Special Feature... Life on a Boat

Lest our readership think that it is all fun and games living on a boat, we thought we would offer some insight.  Let’s talk laundry.  When you can find a laundromat with functioning, clean machines, life is pretty good.  When you can’t, its time for WonderWash!  This is a truly wonderful little hand-cranked machine that washes and rinses your stuff.  We wait for a sunny morning, run out on deck with detergent, laundry, and the deck hose, and crank away.  To dry the wash, the lifelines of the boat serve.  When we have good Caribbean sunshine, we are done in just a few hours.  But when those storms roll through, there may be several bouts of taking it in, putting it out, taking it in, etc., maybe lasting all day and into the next.

Now how about cleaning that hull?  This usually needs to be done once every two months or so, unless we are in a very mangrove-y and rich environment, when we need to clean up more frequently.  So let’s do the math.  We have a 47-ft. long boat that is 6-ft. deep.  That’s a LOT of surface area under water.  (And our scraper is 4-inches wide.)   Usually John does this in one-hour stints over 3-4 days.  There are a lot of living things down there either attached to the boat or nibbling at the boat.  Most are not dangerous to the diver (as far as we know.)

Last entry in this special feature is John’s favorite chore -- showing a little love to the engine -- our Yanmar is often the most valuable player when we move the boat.  Every hundred hours we change the oil.  Again, this is one of those tasks best performed by a contortionist who can reach all the necessary places in the engine compartment.  It’s actually not so bad on our boat, John gets to sit on the toilet while changing the oil!

We’re always looking for a hand with these tasks.  Any volunteers?