Milestones and Things That Work

May 31, 2011
This is the first day or hurricane season. If only the old computer could predict where we need not be on certain days we could sail with a greater degree of independence. Always this time of the year, we start to devise some sort of scenario whereby we keep Why Knot from being in the crosshairs of some gruesome boat eating storm. The idea of sailing north, way north might be our best one yet. Then again, given the weather patterns of late, that might just be a fantasy.
We reached a milestone in the past few days. When we left Port A some 16 months ago, we provisioned in a way we have since learned was incorrect, not that there is a corrects way to do it. This week, we have officially depleted the last of the wine stores we “laid in”. Imagine that. Now we have yet to use all the canned tuna fish and tomato sauce. We still have other original canned foods aboard which, by now might just be reaching the “best consumed by” date. We are no different than some other cruise boats we have met. One such boat claims to have food stuffs that have been aboard over two years now. I am keeping an eye on that can of anchovies purchased a few weeks back. They seem to have a short hang time.
Besides the Ding-Ez bar we added to the dinghy, there are two other items that have drastically improved life aboard Why Knot. A disclaimer: before ye judge the worthiness of the next two items, just try cut some slack to the elderly crew. The first thing was the addition of a mattress topper. It is a three inch layer of that heavy space foam made for the purpose. The mattresses aboard are merely cushion material and while they have held up well, the foam made the set in our cabin way more comfortable. We recommend that before springing for a custom mattress. The next addition will get me in trouble with the purists. I said originally that I would forego ice and let Bear have all the ice we could make with our three ice trays in the old Adler Barbour. Now that it is getting hot, we decided to rejoin the 21st Century and add a small ice machine. It is the type that works on 12volt or 110 volt and you pour water in rather than plumb it to system. That thing makes 18 pounds a day if you keep watering it. Can you say snack ice and ice tea?
Finally, we can declare cessation of hostilities against the freezer stink. While there is still a hint from time to time, we can live with it as it is diminishing. The battle took chlorine, some special industrial stuff, all the soap concoctions we could devise, time and lots of scrubbing. The final attack included a hangy downer auto air freshener. You know the type with the card sized sponge with a string to hang is from the rear view mirror? Yup, in that small space there is nothing like a rap band paper thingy that is really strong just dangling inside the lid. That is the only connection to that music that I would ever acknowledge.
We have a short sail today to Jekyll Island, Georgia. We will stay in the AICW today since the last time we passed this way, Bear was not enjoying the scenery.