Probably the #1 lifesyle question we’re asked is don’t you get bored sitting around the boat all day with nothing to do?
Seriously, like everything else in life, cruising aboard a sailboat consists of tradeoffs… positives & negatives. Laundry is a good example of a simple task that takes on a totaly new meaning when living aboard a sailboat!
Our typical process for doing the laundry consists of the following steps:
- First, we check both the local and marine weather forcasts – not only do we not want to get caught in the rain, we sure as heck don’t want to try getting back to Rocinante in a storm!
- Next we make sure the anchor is securely set – we’ll be gone for several hours and it would be nice if Rocinante is still here when we get back!
- Maria packs the laundry and laundry supplies into backpacks.
- In the meantime, I get the dinghy/tender (our small boat with an outboard) ready to go;
- tie it up alongside Rocinante
- lower and secure the outboard engine onto the transom
- take down the fuel tank and hook it up to the outboard
- prime it, adjust the choke and start yanking on the pull cord to hopefully get it started!
- Maria then passes the backpacks down to me and climbs down into the dinghy
- We cover everything with waterproff canvas to protect it from the spray and cast of from Rocinante
- We head to the dinghy dock, tie off and unload.
- We done our backpcks full of dirty clothes and start walking to the laundromat – on average about a mile or so away and usually uphill 😜
- We do our laundry and repeat the process in reverse!
So, no, we don’t get bored!
Yes, we do enjoy a lot of leisure time, but probably no more than the average person… our boat is our home and as such, we go through the same basic maintenance chores as you do, plus a few others! I’ll be writting a few more posts covering life aboard a sailboat, so check back often!