Personally, I would go. But, I would casually monitor the situation over the upcoming weeks. My wife and I are discussing this presently, and we have the advantage of having a son who is a scientist and worked with many of the leading laboratories in the world on COVID-19 treatments and vaccines. So, we still turn to him for advice (as we should). Watching too much news coverage on COVID can heighten stress to the point where we can't live our lives. Mankind and vaccines have existed together throughout history, and although this has been a really bad one it's still just a virus and we can't put our lives on 'indefinite hold' as we get older. You are both vaccinated (I assume with one of the mRNA vaccines) so that's all you can do at this point to ensure you won't develop severe illness that requires hospitalization should you get sick. Despite the flare for dramatic news coverage, breakthrough cases are still exceptionally rare at .0098. Yes, the Delta variant is more infectious given the mutations to its spike proteins, but our vaccines handle this variant just fine so I would lessen my level of concern here. On St. Maarten, when you dine in most cases you'll be in an open air environment and relatively safe from contracting anything. The same goes for being on the beach, hiking in Loterie Farms, or even visiting Parrot Ville.

So what could go wrong? Yes, a new variant could emerge, but it would likely be no worse than Delta. My son has assured me over and over again that it takes many years for a virus to be able to evade our immune systems, and SARS-Cov-2 is not there are this point. The only thing that I would hate to deal with is if I tested positive prior for our return trip back to states and couldn't get on our flight back home. But, I think that would be a long shot. If it did happen, then having alternate arrangements back home may be necessary for those who work, are boarding a pet, have a house sitter, etc. So, making sure you have cell service on SXM is a must at this time. As for November weather, maybe we've been just lucky, but we've had really nice weather on our November trips (with the exception of that stupid hurricane "Lenny" that travelled in the wrong direction back in 1999!). If we can find 'reasonable' air fare we may just run into you on SXM.