How much do you really need?
In a previous post I wrote about how Rebecca and I, after packing up all of our stuff in St. Thomas and shipping it to Grenada via Tropical, essentially lived out of a carry on for more than a month. We were, of course, ultimately reunited with our belongings and had them with us at our friends’ house here in Grenada. When we set off for Puerto Rico though, we again packed very little in the way of clothes. I over optimistically thought that we’d be able to go to PR, check the boat out and sail it right back, and thus, in my bag, I had a grand total of one pair of shorts and one T-shirt to go along with the shorts and shirt that I was wearing. Rebecca was a bit smarter than I was (she always is) but she didn’t have a ton of clothes either. As the story goes, we went from Puerto Rico to Martinique and were there for 10 days before we could leave. This meant that we were again living out of carry ons and in my case, a much more limited one. Obviously we survived and that has to make you wonder just how much stuff one needs to get by.
All of our personal belongings.
I remember as a teen that if you were ever caught wearing the same piece of clothing two days in a row, you’d be ridiculed by your classmates (big plus for schools with uniforms, I suspect). Not much changes as an adult, unless you’re a cruiser that is. I know plenty of people who wear the same few bits of clothes over and over, changing them when they become dirty of course. But do they really become that dirty after only wearing them for a few hours? In some cases they do, sure, but not normally.
Yesterday, we moved the boat onto the dock at Port Louis Marina and initiated the process of ferrying all of our stuff from our friends’ place to the boat. As their house is down a steep hill from the drive way, it was quite a workout to kick start the day. We virtually dumped all of our stuff on board the boat and then set off to find a place to anchor so that we could begin the process of stowing it all properly. It was a long day, and we’re not even close to having it all done. There is, however, plenty of room on the boat and for that we are thankful.
Our disco ball is now up. Now we can call it home!
A view of our Amel last evening, taken from our friends’ boat Beagle Knot.
Ah ah ah ah Stayin Alive!
I grew up with that.
When are those bars on the hatches coming off? I recall that you commented on them previously, but are you leaving or removing? Personally, I don’t like the look.
For now we are going to keep them.
I’ve been climbing expeditions where clothing changes were so rare, if someone changed you didn’t know them. Fortunately these were winter expeditions….
🙂
Disco ball, eh? Hmm. You can use it for a PFD. Or a fender. Or maybe to plug leaks. Or hey, what a great signaling device if you ever have to abandon ship!
Everything on a boat has to serve more than one purpose. 🙂
Hey Guys…Congrats on the new boat. Will she be named after her Big sister (rather Little Sister) ZTC
No, something entirely different.
As you know you don’t need much in the way of clothing, we have work, casual and smart casual, as these are only worn for a few hours a day you rotate them and run them through the laundry after two to three wears…….however you do like a gaget and I imagine you have quite a few in that pile.
PS….when are you going to share your education on what was wrong with the Amel in Puerto Rico, and what the surveyor reported on the one you purchased.
I don’t think I’ll post details about the PR boat. Let’s just say that it had issues that I was not willing to invest the time/money to rectify.
As for our boat, I’ll post about the things needing to be fixed in various posts.