LinoCat

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.