You Know You're Back Aboard Your Boat When...

 

• You've stubbed your toe at least twice in two days.

• You are wearing one or more bandaids because you managed to cut yourself, at least once, on something and get blood all over, but you're not quite sure what it was.

•  In addition to the cuts above, you can compare black and blue marks with your fellow crew mates while drinking sundowners.

•  You've lost at least one thing overboard and used the f-bomb to commemorate the moment.

•  You've forgotten your towel and/or your comb when going to the marina shower.

•  Something has toppled over and crashed onto the floor because you forgot that boats, unlike houses, tend to rock.

•  Your fingernails are filthy with diesel oil, marine adhesive, marine caulk … and dirt. And after you clean them, they'll be the same way tomorrow.

•  All flat surfaces are covered with boat parts and tools.

•  You can't find the flush lever for the toilet and then remember you have to pump manually.

•  You get seasick when the wind comes up or a big trawler goes by and the boat starts rocking.

•  Varnish and epoxy smell really good.

•  Bilge smells do not smell good, but after a day you can't smell them any more.

•  You have to refill the water tanks every third day because you forget to shut off the water when you're brushing your teeth.

Got any good ones to add?

90 Day Rule Kicks In

 

Remember when I talked about our 90-Day Rule? Something unexpectedly wonderful happens to us about every 90 days when we're aboard Nine of Cups. Consider this, if you will. In July 2011, when we were visiting Fiji, we sailed to Palmlea Eco-Farms and Resort to visit with SSCA friends who own it. By chance, while there, we met Pauline and Denys, an Aussie couple who were visiting with their son and his family and enjoying time at the Palmlea Resort. We chatted, became friendly and exchanged contact information.

Fast forward to austral Spring 2012 when Nine of Cups and crew were in Kettering, Tasmania. We received an e-mail from Pauline and Denys. They were visiting another son and his family in Tasmania and happened to be only one town away. We had a great lunch together on Nine of Cups and caught up on each others' lives. They're a busy couple with extensive travel, family visits and major house renovations, as well as biking and competitive swimming, on their usual agenda.

Fast forward once again to Port Adelaide, South Australia … here and NOW. Pauline and Denys, we found out, don't live far away and they've been keeping track of us on our blog. Pauline called and offered use of her washer, a beach with no jellyfish, a local vineyard visit, a ride around the area and dinner at their home. How could we resist? Talk about fortuitous … and me just complaining about the laundry situation and jellyfish. Somebody reads … somebody listens! Wow!

We met at Saily's Pub at 0930 (no drinks, just a meeting place) and headed off for parts unknown to us with Pauline and Denys as our local guides. There's nothing like touring an area with folks who were born and bred here. They know all sorts of things you can't find in a guide book. We headed down along the coast through quaint beachside towns like Semaphore and Glenelg. It's still summer holiday for the kids here and lots of families are on vacation. At Glenelg North, we took a circuitous detour up sidestreets to visit the Old Gum Tree, the site at which South Australia was officially proclaimed a colony in 1836. It's a red gum tree that probably had large spreading limbs at one time, but now it's more of a memorial arch. The tree, long since decayed and dead., has been been encased in concrete.

We continued south along the coast, then turned inland to wine country. South Australia is noted for its wines and the McLaren Vale area has dozens of wineries with Cellar Doors (tasting rooms). We chose Haselgrove Vineyards for no particular reason other than it tickled our fancy. It turned out to be a fortuitous stop. The temperature outside hovered around 105F/40C and it hit us like a hot brick as we left the air-conditioned car. We were met by a gracious and knowledgeable host, Ryan. He offered a tour and, despite the heat as we traipsed up and down steel ladder-ways through a field of stainless steel vats, we learned more about wine-making in our 30 minutes with Ryan than we ever had before.

The barrel room was deliciously cool after the heat of the outside. Returning to the tasting room, we sampled a Pink Lady cider, then whites and reds and finally a lovely port decanted directly from the tasting room cask. We bought wine for dinner (and then some) and headed, on Ryan's suggestion, to a light lunch at Blessed Cheese in the town of McLaren Vale.

Rejuvenated and rehydrated, we headed down the Fleurieu Peninsula in hopes of finding cooler temps. The temperatures weren't much better, but the views were great.

We stopped at beautiful Horseshoe Bay, Port Elliot Beach and forced ourselves to have an ice cream cone at the Flying Fish Cafe in an effort to keep our bodies cool. We licked and lapped and marveled at the energy of young kids jumping off the pier … over and over again.

We drove to Land's End at the tip of the peninsula where the Port Jervis Lighthouse stands sentry. We watched the SeaLink Ferry depart to Kangaroo Island, but the island, usually quite clear, could only be seen faintly in the distance. We attributed the haziness to the heat and the residual smoke from recent bush fires.

On the way home, we had our first view of kangaroos grazing in a field. What better way to say welcome back to Australia?

Back in Adelaide at our hosts' home, I did a load of laundry and hung it out on the line while Pauline prepared dinner, Denys barbecued and David supervised. All in all, an outstanding 90 Day Rule kind of day.

Overcoming the Laundry Challenge

 

There are definitely some things I miss about living on land. Being able to do a quick load of laundry any time you feel like it, using both a washing machine and a dryer, is one of them. Some boats do have a washer/dryer aboard, but Nine of Cups is not one of them.

Usually doing laundry is a chore, but not all that difficult. Carting laundry to the laundromat in a marina isn't all that bad. Waiting for the clothes to cycle through wash and dry can be boring, but in the end, you have clean, dry clothes and minimal inconvenience. No worries. Even lugging laundry a couple of blocks down the road to a nearby laundromat isn't so bad. Otherwise, I can certainly wash most everything by hand which I've done in the past rather frequently. There are no laundry facilities at Crown Marina, however. In fact, there are no laundromats even remotely close which means we have to tote our big, heavy duffels full of dirty, smelly laundry on the train or the bus and then walk several blocks to get to the nearest one. This is not a pleasant alternative.

Doing laundry by hand would be fine except the marina has strict rules about hanging laundry out on clotheslines strung on your boat. It doesn't look nice, especially from the windows of prestigious condos that want a million dollar view. Seeing our bloomers blowing and drying in the breeze, for some reason, causes consternation.

We've become devious. We wash our daily t-shirts and underwear when we go to the shower and hang them on the lifelines facing away from land each evening. It's so warm, windy and dry here, they're good to go by morning. This alleviates the need for finding and lugging laundry to a laundromat frequently. Sheets, towels and jeans are an issue, but the dirty pile accumulates much more slowly when our daily wear isn't part of the mix. As long as we keep up with it, it's not really a major chore. At some point, we'll probably hire a car for a day or two or bum a ride from another cruiser heading to the laundromat for the big stuff. In the meantime, being devious is working out just fine and we've got plenty of clean underwear.