Wayfinding in the Logistical Jungle

Mel knows it’s been a minute. Things have been crazy here on Jerry.  If Mel had had the foresight to mount her GoPro on Jerry’s mast to record their daily life every 30 seconds, one would see constant comings and goings of a variety of people and objects at all hours of the day for the last two weeks.  But Mel hasn’t done this, mainly because she dislikes the way she looks when hot.

It turns out that prepping for a Pacific voyage is logistically more challenging than even catastrophizing Mel had imagined. Case in point, as Mel wrote that last sentence, she received five fresh messages from fellow cruisers in one of her eight Shelter Bay/ Pacific/ Panama cruising-related WhatsApps groups. Hold on while she MUTES ALL NOTIFICATIONS. Ahhhh.

All of these WhatsApp groups are abuzz with other cruisers also planning to go through the Panama Canal and spend up to 40 days in the middle of the ocean. This sense of community is why many choose this lifestyle. Of course, shortly after joining the local WhatsApp community, Mel made a instant social faux pax by announcing that she had put free stuff not only in the wrong place in the marina, but also on the wrong WhatsApp subgroup. She was instantly notified of her transgressions. Keen observers will notice that when she hangs out in the BBQ pit for Cruiser’s Potluck Sundays, under her sunshirt she carries a scarlet “W” on her chest for her crimes.

There are other downsides to being too locally connected. The WhatsApp questions and answers on the best ways to prep and provision can get overwhelming at times. After all, it is Pacific Crossing Season, and all the little sailing birdies have been converging in Panama since January.  Mel occasionally reminds herself that most people who have made it to Shelter Bay with plans to head west are in the big leagues of cruisers. It is essentially Cruiser Olympic Village here. The ocean tends to reward, or at least minimally punish, the detail-oriented, and so the pros in this business always have a massive list of things to do.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that their things to do are things that Mel needs to do. 

Can you hear her talking herself off the ledge?

For the curious, here are some things the Burnetts have decided they indeed need to do, and have done.

Medical Tourism

After realizing that some health care maintenance was necessary before transporting their middle-aged bodies to remote islands, Mel managed to locate some English-speaking doctors serving the US expat community in Panama. Via several trips down to Panama City to seek care from English-speaking doctors (like Dr. Alejandro at ProCare), she learned that she has a sparkling clean colon, her skin lesions are just moles, and her “good cholesterol” is once again higher than her “bad cholesterol.”  (Quitting an intense job is excellent for your cardiovascular health!) Greg had to have more things worked on by the dermatologist than she did (Ha!), which she attributes solely to the fact that she rarely saw the outside of a hospital or clinic during daytime for years. The only unfortunate result of their medical tourism was that Mel’s actual colonoscopy did not, in fact, take place in Colón.  But hell, she’ll tell her grandkids it did anyway.  Much better story.

Cat Relocation

Morale Officer Penelope had been on the boat for over six months. Unfortunately, while she did an excellent job of keeping up the crew’s spirits, she never returned to the joyful kitty we knew her to be back when she spent her eight years gamboling through her beloved Nebraska prairie.  Her world had shrunk to the confines of Jerry’s saloon, and she rarely ventured out on deck, even to sunbathe.  After she got out one night and was found several docks down, with staff expressing their surprise that she was not eaten by the local marina crocodile, Reynaldo, the Burnetts made the difficult decision to deliver their little landlubber to Minnesota to live with their son.  It was this decision that prompted their encounter with Panamanian bureaucracy at its finest, and thanks to the help of a wonderful vet (Dr. Solanilla of VitalVets), several hectic days later Mel boarded a United flight to Minnesota with Penelope and export paperwork freshly stamped by the head vet in Panama in hand.  Mel is happy to report that Penelope is so pleased with her new environs and caretaker Isaak that she started eating seafood again!  The Burnetts are heartbroken, but they plan to keep in touch with Penelope via tele-morale visits.

Provisioning

A cruiser anticipating a big journey cannot fly to Minneapolis without a visit to the exhausting Mall of America.  Mel would like to count Minnesota as its own landfall.  Visiting the Mall of America was not unlike visiting a foreign country via her boat. Just as she did while exploring Panama City, she found herself taking photos of strange things, like a Krispy Kreme stand in the middle of Target, or a pickleball tournament next to the Swatch store.  Walking along the mall concourse was not unlike walking the docks at Shelter Bay Marina; you heard many foreign accents and saw interesting clothing choices. And many Tilley hats. The stores were tightly packed in aisles, much like docked boats, each similar, and yet different. And if you think Mel is stretching this analogy too far, think again – the MoA may not be reachable by sea, but it does have an aquarium!

While Mel returned to Panama with a duffel stuffed with her critical purchases, such as Greg’s favorite underwear from Duluth Trading Company, the most important things were imported by Jerry’s new crewmember, Jeremy.

Jeremy, a friend of Greg’s who is fresh out of his ASA sailing courses, is joining Jerry’s crew to help escort us across the Pacific.  He has already made an interesting observation: boats are either tightly packed together, like a city, or spread far apart, like a small town.  There are no suburbs. Interesting. Yes, Mel deems that he will fit in just fine.

For the curious, here is a stream-of-consciousness list of what we sent to Jeremy over the last two months and what Jeremy couriered to us, roughly in the order he pulled it out of his gigantic North Face rolling duffel bag upon arrival:

Digital otoscope that can also be a boroscope but will be mainly used to dig out earwax Mel suspects, binding tape for sewing projects, Vistaprint boat cards and stickers, two different underwater/scuba flashlights, sewable Velcro, stickable Velcro for ceiling panels, over-the-counter US medicines: Aleve, magnesium, melatonin tablets, contact lens solutions, the special Band-Aids Greg likes, LMNT lemonade electrolyte drink packets, GFCI receptacles, camera lens case, Vistaprint boat stamps, cool spatula, plastic clothes pins, book on Reef Fish of the Pacific, identification card for Game Fish of the Pacific, windlass manual conversion kit, EasySea folding winch handle, Debbie Meyer green bags, vacuum packer bags, squid lures for trolling, Your Offshore Doctor book, dish cloths, clothing, scentless laundry detergent tablets, cables and wiring thingamajigs that even Greg doesn’t recall what they are for, a block for our spinnaker, universal eyewash adapters for Mel’s med kit, Bojack fuse holders, an assortment of fuses, Christmas lights, more spoons (where do spoons go? Where?), Steelsoft hose clamps, patio door rollers, Vanicream sensitive skin soap, Souper Cubes silicone freezer storage thingies, autopilot remote control, “locking nuts”, PredictWind Data Hub, Mastervolt stuff…

Boat Projects

Meanwhile, Greg has replaced our 5 kW inverter with two 3 kW inverters for redundancy and installed two 100-Amp chargers.  He “re-organized the entire DC system.”  He has installed an isolation transformer, which should cut down on galvanic corrosion.  A fearless man has braved the crocodiles to clean Jerry’s bottom of the barnacles acquired in Sint Maarten. Several marina workers have been working on Jerry’s roof, repairing gelcoat damage discovered after the removal of several inefficient walkable solar panels.  After some recent hiccups, the port engine (why is it always the port engine?) was inspected and deemed satisfactory. Plans are in place to install new walkable solar panels and D-rings to hold our flexible fuel tanks on the top deck, and Greg is doing something about lightning protection. In addition, Mel is provisioning in spurts after joining Panama’s version of Costco, PriceSaver.

While the Burnetts tackle the rest of their To-Do list, enjoy these pics.  Jerry transits the Panama Canal on March 22.