now on the website: http://www.SXM-restaurants.com/lowlands/montmartre). The salmon ap with rilettes and salmon slices was quite nice. Most people had fish and everyone was happy. The whole seabass is the real French version, ie a bass, not a grouper or drum which are normally sold as seabass and cut into steaks as the fish grows quite large. I had the veal chop again and was pleased again. It's a tasty chop in great cognac flambé with lots of morels. We started with the Rully and really liked the Chassagne better. Take Christophe's advice on this. The real news is that they have a pastry chef and he is turning out wonderful desserts. We spent an evening photographing them whilst drinking Armagnac (and sampling a few). Despite the Armagnac, I did manage to make a menu page on the website. The page has photos of several aps and entrees plus about six beautiful desserts. <br><br>On Friday we got on the boat in Simpson Bay Marina, leaving on the 11:30 bridge opening. We intended to mingle with the Regatta and sail to Bay Long where we would scrape the bottom, snorkel, and have lunch, and return to Simpson Bay, anchoring outside the lagoon for the night. Unfortunately, I had left the bread at our condo. As we sailed past Sapphire Beach Club, I jumped ship swam in for the bread and swam back with it stored in two garbage bags. Other than that, things were fine and we eventually lowered the dinghy into Simpson Bay and headed under the bridge to Hot Tomatoes ([url]www.HotTomatoesSXM.com[url]) for dinner. They are working on a dinghy dock and several boat slips, so this is a reasonable way to approach them, but they do have a large parking lot for landlubbers. We had two of my favorite pizzas (Prickly Pear Piggy Pie with homemade sausage and caramelized onions), Mustique Coconut Curry Mahi-Mahi (a filet of mahi-mahi grilled and served with a Thai red coconut curry sauce, and Caesar salad with fire roasted jerk chicken. The jerk chicken was a tasty addition to a crisp salad and the Mahi was well received. With four people we could only finish one pizza, so the next was used for breakfast and brunch as we bounded over the swells heading to St Kitts the next morning.<br>