Life in the Lagoon

It’s not easy living next to one of the most photogenic airports in the world. Princess Juliana international airport might be one of the better looking in the world, not because that some famous person designed the terminal but that its runway end and begin about 20 meters from the water. On the western side there is a beach that must be one of the most photographed in the world (just google it and you’ll see) and we’re planning at trip there to get some new pictures of us, it’s not every day that you can stand underneath a 747 that almost decapitates you flaring on the final approach. The eastern side might be a bit more boring with just a road and a bridge. We’re anchored out in the lagoon a bit north of the runway and we have a front row seat for all the take offs.

Our posible routes heading home.

Our posible routes heading home.

Renting a car will help us explore the island, and make it easier for some serious shopping; the new toilet pump as well as some reef lines and food for the trip home are on our lists. One place that I’d like to find is a piece of road that Antoine Bourdain writes about in his book “Medium raw, a bloody valentine to the world of food”. Apparently he spent some time here in his darker days of newfound fame, he played music Russian roulette with a radio DJ, finding that stretch of road, and the Shawarma truck that he ate from might be one of my small goals on this island. A bit of foodie questing for me to look into.

The lagoon have some serious warm water and it’s quite clear compared to other crowded anchorages we’ve visited on this side of the pond. I can see that this lagoon might be an easy place to get stuck in, I know I would if we didn’t have to go back home again.

It’s good to know that we’re not the palest on this island, even though we all are quite brown most people we meet tend to like the sun better than us or rather have the patience to work on their tans. But here we see some American and European tourists that are fresh from the plane and that make us not the palest bunch on the island. My biggest concern now is that I’ll be a weak excuse of a man when I get home, it’s cold now when the temperature drops below 20 and I’m used to lukewarm rain, not the ice mixed ones from back home. We can only pray that the Atlantic crossing back home make me a Nordic Viking again.