I spend a lot of time looking at narrowboats for sale online. Too much time considering we have no idea when we’ll be ready to buy one ourselves. But I want to get a feel for what’s on the market and how that compares to what I’m looking for in our next boat. I’m sure David has ideas of his own, but he’s entirely too practical to be trusted with choosing our next home. Besides, I’m nosy and like looking around other people’s boats.
I don’t mind telling tales on myself, and the truth is I can be lazy. Very lazy. I always have been and probably always will be. It’s part of my DNA. I’m okay with that and so is David, but he might be losing patience with me thanks to my latest encounter with slothfulness and the ensuing pile of dirty clothes that’s taking over the v-berth (the cabin at the front of a sailboat).
The thing is, I hate doing laundry*. I’m not exactly sure why. It’s not difficult and I like wearing clean clothes, but I tend to put the job off whenever I can. I appreciate being able to do more than one load at the time, so it’s not going to a Laundromat that I find so offensive. I think it has more to do with sorting smelly clothes, packing them up, lugging them off the boat, dragging them into the dinghy, and shuttling them to shore only to wait around all day for the spin cycle to end that rubs me the wrong way me – even writing about it is exhausting.
My record for not doing laundry is eight weeks, something I’m pretty proud of. We were transitioning from summer to winter at the time and I have four sets of sheets, three duvet covers, countless undergarments, piles of towels, and heaps of socks stored all over the place so it wasn’t difficult. But I took a lot of our personal items off the boat over the winter, including a significant portion of our clothes. And that’s turning out to be a problem.
We left Kingston with an empty hamper five weeks ago and things are starting to look grim. I only have one clean bra left and two pairs of underpants. I’m completely out of socks and wearing my last pair of shorts. I have one pair of jeans hanging in my wardrobe, but I’ve worn them a couple of times over the last three weeks and they’re ready for the hamper as well (if only there was room!).
David’s situation is slightly better. He still has a healthy pile of socks and underwear to choose from, but he’s out of clean sweatpants and jeans. He has several pairs of shorts, but doesn’t like to wear them because he thinks his legs resemble a chicken’s (they don’t) and are ghostly white (they are). But, hey, at least his feet aren’t cold (like mine).
Despite my laziness, the problem usually boils down to logistics. We like to cruise in remote wilderness areas where it could be days before you see another person, let alone a Laundromat. I’ve tried the “chuck it in a bucket” method to keep on top of things but that doesn’t work very well in a temperate rainforest.
Which finally brings me to the point of this blog: Our next boat has to have a washer and dryer. They’re truly the only things I’ve missed in all of the years we’ve lived-aboard and cruised (that would be 16). And if the boat we ultimately choose doesn’t already have a unit, (at the very least) it has to have a place to put one (as challenging as that might be). Because, after 16 years, I’m finished with Laundromats . . . or I will be once the hamper is empty.
*Why not have David do the laundry? Good question. For the same reason I don’t change the engine oil and filters: I’m perfectly capable. I know how to do it. But I make one hell of a mess in the process and so does he (i.e. my shirts usually come back bleached).
If you were in the market for a new (to you) boat, what
are some of the things you wouldn’t want to live without?
