Friday, January 26, 2018

top 20 things we are not looking forward to on the boat.

Now that we are back at the boat I am reminded of all the ways life as a cruiser isn’t all sunsets and dolphins diving alongside the bow of your boat. There are plenty of things we aren’t so fond of and these are some of them. Not to say that the good doesn't still outweigh the not so good, but I want to put it in perspective for those that think we are on an eternal vacation.

  1. Boat friends come and go. We LOVE our boat friends. We love meeting new ones and reconnecting with old ones BUT it can be hard to leave them behind. Josh is very good about keeping tabs on them for us and if possible, we meet up with them when happen to be in the same vicinity.
  2. If you have time to lean, you have time to clean. This is not fun. No way around it. You’re pretty much cleaning something every day and sometimes the spaces aren’t all that easy to access or fit into. You wipe down the kitchen counter a thousand times a day and the floor in the head whenever you work up the gumption to pull up the grate that just barely is able to be pulled up in the tiny closed off room that is the bathroom when you’re standing on tiptoes perched on the toilet itself. Today I sat down on the settee and dust clouds plumed out of it. I was horrified then resigned. Another thing I have to figure out how to clean on a more regular basis without the use of a vacuum. Oh goody! Just one of those things that is eerily similar to land life. Ours is a battle of keeping mildew off of everything. It’s an endless task and I’m not even talking about the outside of the boat too. There is a whole other set of cleaning chops required undertake it. Actually, in the summers in Racine I was fairly fond of it because it allowed me to be outside and get cooled off at the same time.
  3. The smell. Boat smell is something between an old library book and musty laundry. It smells like damp wood and sleep. And even if you leave that sucker open like every single day for months on end as we do, if you close it up for 4 hours to go get groceries and have dinner, I swear it’s back with a vengeance in just those 4 hours. Like, how?! And when you get it in your nose, it never comes out. You smell that odor for days after leaving the boat.
  4. A wet rag. The further south you are and the later in the season it is, the worse it is. Everything we own is always slightly damp. There is no way around it. Even if your boat is brand new and doesn’t have leaks, it’s inevitable. And that damp? You guessed it, smells like the boat. Like musty sleepy wood. I’ve taken to Febreezing everything but I think I might hate the smell of Febreeze more? We wash our laundry and dry it but then I wonder "why?" since in hours time it’ll be limp and slightly wet again.
  5. Lack of wifi and cellular service. While unplugging is a very very nice thing in many respects, it can also pose some problems. When the weather is crummy and we are stuck inside, having wifi eases the burden. It can distract us and a restless toddler when we’ve played every game and pretended all the things we can think of. It also makes communication with family pretty stinky.
  6. Laundry. Not going to lie, we do our fair share of rewearing clothes (no undies, of course!) because laundry even at it’s easiest can be vexing. It can be expensive and is always awkward to manage. We are often needing to do other things while on shore and lugging around a big ol’ bag of socks and undies isn’t always cool/fun/easy. 
  7. Who needs some space? For all the virtues of small living I can count, a lack of space is not one of them. There is virtually no privacy on our 36’ sailboat. When you are together 24/7 sometimes it gets a little tight. When Josh needs to change the engine oil or I need a breather from the chaos or the weather is crummy, it gets a little touch and go.
  8. Hidden things. You know how in your house when you’re out of conditioner or dish soap you just go to your pantry or bathroom closet and just pull out another bottle and go on your merry way? It is very rarely that easy on the boat. Most items you might need (some of which you use on a regular basis) can require dismantling some piece of furniture or emptying out some locker or cabinet. Do you have to pull apart your couch to get to a can of diced tomatoes? No?
  9. Water water everywhere but is there a drop to drink? We constantly monitor our water usage. We are either in a mooring field or anchored and refilling the water tanks requires some physical labor to successfully complete. We have two 6 gallon jugs we take to shore and fill and schlep back and forth. As you might imagine, when they’re full, they are very heavy. Those days I don’t worry about getting my workout in!
