VOYAGES OF THE DAWN TREADER

THE CHORES OF BOATING
BY CAVAN

Nobody likes chores. On a boat you are constantly doing chores. Chores range from scrubbing decks to walking two miles to the grocery store. Boat chores can be extremely boring.

Mopping the floors is not fun. Mopping the floors in the hot sun with only one bucket of water for five people spread out across the boat while seagulls fly overhead threatening to unleash their little bombs is worse. I quote Dad: “Chores of boating! I'll give you chores of boating!” And thats only one of them.

To go to the store all YOU have to do is drive there. We have to walk a mile there and a mile back. On the way back, we have to walk a mile with 20 pounds of groceries on our backs. Not to mention that sidewalks in Mexico are bumpy and have lots of cracks and are a different style in front of each house or business so you can't get used to them and are constantly trying not to trip. A shopping trip on a school day doesn't equal very much fun.

Going to and from the boat is not really a chore, but when you are getting wet it sucks. We have to go to and from the boat in the dinghy because we are anchored out in the bay. When it's windy it's probably cold and there are probably lots of waves. When you're cold and you get hit in the face with a wave you get colder. That kind of sucks.

Obviously boat chores are worse than whatever chores you have. Be thankful for that. So if you are having a rough day, just be glad your not cleaning seagull poop in the hot sun and you'll feel a lot better!

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Vessel Name:	Dawn Treader
Vessel Make/Model:	Islander Mayflower 40
Hailing Port:	Semiahmoo, WA
Crew:	Casey, Carla, Cavan, Tommy, and Sophia
About:	Carla and Casey sailed 3/4's of the way around the world between 1994-1997 on their first boat Briar Rose, a Cascade 29. They came home to begin having children and finally found something they were good at. Cavan is 15 and his brother Tommy is now 13. Sophia is 10.
Extra:	After 8 or so years back on land, Carla began to petition Casey for another boat. For some reason it took a little work, but he came around in the end. They are now looking to set out to sea again with a crew of five. When we began cruising way back in 1994, we had no computer in the beginning, [...] and wrote our logs, journals, and letters by hand. We would photocopy when we could, and then mail the pages back to America. From there it became a kind of samizdat operation where people would make copies of copies and pass them around to all the various people following our journey, a great many of whom, we had never met. Now with blogging sites and technology, people can download videos in mid passage. I'm not sure I want to be that much in touch, but getting the basics of a site for friends and family to be able to follow along at home sorted out now, will be one less thing to do in Turtle Bay. More