December 10, 2011

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Today we woke up to a bright sunny warm morning.  A great morning to take a shower on the boat.  Never doing this before (I usually took a sponge bath or went to the Marina showers) I decided to try my luck on the boat.  I particularly wanted clean hair.  The wind had managed to tangle it so that it felt like it picked up everything airborne and imbedded in into my new hairdo.  I knew water was a premium on a boat, one of the first things I learned but really never practiced it much at the marina because we were hooked up to a hose much like an umbilical cord connection, a lifeline of sorts.  I realize now, I never thought much about how much water we wasted on land.  On a boat it is completely different.  Water all around us and I feel guilt even rinsing out the sponge.  But, hey...it’s Saturday and time to try my speed and efficiency out with a hand held shower hose.  “How do I do this Fred?” I asked.  He gave me a few simple instructions about the shower curtain the hose and something about sitting on the toilet while taking a shower.  I felt like I was in a tube and could barely move but the rewards were great...I exited a clean woman, ready for the day.  Fred already had the dinghy unhooked and into the water.  Grabbing my purse and a few bags of garbage, we headed off to shore, through a narrow canal, under some really low bridges which were actually the civilized road and ours...the boaters road.  Quite a difference but it was then that I realized we were living a different life from the norm.  You traveled in a dinghy or walked.  Fred knew of a place we could lock the dinghy to near Publix grocery store and we headed straight to the dumpster to get rid of the trash.  He told me a story about depositing his trash there once and out popped a head, someone must have slept in there one night and they scared each other equally.  This morning Fred yelled into the dumpster…”Good Morning...anybody there?”  I laughed...he keeps me laughing most of the time.  By the time we got back to the dinghy, both of us had our arms full so decided to go back to the boat and drop off our groceries and later head back out to Ace Hardware for the belt replacement among other things on our list.  Unloading the dinghy, was comical.  There is always a list, keeps us organized because we have discovered we can’t really depend on each other to remember much.  The problem with the list is, we seem to misplace it often.  Doesn’t seem possible on a boat but trust me, it is.  Trying to hand the bags up to me on the boat, Fred lost his balance and tumbled over the boat cooler in the dinghy, feet in the air and the cooler upside down as the dinghy started to slip away from Casa Mare’.  I ran for the hook but before I got back with it, he was too far, still struggling to get in an upright position.  I laughed, hard, silently, trying to be concerned but it was funny.  I wished then I had my camera instead of the hook.  It was a Kodak moment.  Fred decided we needed rope lights for the Cockpit and Ace had them.  I was still searching for a fishing planer and Fred his spare belt which we never found.  You would think one would be board on a boat but not on Casa Mare’.  I got to string the lights and we have yet to find the extension cord to turn them on.  Fred worked on our computers for awhile and I decided to use one of our buckets as a sanitizer and threw some bleach in some water and in went 3 sponges and two cloths.  Something about not being to rinse sponges out all the time bothers me so I came up with a solution...I think.  Another thing...garbage.  By the time we unpacked groceries, we had another bag of packaging for the trash which we returned to shore in the dumpster...again.  After the Ace trip we have yet another bag of trash.  I also realized today that we waste a lot on packaging and as of today, I think we should unpackaged everything before we return to the boat.  What a waste.  Funny how I took things like that for granted as no big deal.  Now it is to me...water...packaging...cars...and I am sure other things will come up.  I am not sure what God has on store for me on this trip but I do know I am learning about how to get by with the bare essentials and even then...think back to the cave man days.  When we get out to cleaner water, I am thinking about bailing water from the sea to do dishes in.  We do have hot water on the boat...if the engine is running...to get it hot so I feel like I want to get creative with that also.  Tonight I taught Fred how to play Backgammon.  Stasia has discovered there is a dinghy alongside the boat and guards it closely.  Not sure if she things it is an intruder or if she is trying to figure out a way to jump on it.  She slept the entire time we used it today and didn’t see us on it.  She is one happy cat.  We all are happy and still having fun!