Boat Chores...on and on and on

 

I don't really like doing boat chores. I doubt anyone does. They're usually tedious, repetitive and dirty, but a necessity if you're living on a boat (or in a house, or a cave or whatever). For sure, David does the bulk of the maintenance and repairs and for that I'm thankful. I do, however, from time to time, take on some chores of my own and though I complain all the while I'm doing them, I get them done and take a certain amount of satisfaction in completing them.

What usually happens is David has a long, long, long list (I cannot emphasize the “long” part enough) and as we sit sipping morning coffee/tea, he assigns time commitments to each task. When the time commitment stretches beyond a month or two, I know it's time for me to pitch in a bit. General cleaning, provisioning, laundry, cooking, bill paying, excursion planning, blogs/websites are my usual contribution, but when pressed I varnish, clean/polish stainless, clean bilges, sew/repair covers, sails, UV, and whatever else is necessary to get us out of the marina and on to our next destination. I admit, I am not as fastidious as David about any of these chores, but I'm adequate and sometimes adequate is just what it takes to shorten up the timeline.

My current list includes a ditch bag inspection, a safety gear check (more on that in a later post) and cleaning/polishing the stainless (my absolute favorite task, next to sanding and varnishing). Since we've been away for a year, cleaning below decks has taken on new meaning. Though David did a great job completing the reefer/galley project, he didn't have time for any other cleaning and it really shows. Lockers are crammed full of stuff that doesn't necessarily belong there. I have no idea what we have aboard for stores and that will require a major inventory to sort out what we have and what we'll need in the months ahead.

Every place we turn, there seems to be another something to be done. With every chore we complete, we find two more that need to be done and we add them to the ever-growing list. While cleaning stainless, I noted a screw missing from one of the forward stanchions. That means I should be checking and tightening all the screws on all the stanchions. When polishing the dorades, I noted that the insides need sanding and painting again. And there's a big worn spot on the sail cover that needs patching, and …

So we'll take it one day at a time; one chore at a time. The list will be managed and we'll fit in some Adelaide sight-seeing as well. Mid-February is our intended departure time. We'll see how it goes.