Hotel Jerry
Mel hasn’t posted much lately as her role has been transformed from free-wheeling, blogging cruiser to Mom and concierge to four visiting Gen-Z’ers. To imagine what this is like, take the logistics required to live on a sailboat in a foreign country, and square it. No, strike that. Triple it.
Before the arrival of our guests, Mel cleaned out the port hull. This was not a small task, requiring the stuffing of provisions purchased in Panama and residing in bins on the beds into the plastic pantry occupying the port forward shower. Numerous spare parts were shoved into crevices in the forepeaks, under the beds, and in the bilges. The starboard hull’s capacious passageway narrowed.
Mel’s success at this project was short-lived. Our guests arrived laden with boat parts and supplies that were either difficult to obtain or ridiculously expensive in French Polynesia. As a result, Jerry is sitting much lower in the water these days. We now assume Jerry’s draft is a full foot deeper than the official 4’10” listed in the factory specs. We have set the zero-point of our depth sensor at keel level, to play it safe.
For the curious, here’s a partial list of our cherished imports:
- Our two kids and their significant others
- Backup Raymarine rotary autopilot
- Backup Lewmar 60000191 spare windlass motor and gearbox
- Underwater lights (some of ours are broken)
- Articulating boroscope
- Yet another rigging knife
- More rechargable LED flashlights of a brand that was the sole survivor of 5 different brands tried (Trixhub rechargable super-brights)
- Various stainless steel cleaners and lubricants like Lubriplate
- USB-C dustplugs to protect phone charging ports, UV-resistant zipties of various sizes
- A variety of electrical equipment such as junction boxes that only Greg understands
- Domestics: Oxo Dish brush for washing dishes, with refills, Blueland scentless laundry washing tablets, Vanicreme scentless body soaps, Sonicare toothbrush refills, Mel’s favorite plastic clothespins that don’t rust, nonskid shelf liner
- Ninja Airfryer grill replacement (original was sacrificed to Poseidon, which was too bad, since the gesture failed to fix the autopilot.)
- Food: Dried bay leaves, black beans, taco seasoning, red pepper flakes, gochujang
- Pharmacy: Neutrogena Sport SPF 70+ face sunscreen, melatonin, Lotrimin (to treat Mel’s finger, which has “sailor’s hand” from wearing wet sailing gloves 12 hours a day while hand-steering for 13 days.)
- Sewable Velcro, a yard of boat blanket material (anti-chafe), sailrite snap rivets to repair enclosure
- Party games, such as the Poetry for Neanderthals expansion pack
- Better snorkel gear
- Clothing
- Alcohol
One might draw from this list the following conclusions:
- Americans who have previously had unlimited access to the winners of free-market competition end up with brand and product preferences that are difficult to maintain when abroad.
- All cleaning products in French Polynesia are scented. In retrospect, this was entirely predictable. We are in France!
- While it is possible to obtain some boat parts in Tahiti, it is often impossible to obtain the exact boat part you need.
- Any sort of liquid, gel, cream, or chemical is exorbitantly expensive in French Polynesia. That $50 bottle of Barnacle Buster you bought in Panama? According to the lovely French man who came to fix our port air conditioner, it’s $1000 here!
- The Polynesians are not fans of Tex-Mex. Or spicy food. More hardship for the Americans!
Alas, more storing and stuffing took place! Mel then compounded the problem by grocery shopping. For some reason, provisioning for two Gen-Xers and four twenty-somethings for just a few days in French Polynesia has proven to be a more daunting task than provisioning for three Gen-Xers for sixty days in Panama.
Nevertheless, Hotel Jerry opened for business Aug 1. Since then Jerry’s crew has enjoyed packed days, taking in the experiences pictured below. Next stop: Huahine!
