And to add to what Snorkeller has told us, don’t forget the operative word - “tolerated” which does not make it a given.

We have a fairly long association with the Island and in thinking back to when we first started coming, we always knew there was a “nude” beach and a nudist club on that beach but back then it was in a remote and generally unfrequented part of the Island and therefore not a problem for the rest of SXM since you really had to look for it. We looked for it our first trip but the roads were terrible back then and the signage was pretty much nonexistent so we never did find it that time, and since it wasn’t the highlight of our trip to SXM we weren’t bothered in missing it.

A few years later we did manage to stumble across what we thought was the most spectacular beach on the entire island. There was nothing and no one there, unless you were counting the occasion cow or goat or the random sea grape edging the sand. It was truly drop dead gorgeous. And as I recall, if you didn’t know Club O was there you could very easily have missed it.

But then the French decided to capitalize on the area to the point it developed into what most visitors of the past few years knew it to be. I feel bad for those who lost their businesses and their livelihoods in subsequent storms but in all honesty, it wouldn’t bother me at all if it remained in its current state.

My only hope is when they start redeveloping OB, and they will for sure, they will force all the framed structures off the sand and move them back from the beach itself, and endorse a type of break-down construction that owners could remove in the light of a major impending storm. Not a popular opinion and just my personal thoughts but this would certainly bring back more of the Caribbean feel that many of us miss to this day and the absence of which is why so many gave up on one of the most beautiful pieces of real estate on St. Martin.