LinoCat

Have you ever seen a sign at a garbage bin that you are not allowed to dump your garbage during the day? Maybe they do it here because it looks so digusting and smells so ugly that people should not go there during the day? Or was the smell coming from this small river? Never on another caribbean island we have seen so much dirt than on the french ones. The dinghy dock here in Marigot stinks like they pee all over it every night. This floating swimmingpool was built in front of the beach in Grande Case. In 2 days we saw NOBODY swimming there. Of course, the beautiful beach is right around it and it is the same sea water. since it is only a floating pontoon. But the fun thing is: It is paid by the European union! Anyone wonders where the money goes? We went to Marigot this morning to clear out. You remember that they had printer problems, right? Guess what: YEAH, they send me again to Fort Luis marina. So we have customs office which is not able to do their duty. Even though nothing is...

The beach here is here very nice with clear water. The dinghy dock is fairly old and rotten and so is the main dock which already collapsed. Anchorage is good holding on sand in around 3m of depth and near by there are some rocks which are supposed to be good for snorkeling. There is a small buoy there for dinghies. Lani enjoyed playing in the sand and unfortunately we have to leave today back to the immigration because they did not clear us out. Lets hope they have fixed their printer problem!

This morning at 7.45 after breakfast we pulled the anchor up and crossed the Simpson Bay Lagoon to the french side. At 08.15 the drawbridge opened and we went into Marigot Bay. We dropped the anchor here to clear in. Customs and Immigration are at the ferry docks and so i went there by dinghy. After typing in all the details (Yes, the french system does NOT support saving the data like with eSeaClear.com) i printed the information out and the customs officer realized that the toner cartridge was empty. No problem, i will wait until he changed it BUT he did not have another one. So he told me i should go to marina Fort Luis to clear in there. Usually they do it only for marina guests but he would call them. So i walked there and they did not know anything. The lady had to call her supervisor and then i could clear in. Guess what: YES, i had to type everything again. Now they told me it is NOT possible to clear in and out at the same time so i have to type all of that again tomorrow! And...

Yesterday it was the first time that we travelled by dinghy from one country to another because we went through the Simpson lagoon to the french side. The dutch side looks almost american with the US dollar and english language being dominant. On the french side even the road signs look french. The french have 20 square kilometer and the dutch 13. There is no real border here between the countries. Hey it is almost like in Europe. The top picture shows an old propeller plane which is still flying around. Maybe it was a DC-3 but i am not sure. To the left is the West Indies Shopping Mall on the french side. Only clothes and girls stuff, no electronics or tools for the big boy :-( This is a beach bar where we have been yesterday for a coffee. Nice music but they had a big dog running around free and so we left. These iron balls are used for bonfires, especially on fullmoon parties. So there is a wooden fire in them and people dance and drink. This is one of the marinas on the french sid...

Like with Sint Maarten itself even for the lagoon i found different writings like Simpson or Simson. The anchorage is well protected and you enter through a draw bridge like in the Netherlands. But even though it is dutch, the most dominant curreny is the US Dollar and voltage is often 110V. Also all signs etc are english and not dutch. Since in the middle of the lagoon there is the border to the french part calles Saint Martin i am curious how things are over there. So Linocat will drive THROUGH the island and cross countries. Funny! During the day a few big plans leave from the Airport and fly directly over our anchorage. Since i like planes and they are not flying at night this is not a problem. The Boing 747-400 is from KLM and serves Amsterdam and Curacao from here. Most of the traffic is done by small 2 engine planes like the Twinotter. Since the sunset is behind the airport i might try some other pictures later.

The amazing part about St.It was really crysta Barth was the water quality. It was really crystal clear, even at the anchorage right in front of Gustavia harbour. When i cleared in i immediately realized that i am in France. The keyboard layout is so strange and you can save your data, you have to always type it in from scratch. Even on the same PC when checking out. I really wonder if they store it at all or if the only use the printouts, since they even make a photocopy of it!!! For 2 nights at the anchorage using no mooring but our anchor they also charged 30 EUR. Right, that is 15 EUR per night. The good part is that the surrounding of the harbour is pretty nice. You have good dinghy docks and a place to properly throw away your garbage, etc. The stores around are fancy and expensive and so is the food. You caneasily pay 15 EUR for a pizza or 16EUR for a salad of tomato and mozzarella. The bakery behind the post office makes great bread, not only baguette but also wood oven baked b...

I got up at 3.45 and lifted anchor at 4 in the morning. Under radar i made my way through the anchoring yachts. It always amazes me that even in times of LED bulbs some folks still do not use their anchor lights at all during the night. Since the moon was already gone it was pitch dark and i used radar and a search light to find my way out. A few miles away i passed a buoy which was unlit but i could clearly see it on the radar and it reflected my searchlight even though it was still 0.3 miles away. There was almost no wind and the first 2 hours i just motored with one engine at 2200 rpm doing 5.4 knots. Then i pulled out the genoa in addition and now it is around 5.6 knots. The total distance is around 75 miles and du to the low wind forecast we decided to leave so early because St Barth is tricky to approach at night. Talking about St Barth, the name is actually St Barthelemy but that seems to be to long for everyone. It is not as high as some of the other islands because it is an ol...

Jolly water is a marina in a kind of channel which is part of some waterways with appartments at the front. These appartments have a private dock but they are not so nice. I tooks some snaps of the nicer ones. You can still buy property here and one of the row houses goes for around 275000US Dollar. Jolly harbour is good for getting fuel since the fueldock is at a corner and so no matter how the wind blows, it is easy to dock. Well, i only got fuel for the outboard of the dinghy here. The water in the anchorage and and the harbour is not as clear as in other places. Looks like there is a lot of sediment in the water, so it is not "dirty" but just not clear either. Maybe we are now also spoiled with crystal clear water? Near the fuel station there is also a boatyard with the laundry which is ok priced ans quick. A big bag of laundry costs around 35EC Dollar including drying. If you like good coffee, there is an espressobar called Java Jojo in the marina and their coffee and le...

The admiral Lani and skipper Michael steering towards the Jolly harbour anchorage. This is the anchorage from a distance. Nice water in front of green hills. Lani getting tired :-) Time for the skippers and admirals nap!