Boatyard
Living Aboard a Boat
Ramblings From the Dockside
Life is Hard
Friday, June 30, 2017TheCambrians
Sailors have a unique language all their own: On a boat, the front isn’t called the front. It’s
the “bow”. The back of the boat’s the “stern”. The “port” side is on the left
and the “starboard” side is on the right, but only if you’re facing the bow –
if you’re facing the stern, it’s the opposite. Below decks, the “head” is the
toilet because it used to be located at the front of the boat, which was the
head but is now the bow. The kitchen’s the “galley”, the living room’s a
“salon” (or “saloon” if you’re British), we sleep in a “cabin” where we have a
“berth”. And when a boat’s in a boatyard, it’s “on the hard”.
Why? Because the ground is hard and so is life when a
boat’s sitting on it.
Water
Alot
of our personal comfort depends on the boat being in the water. When we’re at
anchor, the bow points up to the wind and a nice breeze flows through – it’s Mother
Nature’s air conditioning. Right now the boat is parked with the wind off our
stern quarter, so it’s having a difficult time finding its way inside.
Like
a lot of places around the country, we’re in the midst of a heat wave. And
while temperatures in the 80s and 90s don’t compare with the 119°F that Phoenix is dealing with, the fact that we’re currently
sitting on top of tarmac makes things a lot hotter.
This
chart was designed for pet owners, but you get the idea. By the time 5 o’clock rolls around, it’s close to 90 degrees on board
and we’re melting from the heat (it hit 95 on Sunday).
Then
there’s the refrigerator, a keel-cooled system (the water temperature cools the
compressor). Normally, we turn the fridge off when we’re on the hard to save
the strain on the compressor, but this was an unplanned haul-out so it’s full
of food and our portable freezer is in storage. With this heat, it looked like
we were going to have to shut the system down until David came up with this
clever idea (the bucket is full of water):
Logistics
Our
water-worries don’t end there. Unlike RVs, most boats don’t have a grey water
tank (for sinks and shower drains): We dump straight into the sea. So any time
we turn on a tap while on the hard, the water lands in a puddle on the ground.
That means doing the simplest of tasks (like brushing your teeth, washing
dishes, or taking a shower) are off the table. We have to do these chores on
land . . . and getting to land requires climbing up and down a ladder.
We
do, however, have a black water tank (a.k.a. the holding tank), so we can use
the head when we’re on the hard. It’s plumbed with salt water, which means we
need to use fresh water from the sink to flush the toilet. No big deal there.
But we don’t want to end up with a full tank before we can get ourselves to the
nearest pump-out station, so we only use it when we have to. The rest of the time,
it’s up and down the ladder to use the bathroom in the boatyard (which is
pretty grungy).
Ladders
When
your on the hard, the boat is propped several feet in the air. It no longer
moves. It no longer heads up wind. It’s static. The lack of motion feels completely
wrong; and if the yard staff doesn’t set the boat level, it’s even worse. But
more importantly, it means you have to climb up and down a ladder several times
a day to get on and off the boat. It also means that if you fall, it’s going to
hurt – a lot!
Dust and
Dirt
There’s
no escaping the reality that boatyards are dirty places. And in this heat, all
of the hatches have to be open. That means there’s a nice coating of black dust
everywhere we look – on the cabinetry, the floor, the decks, and us. We do what
we can to minimize the effect (like taking our shoes off before stepping onto
the decks), but after four weeks, it’s pretty much a lost cause.
Noise
Swantown
is operating from 8 am to 5 pm during the week, but the gates are opened at 6 in
the morning. So, from about 7 am on, it’s power washers, power tools, hammering, and banging – the
noise is deafening. I finally got smart and started spending my days in the
library where it was nice and quiet . . . and there was air conditioning (after
all the work was done, of course).
And that’s our list of things that make life so “hard”
while living on the hard.
Do you stay aboard when your boat’s on the hard? What are
some of the things that make you sing the boatyard blues?
