Monday, January 10, 2011

Life on the Hard...not so Hard!


As many of you know, we are living on our boat which is currently out of the water and on jack stands.  This is referred to as being "on the hard".  This is nothing new for us or our boat, it's just that last summer when we were "on the hard", we had an apartment to clean up in and escape from the boat to.  Why would we want to escape from the boat you ask?  Because when in "work mode" any boat is a total disaster area, that's why.  We, quite literally, do not have room to swing a cat in here and maneuvering around the boat requires tip-toeing over this, grabbing a railing and swooping over that - arching *just so* to get around this, crawling on all fours over that...you get the picture.  We would make Cirque du Soleil proud.  What is amazing is that I have not had a single freak out yet.  You see, I am what some might call a "neat freak".  I like my living spaces to be tidy, clean, and welcoming.  I won't follow you around with Lysol or anything, but everything has a place, and everything should be in it.  If you have ever seen our boat or previous apartments, you know what I am talking about (my desk at work - now that was another thing...).

And yet at this moment our boat is in total disarray (it's like we barfed bins, lines, buckets, tools and spares)....and I am somehow okay with this.  I am not entirely sure how or why - but perhaps it's the fact that I know deep down I simply cannot beat this mess?  Perhaps I have just resigned to accept it as what life has to be at the moment?  Perhaps I am learning that life isn't always meant to be clean and tidy?  Deep, I know.

What is 'hard' about this life (besides the mess) is the fact that we are living without plumbing.  Because we are out of the water, our toilet won't work properly (rendering it useless) and our sinks just drain onto the blue tarp below us.  This is a real shame for a girl who drinks a LOT of water and has to get up to go to the bathroom at least twice a night (TMI?).  Every night between midnight and 4am I have to get up, crawl down a 12 foot ladder, walk all sleepy and zombie like 75 yards to the bathroom and back again.  Twice.  In the middle of the night.  I have had more than one stand-off with the boat yard raccoons.

As for the dishes, I do not miss doing them (although with our new sink it should be much easier!).  I do, however, wish the dirty dishes that have been sitting below us in a bucket full of soapy water would wash themselves.

Tonight - Thai take-out!

Love,
Brittany & Scott

4 comments:

Alex Rooker said...

You might try as Lynn Pardey would probably do- us a bucket during the night, lower it via rope in the morning, and pour in the basin on your first trip to the toilet. Well, maybe let Scott do the rope and pour aspect.

Anonymous said...

In the boat yard we always switched to paper and plastic (that we would usually never use). You have enough to do without washing dishes. For such a short time period it just makes more sense. Also in the boat yard we were in (not Ft LD) we had a bit of a problem with snakes at night. Just a FYI. My wife quickly decided a bucket was the way to go. Ken

Laura and Hans said...

Our boat is on the hard too, but unfortunately we had to have it winterized. I say unfortunately because when we move back on board late Thursday night, we will be without water. I plan on having a bucket of water that we can use to flush the head during the night (we're lucky that this will work for us). We hope we only have to do this for one night and that our girl can be launched the next day. What I'm really worried about is how we're going to get our 50 pound pit bull to climb the ladder. I have a feeling our main halyard is going to be put to use for that fun task.

Pampered Pirate said...

I was going to recommend a bucket, but Alex beat me to it! As a girl, I'd have no problem using a bucket to avoid crawling down a ladder in the middle of the night. Good idea about using paper products as well. Enjoying your blog!

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