Several updates:

Buoyage inside the lagoon is now fully restored with more buoyage than ever before including a vastly superior marking of the shallow ground northeast of Isle de Sol (Snoopy Island).

All wrecks in the fairways, anchorages, and approaches in the lagoon (Dutch side) are now removed. There are no longer any hazards to navigation in Simpson Bay or the lagoon that did not exist before Irma.

Causeway now operates much less frequently: 0800, 1000, and 1530 (each opening is for traffic both ways).

The Sandy Ground Bridge is not currently operating (as at 15 Feb 2019). Initial repairs are expected to be complete within 2 weeks, but full repairs are not expected until the end of 2019.

Port de Plaisance caters to more than just the megayacht sector, with the South Basin now operational, they have a number of slips for smaller boats.

Causeway opening times have changed from those stated.

Opening times as from 9 December 2015:
In and Outbount Traffic: 08:15, 10:00, 11:45, 15:30, and 17:15

July 2015,

Last year January 2015 we arrived at St. Maarten after crossing the Atlantic with the ARC. We came to St. Maarten with a list of repairs, knowing that parts and experts are available there. Most of the repairs we do ourselves but we also had a problem with our alternator. The alternator connected to our main engine did not power up the batteries anymore.

We heard that Electec was the company to go to. As everything is horribly expensive at St. Maarten we expect to pay for high expertise. A new alternator was installed.
March we left for Panama and during this trip, we had a fire in the engine room caused by the new alternator. We did test it at St. Maarten but now we had motored for a full day for the first time.

We called Electec, and with a slip of the tongue, it was mentioned that they already thought that the alternator became very warm when testing it.
That made us pretty angry, why didn’t they tell us! We could have sunk if we had not noticed it in time!!

So we asked them for a replacement as they made a mistake and we had paid big bucks for the alternator. We ended up with a discount but still had to pay for the second alternator. In Panama it took a very long time for the alternator to arrive, so we checked if we could buy it locally. And to our amazement, the price of the same alternator was exactly like the one we got via Electec with discount!

Finally, the alternator arrived, Electec did help us with the online instructions but again the second alternator did not work, delivering a very low voltage. We called again and again but this time nobody returned our calls.

We did get our invoice though so we paid twice for an alternator did does not work. But what bothers me most is that they never even apologized for installing an alternator that burnt through.

A note of warning for others yachts, make sure that you check the prices online, and make sure that you check it thoroughly before you leave. For us? We will try to avoid Electec in the future. We learned our lesson

Gijs – SY Kings Legend