We take so many conveniences available at home for granted, for example, our home washers and dryers. Today, I gathered our laundry together and packed it into my bicycle basket with the Tide for the 1 mile ride to the washer and then returned with the wet clothes to hang them on our lifelines on the boat. Sometimes, we do a wash aboard while underway—this means trying to conserve water, washing and rinsing all our salt saturated clothes in a 1 foot by 1 foot galley sink while A Bientot scoots along to our next destination. We treasure our clothes pins (Patty’s sister Vada brought us cherished replacements since so many have gone overboard, sometimes with clothes or towels.) Sometimes, we are in marinas that charge $10 a load which seems somewhat unreasonable, except that water is so precious here. Our favorite marina offers free laundry—and so upon arrival, we take every scrap of bedding, clothing, towels etc and head up the dock , vying with all the other boaters for the opportunity to wash and dry mounds of laundry. When we return, I will clearly think about doing laundry and other seemingly simple chores quite differently.

Another photo of Cat Island--not laundry! Who would want to see that!