Marshall's Mysteries 16

Colin Marshall · Issue 139, Jul/Aug 2024 · pp. 64–69

hunting. Very little, if any, schooling fish. Yes, I know it usually wins all the prizes for diving in the Caribbean. But, frankly, I had to admit to myself I was getting bored diving there. By the happiest turn of fates my partner, bless her, was seconded to a job in Sint Maarten and I felt obliged to join her (NB: British irony). Almost three very happy years followed and 436 dives. Sint Maarten is another of those curious Dutch outposts in the Caribbean. Although not part of the Netherlands (Bonaire is actually a city in the Netherlands), Sint Maarten (or SXM as it’s known) is in the Kingdom of the Netherlands so similar in status to, say, Jersey or Bermuda. It has a significant international airport and is a stone’s throw from the British hold- out of Anguilla. I read that Anguilla to Sint Maarten is the world’s shortest international flight. In addition, the northern part of the isl…