St Maarten in November

First we had to get there, so we crammed into this tiny piper charter plane piloted by the erstwhile Mike of www.flywindies.com. He can take 5 passengers so he ferried us over in 2 flights. The views were spectacular and we all knew that if we went down we'd probably die, albeit in a very beautiful place. It was definitely the most fun I've had since I arrived in the Caribbean, narrowly beating the time we got caught in a ferry between Nevis and St Kitts during a spectacular storm.

Flying Fred edited

After half an hour and several islands we arrived over the stunning island of St Maarten

St Maarten by John

This was followed by an amazing landing and rapid arrival into the tiny airport on the French side. We were through in about 1 minute, and Mike was gone again before we'd even arrived, running before the oncoming night.

Things got even better when we arrived at the Sonestra Great Bay Resort - for most of us at least. A couple had serious problems with their rooms, but it's hard to stay cross for too long with views like these!

The town centre was a 10 minute walk along the beach

Great Bay 3

Where I met some very interesting characters. Jack's always been a hero of mine...

Some of us were very keen to explore the excellent shopping opportunities

Meanwhile, out in the bay were all manner of ships, boats and watercraft

Great Bay pirate ship

Great Bay jetskis 2

Marina

Our first group dinner in a French restaurant overlooking the Caribbean sea

View from the restaurant beach

En route to the conference the next morning we were very excited to spot what was immediately dubbed the iYacht

After a short delay for the Dutch royal family who were visiting (cut short when we pretended to be part of their entourage, driving along the barricaded streets, waving at the crowd - hey, it got us here on time), we arrived at the beautiful American University of the Caribbean

It was a chance to showcase our work, and network with our medical colleagues. We took out first and second prizes for an oral and poster presentation respectively. Here Robin's poster describes our veterinary clinical skills training program.

Belle's poster describing her development of a model for ophthalmoscopic examinations won the second prize overall :)

John has a super cool calf leg prototype developed using a 3D printer, which can be used for teaching resolution of certain bovine dystocias

I also had a couple of posters

Best of all though we got to meet Ruth the SimDonkey! She has working parts from a human patient simulator and can do all sorts of cool things, such as breathing, speaking and more. She's one of our R&D projects and has a lovely smile

On the way back we saw more beautiful islands. I think this is Saba, clearly demonstrating the volcanic origins of the Caribbean islands.

In the distance is the small but spectacularly beautiful island of St Barts. I'm dying to visit! Preferably via Mike's tiny charter airplane. Although a nice yacht would do as well...

Eventually we all made it back safe and sound. Here Ruth and Belle are waiting for their ride home