The Skinny

By the not so Skinny

Well we have all lost a little weight because of the amount of exercise we are getting and the fact that eating anything edible these days takes planning and effort as there is only dried and canned food left. During food prep one cannot leave anything as it's likely to tip over (except if it's on the stove that has a gimbol). This is how our last dozen eggs fell into the top of the fridge (top loaded). I don't need to describe the mess! Happy Easter came early. To prep anything it takes more than one person to fetch, coordinate and hold... and cook. We were on cereal and one meal a day... now two as we have increased our physical activity by 8 hours of steering each and getting more hungry. We will all have buff left arms from steering and right legs from bracing ourselves as the boat moves along twisting and turning as it surfs along downwind.

Hand steering is going fine. In fact, it is now the preferred activity as you get to sit (or stand) and daydream or listen to book tapes or music. Otherwise you need to be doing something that really counts to you (we are all trying to do strengthening exercises and French lessons are now of lower priority) as there are so many daily boat chores that have to be done also - endless dishes, cloroxing down galley benches and bathroom, hanging towels and mats out to dry and be sterilized by the sun, checking the boat systems that Rog has referred to... and laundry. Dirty clothes can't be left around waiting to be washed for long because they are sweaty and will just get smelly and mouldy if not washed. Just as well there aren't too many clothing requirements around here. All the old T shirts we are wearing on the passage have bright adobe colored rings around the collar because the third world glycerine soap I bought in Ecuador to do laundry with reacts with the fancy sunscreen our dermatologist recommended we use (Ombrelle by L'Oreal) Where is Oxy (US) or Nappy San (NZ) when you need it? Actually I do have it, but saving it for soaking stained good 'shore' attire, the cruising equivalent of Sunday best clothes. Useful items like Oxy have a whole new value because of scarcity.

Given what I've now read about French Polynesia (many isolated islands with small populations) I should have made a more determined effort to stuff more of the important utilitarian items in this boat before we left... Take ziplocks - we have hundreds in use on board to repackage all dry food (to save space and get rid of cardboard), keep like things together and contained; and many items like batteries dry. We seem to be going through them at a fair clip using them to bag fish in the refrigerator. Nice problem to have.

And plastic... what to do with all the plastic trash? Cruisers have lots more of it than anything else as they try to avoid storing stuff in glass (breakage in storms) and cardboard because of bug eggs. There are national laws about no trash within X miles of coastlines and international laws about the dumping of no plastic overboard whatsoever because of damage to marine life etc... So we clean and cut up the plastic to make it as compact and non offensive as possible and store it on deck. Learned some of our trash processing skills from the friends we went on a 30 day rafting trip down Grand Canyon with a couple of years ago.

Apart from food trash our other negative environmental impact is running the engine for a couple of hours a day to 'power up'. We have to do this to keep all the watermaker, fridge, and navigation, lights, and other systems powered up. Our solar panel and wind generator would have been enough to keep the water maker going if R & T had not been able to fix the leak in the motor last week. That was not a good scene. That's the only time on this cruise when I've thought "God I NEED a drink!! As Tane says i shouldn't be such a drama queen because some boats, one famous cruising couple in particular, have cruised for years without an engine. My response is that that is not the tour I signed up for however!