Sunset - Beach Sand

Does anyone have any thoughts or updates on the sands (now rocks) at Sunset Beach Bar. Everyone has their favorite place to go in SXM and this is mine. Every trip we spend at least 1 day on the beach watching the planes come in. It’s so sad to just see rocks. Thoughts?

Whatever it is today, it may be different tomorrow or even later today. The sand comes and goes at all beaches but seems to be more exaggerated at Maho.

I am well aware that sand comes and goes at all beaches. The sand at THIS beach is gone and has been for many many months, and to my recollection it has never been this bad for this long of a period of time.

Many many months? No, there has been lots of sand there recently. And lots of rocks the next day. A few weeks ago they had the dozer out taking the sand from the road so people could pass. It's all up to Mother Nature.

I look at the website every day and have done so for the past 6 months. I probably have more focus on it than others since it is my favorite destination. Yes, many many months.

You are aware that Bill and Elaine live on the island and probably have very up to date information?
Again, the sand comes and goes and it will continue to do so.

OK. Thanks for the feedback. I am going to start taking pics every day and see what happens over the next few months. The Sunset Beach bar must be setting their camera on a loop and showing the same beach video every day because what I am viewing is obviously out of date according to you. Thanks again. I will make a video montage in 3 or 4 months and either I will prove to myself that I am correct, or completely out of touch with reality.

What I am seeing right now shows some sand towards Driftwood boat bar but rocks towards Sunset. There is a date stamp on the Sunset webcam that appears to be today and live. It is likely to change multiple times within the next few months.

Yes, we are looking at the same exact live video with time stamps on it. Have you looked at it every day for the last 3 months? Be patient and wait to see how it changes over the next 3 months via my daily tracking put to sped up video on YouTube. I would be HAPPY to be wrong. Thanks.

No, I do not look at it daily but I do see pictures and talk to people who live on the island and the beach comes and goes like it always does and it has NOT been without sand for many, many months. As Elaine stated, a few weeks ago, machinery had to move sand that washed over the road.

I am going down in 2 weeks and will see for myself but whatever the status of Maho is today will have little bearing on what it is when I am there or months from now.

Just found a pic from July 2019. This was the beginning of the sand going away. That was 3+ months ago. Hope you can see the pic attached. 👍

I’m pretty sure the rocks were covered in August. Can’t find a picture but I walked from Sunset to driftwood on the beach.

We drive past it every day. Sometimes sand, sometimes rock.

Every time I have looked at the cam for last couple months all I have seen are rocks on that side of maho too.

Few shots of the sand in the past 6 weeks or so. Pretty interesting to see how it changes so fast.

It's amazing how mother nature works. It's been a long time since there was enough sand for the chairs at the Sunset Bar to be put out. It's only a matter of time till it comes back and covers the area again. Unfortunately for those that want to sit/lounge on the beach near the bar for beverages have to sit in the bar.

CmVan--You know that worrying about the sand is kind of like worrying about the weather? You can't change what happens regardless. But when you get down to it, if you're there, you're still in SXM, regardless of whether you are sitting on the sand, or sitting up at the bar. It's pretty cool, regardless. Enjoy!

I apologize to everyone for making this post and I promise I will never post again asking for others thoughts.

I simply asked for any updates or thoughts on the rocks and what I get back is that I am somehow worried??

It’s interesting that SXMScubaman has observed the same thing that I have for the last couple of months and EscapingCold posted 3 definitive pictures of the rocks but BillandElaine drive by it every day and see sand?

Yes, nature is amazing and so are many people’s perceptions.

Good Day all 👍

Yes, they did have to move some sand from the road on the opppsite end from the Beach Bar a month or two ago, but the end close to the bar
has only had rocks for a long time.

Never said I see sand every day. But I don;t see rocks every day either.

Started checking it often after a storm bared rocks all the way to Driftwood Boat Bar. Sand is slowly coming back an Driftwood side has plenty of people beaching it. Sand was present almost to centerline of runway.

I've seen the sand go out for an overnight cleaning and back in time for breakfast

I have to agree with you (and Scubaman). I check this webcam everyday (sometimes even a few times) to get my Sxm fix. Actually I was almost ready to post the same question. We all know sand comes and goes but I have never seen rocks there this long. Just an observation, no big deal!

I stand corrected. Sorry BillandElaine

Sorry your post got so many responces that were unfavorable to you. Hope you stay with this forum as it is a great source of island information. It should not be needed but sometimes having a thick skin helps. Stick with it.

Thanks, I definitely do need a thicker skin. I’m happy to be a viewer from here on out.

CMVan--Sorry, people can disagree, that's the reason they make chocolate and vanilla.. Please continue to post..

Yes. Please do continue here and post.

We’re good everyone! All of us LOVE SXM and that’s all that matters!!!

Great.

Great. Good to hear!

I know the exact location that you are referring to. If you look today, there is more visible sand in that spot although not enough for them to open the loungers.

If anyone has a real feel for how the sand comes and goes, it just might be Neil Rooney. JMHO

Hope you have been well Neil.