  10. Grocery shopping is a task. While I do still love the task in general (the planning, the listing, the actual shopping and improvising on the spot at the grocery store when they don’t have what I need), doing the whole process on a boat is tricky. With a toddler in tow and either walking or taking transit we have to do our best. First we have to think creatively on how to get the most of what we need back with us. How much can you carry in one trip? Me, I am known to be a “no bag left behind” kind of girl. But, again, when you have a 3 year old, that is tough. Into the dinghy, up the boat ladder, down the steep companionway steps and then you have to put it all away. That part is a way less exciting and fun version of Jenga. Balancing, organizing, and stowing cold stuff in the fridge (which is basically is an icebox with less flat horizontal space and more slanted ones) is a sweat fest in itself. I end up doing 99% of the cooking just because I put everything exactly where I wanted it and getting to some ingredients can be a Herculean task.
  11. Split time much of the time. With the exception of some weekend days, we spend way more time apart than I would like or have expected. Usually Fozel and I do our thing (which involves one of a few things including: playground, beach, library or story time) while Josh does the maintenance and errand or drives the boat if we are in transit. In the case of being on the move, Fozel and I play below and if we come above my goal is to just keep him from distracting the driver. It gets tiresome and since I don't have the mechanical know-how (or the time to learn the skills) we can't exactly switch  We take this 24/7 thing to a real extreme on the boat.
  12. Pooping just isn’t the same. There I said it. It’s the stinky little secret of boating. We have a wonderful toilet that Josh installed, don't get me wrong. It’s not like we’re perched on a bucket or anything, but who wouldn’t prefer one plumbed that doesn’t require pumping and has a funny smell no matter what you do? 
  13. Mosquitos and the like. Mostly the mosquitos haven't been too bad. There were a few places where we ran into them, but the real blight are No See Ums. They are actually the very worst buggers I can possibly imagine. This season we are going to try Skin So Soft (it's one of the common deterrents) and whatever else we can get our hands on. They're half the size of a mosquito (thus the name), bite you and the unending scratching never ceases. Seriously. I am a grown adult who has rubbed her skin raw on many occasions because I CAN NOT STOP scratching. Even after they've become raw they still itch. Why???
  14. Raindrops keep falling on my head. Literally. And it's not awesome. This is probably my number one gripe. When you own a boat, it's bound to leak (or so says Josh). As long as the leak is from above the waterline and not below you're in the clear. Ours has a few doozies. Like 2ish that are a real pain in the you-know-what because, surprise, they're over our berths. Super fun when it's raining and you're me and you're trying to sleep and all you can think about is whether or not you're going to wake up to wet spots on your bed. They are the bane of my existence.
  15. Noises on. During the day in any anchorage or mooring field energy needs must be met and batteries must be charged. Several hours each day here and there a midrange hum can be heard. Mostly it's just background noise but when it's your turn to run your generators, the volume can interfere with being able to carry on a conversation or think. At night, noises keep you safe. I've woken on at  least one occasion when a noise was absent and was able to diagnose a problem (the bilge pump had stopped working and it's absence of noise woke me). Or another time we heard airhorns from another nearby boat. When we went above it was found that a powerboat's anchor had come loose from the seabed and was drifting amongst the boats (that one was extremely scary). I hear every knock and bang and clang and splash. I lay away at night listening for the familiar and not so familiar noises and alert the sleeping captain when something sounds out of whack.
  16. Knowing my culinary limits. I miss having a kitchen. One with ample counter space and all of the gadgets a person could want. Let's just say I have learned my limits--nothing pureed, nothing spiraled, nothing that requires too much kneading or frying. It does force me to be more creative in skirting these challenges and for that I am thankful. 
  17. Going along with this is lack of freshness. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Maybe I'm missing something but we have a very difficult time eating fresh on a budget when you don't visit a grocery stores in any kind of regular way. Some fruits and some vegetables are hardy and we eat those but I feel like we are missing out on fresh produce in a big way. In Florida we do okay early in the season because the humidity allows me to keep much of our produce in a hanging net but as it gets warmer everything turns much quicker.
  18. Doing our part. I know I shouldn't complain about water conservation. The greedy consumerist part of me really misses washing dishes in a sink full of soapy water. Or having a legit shower every day. We are on an every 3-5 day shower schedule and let me tell you, it isn't pretty or luxurious in any way. And baths? What are those?
  19. And you know what? I can't even think 2 more things we dislike about this life. Every day is a challenge in its own way and that's good. We are together and healthy and that's huge. So while it may seem like I've complained soooo much for someone living this unbelievable dream of ours, it just goes to show that no life is perfect.