As all of my family and friends reading this know, but many others may not, I’m American. I’m also Canadian by birth through my mother, but I didn’t live in Canada until I met my sexy Frenchie-Canadian husband Carol. So, I’m kind of Canadian on a technicality.
One fun thing about traveling on a Canadian flagged vessel, with a Frenchie-Canadian husband is that everyone assumes I am Canadian-and-not-American. So they tell jokes about Americans in front of me. An example that only sailors will get is “What is American whipping? Electrical tape. What is an American splice? A knot.” Or they complain about Americans in front of me, politics or whatever.
I get a bit of a window into how the world views Americans because I’m not flagged as one. I also find myself defending Americans and America a lot.
Still, I have a bit of a gripe that has built up over the last 3 months towards some percentage of the American boats in the S Pacific. As an undercover American reporting back to the USA, can I just say:
Will the American boats in French Polynesia stop holding conversations on Channel 16? Distress and hailing channel, folks, not a chat net. This happens often, in lots of places in the world but funny enough, I have only heard American boats doing it in French Polynesia. No German/French/Australian boats yammering away on 16.
More embarrassing is when the French marine emergency officials (MRC Papeete) have to break in, speaking in English, in order to remind the Channel 16 hoggers to switch to a working channel.
One fun thing about traveling on a Canadian flagged vessel, with a Frenchie-Canadian husband is that everyone assumes I am Canadian-and-not-American. So they tell jokes about Americans in front of me. An example that only sailors will get is “What is American whipping? Electrical tape. What is an American splice? A knot.” Or they complain about Americans in front of me, politics or whatever.
I get a bit of a window into how the world views Americans because I’m not flagged as one. I also find myself defending Americans and America a lot.
Still, I have a bit of a gripe that has built up over the last 3 months towards some percentage of the American boats in the S Pacific. As an undercover American reporting back to the USA, can I just say:
Will the American boats in French Polynesia stop holding conversations on Channel 16? Distress and hailing channel, folks, not a chat net. This happens often, in lots of places in the world but funny enough, I have only heard American boats doing it in French Polynesia. No German/French/Australian boats yammering away on 16.
More embarrassing is when the French marine emergency officials (MRC Papeete) have to break in, speaking in English, in order to remind the Channel 16 hoggers to switch to a working channel.
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