Rick and Grace, ALL is good. Back on Nevis for a while!

Looks like (on the webcam) the sand is slowly returning

Yes, looks awesome!

We are staying there in December, I will let you know how much sand has returned while we are there.

The sand comes.....it goes......it comes back.....it goes.......it comes back.......it goes....and so on....... One never knows from day to day what will be with the sand situation. You can have a full beach there one day......and the next it is totally gone!! I have witnessed that many times over the years.

Correct....but it has been rocks for quite some time and it is decent to see it start to return....over the last 20 or so years I have seen both rocks and sand

As I said in one of the other threads, It's been slowly coming back all week. It's great to see. The surf has been pretty rough around here all week. The waves have been going over the road, so just about every day, they've had a loader clearing the sand in the road.

Just got back from trip to Jules Bakery. As we've been talking about, big progress over at Maho Beach. There were actually quite a few loungers out by Sunset there today. Saturday it was all rock there. As Louise said in another post, over 15K people on cruise ships on the island. Sunset and the whole beach was wall to wall people. Some of our group wanted to go there for lunch today. I just told them they should consider another day.

Just looked at webcam. Thats more sand than I've seen last 2 months which isn't much. Lots of rocks still showing and people sitting on rocks.

Yeah, definitely not a good day to try to eat there.

In the long term beaches are essentially 'temporary' features that can come and go based on a variety of different things. By far the number one cause of beach erosion is strong waves and storms that wash up and deposit sediment on the shoreline, or take it away out to sea. As climate change progresses, the belief is that tropical and sub-tropical storms will increase in their intensity and the stronger the storms the greater the damage. Where I live on the Great Lakes we have a beautiful peninsula with 11 fresh water beaches. But, when the winter storms are severe the amount of beach erosion is stunning. To combat this, we have sand replenishment programs based on state funding that occurs in May and June and this helps tremendously. One other thing that was added years ago was a series of stone breakwaters several hundred yards off shore. These also help, though they can be perceived as an 'eye sore' to some (especially when watching an evening sunset). Breakwaters could be of some use on St. Maarten, but IMO wouldn't be worth the cost or effort -- especially when a powerful hurricane comes crashing in. Maybe if we can slow climate change in the future we can turn around things like massive beach erosion and unsightly sargassum sea grass outbreaks. Maybe.

First time I noticed lounge chairs on the beach in a long time.

Same here.

They were on the rocks! lol....we drove by after needing some last minute ingredients from the Maho Market. I laughed at chairs on rocks.

Four ships in today WAS CRAZY! It was tough to drive in/out of Beacon Hill.

This morning they had one way traffic directed by police, as they were clearing sand. HUGE pile in front of Driftwood taking up several parking spaces. I believe that people came from Sunset and got some sand from that pile last night.??

Would LOVE to see a time lapse video of all this. It REALLY has changed from even just a few days ago. I look at it daily to get my "SXM fix". LOL

go to the Driftwood !!!!

I merged the two topics as it was getting repetitive and both pretty much saying the same thing.

I have the last 9 days saved and wanted to wait a little longer to put it together. I also have to figure out how to do it. LOL!’

Try this. 1st attempt at a time lapse video. It doesn’t show the actual dates so I need to fix that.

https://youtu.be/pcJoHu-Bcdg

That's kind cool....

And it looks like even more sand back today.
And now about an hour later there are workers there with shovels moving sand OFF the road where there are rocks. Looks like it is coming back for now.

Beach is coming back real fast today!! Probably the owner of the chairs is paying for it.

Yes, we've been here since the 27th and every day a very noticeable difference with the beach coming back. It's been terrible driving through there though, between the people and the daily deposits of sand in the road it's been a challenge getting in and out. Every day since we've been here, they've had to clear the roads with the loader. Finally as we went out last night, they are just parking the loader over by Driftwood.

As Wingman says...this has been everyday. Yesterday was a nightmare, with 4 ships and cruisers milling about in the dang road as well. sitting on the ledge with their legs dangling into the road. Impossible to navigate along with BUSES!

Beach Kitten--Wow, that's some big piles of sand!

Wow, huge difference between before that, and Sunday and Monday! Cool.

Looks like they are trucking it in as they have at other beaches in the past. Lots of sand was trucked in to Royal Palm years back when they dredged Big Bay.

Correct and it was some pretty crappy sand until nature cleaned it up. If anything, I would guess they are trucking away from Maho if it is going onto the road.
BTW, 3 rows of chairs by Sunset right now.

Good to see.

Amazing amount of sand now, versus what it was, at the beginning of this week!

Yep and the usual morons walking 3-4 abreast in the lane of traffic.

And texting same time.

Also any status on sand at Coupecoy?

I would suggest starting a new topic for that.

I was watching the webcam very early this morning and there was a front loader moving sand from the Driftwood side to Sunset.
At times the road was blocked and one lane for both directions.
There was already some chairs out at Sunset and the front loader was trying to create a level area by the road for the chairs.