114: ONLY THE CRAZIES WILL DO THIS IN Sint Maarten

Do you dare hike Sentry Hill? Well, we did...After weeks of boat projects, we were ready for a break! On a morning run, I happened upon the trailhead marker of Sentry Hill and that tagged the location to return to with Brown. We picked an early Sunday morning to tackle Sentry Hill, a 1200 foot tall hill top on the Dutch side. The trail marker estimates a 3.5 hour return trip and we were prepared with enough water and food to survive! If only we had read the reviews of Sentry Hill before we started... About 30 minutes into the hike, we started coming upon spider webs across the trail about every 3 feet. And, to make matters worse, we had to dodge inch long thorny shrubs that seemed to catch our shirts and shorts, no matter how we passed. Needless to say, it was slow going. The spiders were getting bigger and bigger, the thorns more and more possessive and ripping out chunks of flesh, and enter stage right - the orange hornets. This is a new breed of hornet and one that we hoped to avoid in a close encounter. It took us 2 hours to get to the top, but we almost turned back a few times. We were really discouraged as it was not as much hiking as it was bush whacking and spider web home wrecking. When we arrived at the top, we were surprised to find a platform in front of us with a rickety ladder to climb up, which we did. On top of the platform, we enjoyed 360 degree views of both the Dutch and French side as well as the further islands like Anguila and St. Barts. And, a couple of very shy monkeys showed their faces and then scampered off into the bush. We scoured the platform for ANY potential way down that was not the way we came. There were chairlifts and zip lines, but no paths down other than returning via Sentry Hill path. We were dreading the trip back when we HEARD a voice from below and it made us SO excited to know that someone else was as foolish as we were to take this hike! And, it could not have been a more fun and adventurous pair from New England, Terri and David. David told us that the online eview of the trail (he was smart and looked in advance but didn't tell Terri) was that it was super thorny with tons of spiders and webs. He was surprised on his way up that there were no spiders and the thorns were cropped back a bit! We were happy to clear the trail for them! They made the descent fun and enjoyable, stopping once for a geo-cache (my first time) and great laughs and conversation. What a gift, but even better was a ride back to our boat in their car from the trailhead!! We hope you enjoy this video and the views from the top as they ARE spectacular! #sailing #sailboat #sailingprojects #SENTRYHILL #sintmaarten #stmaarten #hiking NEW TO OUR CHANNEL? We are Eileen and Brown Councill. Welcome to our channel and a glimpse into our life adventure! 2020 was a year of uncertainty and change (for all of us, right?), but we overcame the challenges and decided it was time to chase our dream, to sail around the world! Did I mention that we had very NO sailing experience? Before leaving Qingdao, China, our home of 4 years, we sold almost all of our earthly possessions and started our international search to find the right sailboat that we would call "home." After 5 months of unanticipated twists and turns, we found what we were looking for, a used Leopard 44' Catamaran located in St. Lucia. So, here begins our journey, filled with unmatched excitement and honestly, a bit of trepidation as well. We have much to learn as we travel the world on our floating home and we intend to document that journey and share it with you. We are so glad you have decided to join us, and we hope that you will find our story so compelling that it will inspire you to chase your dreams too! As a viewer, we consider you to be part of our family and look forward to getting to know you. Don't hesitate to comment on our videos and ask questions. We will do our best to answer every correspondence! All we ask is that you have patience with us as we work really hard to improve our camera/video techniques and ability to tell a story. Hopefully, you will be as BLOWN AWAY from watching, as we are in experiencing and producing our adventures! HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT US? If you wish to support our video efforts, all we ask is that you SUBSCRIBE, give a THUMBS UP, SHARE our videos with your friends, AND COMMENT! WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET TO KNOW US MORE DEEPLY? It would be an honor and pleasure to deepen our relationship with you as a Patron. Please click on the following link to see how: https://www.patreon.com/sailingblownaway WOULD YOU LIKE TO FOLLOW OUR JOURNEY? https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/6040796987916288 WHERE CAN YOU FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA? Instagram - @sailingblownaway Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SailingBlownAway Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/eileen.dietrich/