Inheritance

The Burnetts are still on the hook in Connecticut, near Connecticut College in New London.  Jerry’s crew is currently down two of its mates, Isaak and Anthony, who annoyingly insisted on boarding planes so they could go back to school on land.  Luckily, Mel and Greg can still see their daughter Allie once in a while, since her college happens to be about 200 yards away from Jerry at the moment.  In between her duties as an advisor to incoming freshmen, Allie has invited a few of her friends over to see “her parents’ house.”  It is fun to watch them realize that the visit involves a dinghy ride to a boat.

With the guest list diminishing, now is a good time to get some boat projects done.  After one of Mel’s adventurous nurse friends Julie graciously delivered Allie’s Prius from Omaha to Connecticut, the crew happily has a “free” car with which they can explore the joys of the “seaphistocated” Thames River area.  Mel will not apologize for using that word, which she has decided describes a high level of usefulness of the local marine industry to a cruiser.  For example, they have found a Defender Marine with an excellent business model: three old salts trained to look stuff up on computers sit in a pod in the middle of the store, dispatching young people to pull the found sprockets and gadgets out of a massive warehouse in the back.  (This is not only a great way to sell marine parts, but it would also make an excellent design for an aging seafarers’ senior living facility, as it is the hierarchy the sea prefers anyway!) Mel was happy to learn that this warehouse even contained obscure items such as Vetus freshwater tank inspection ports, gasket included, which she ended up needing after she discovered the downside to those cool, lightweight, easy-coiling Teknor Apex “Zero-G” water hoses.  Apparently, you should NEVER LET GO of them, especially when using it within inches of a rubber O-ring of unusual size lightly resting in its crevice around the water tank filling port. Those hoses have a mind of their own when unleashed and can shoot everything on deck into the water before being properly throttled.

It appears that buying a used boat is not unlike getting named as a beneficiary in Great Aunt Mabel’s will.  Namely, you inherit stuff you may or may not want. Having ordered Marvin with empty bilges from the factory and dictating every subsequent upgrade and purchase, the Burnetts are new to their current task of making an inventory of all of Jerry’s pre-existing equipment and boxes of stuff. Just like you learn more about Aunt Mabel when you get her stuff, Mel has learned a lot about sailors in general by doing this. Such as: It is impossible for a sailor to discard a rope.  Or a chain.  Or a piece of wood. Or a knife. Or an anchor. Or an expensive cleaning product labeled “For Marine Use”, even if it sucks.  After disemboweling Jerry, piling miles of extra rope on deck, and finding a massive line and chain apparatus that looked incredibly similar to the warp we just had made, Mel was sure Greg would get rid of one of the warps and offload at least half of the rope. Nope.  Turns out pilots are even worse than sailors, as they are more comfortable with triple redundancy. In the act of cramming most of the rope back in the boat, Mel found herself stuffing full not one but TWO plastic bins labeled Small Ropes and Paracord with assorted, 27” pieces of 3/8” nylon and 34” pieces of ½” polyester that were sure to save the boat someday. The Captain rejected Mel’s original label: Sailors’ Comfort Objects.

We are nevertheless delighted to have inherited many perks with Jerry, such as amped-up solar and curious cat-saving lifeline netting.  Sorting through Jerry’s drawers underscores the idea that every object on the boat had an extensive acquisition story and purpose at one time, even the rusted machete, and it is clear that Jerry has had an adventurous past.  We hope Jerry approves of us as his new caretakers and knows we will do our best to treat him as well as his previous owners.

Cruisers know that The Boat Project List has a life of its own, serving as another member of the crew.  You know, the one that complains all the time but never fixes anything itself.  Hopefully soon the crew will be able to check “Organize boat” off the project list. Greg and Mel have been unpacking and packing for months now, and Mel is looking forward to the day when this madness ceases and she can instantly recall where everything is located on the boat again because its location has not changed in the last few days.  In the meantime, Mel is thankful for her Anylists!

After a week of living with tools and parts strewn around the boat, Mel reminded the Captain that cruisers must balance work and play to avoid going insane. So on Sunday she took her family to see Schemitzun, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s annual Feast of Green Corn and Dance.  While learning about this Connecticut-based Native American Tribe, the family ate delicious, non-green corn and enjoyed some colorful dancing and drumming.  The Pequot Tribe has a long and adventurous story of its own that includes a war approaching their own genocide in the 1600’s and then subsequent dispersals challenging its identity. Despite a long history, they have kept a lot intact in the culture that each generation inherits, including their dance and costume designs. In fact, they appear to have as many feathers and blankets as Jerry has ropes. I guess we should hold onto all those ropes after all.  They are part of Jerry’s story, and they might be useful someday.

But we did offload the machete.

More on what we’ve been up to: