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16 January 2017

Life Lately At Indiantown Marina

It's been ages since I've done a >>Life Lately<< post. Over the past three weeks our life lately has been consumed with boat projects.

We're trying to plow through our very long list of projects that we need to do before we head to the Bahamas for the season. But for every one item we cross off the list, two or three more seem to take its place. Things haven't been helped by the fact that we had some serious engine issues, which derailed us for a while.

I'll update you on the engine later this week, but in the meantime, here's some of the other things we've been up to lately.


The Sponge Wars



Even after 25 years of marriage, there are things Scott and I still don't agree on. Like sponges. I think they're stinky, vile little creatures. Scott is under some delusion that they're man's best friend.

Let's face it. Sponges smell bad after just a few uses. Especially when you live in a hot climate. While Scott was away, I switched from sponges to these awesome Lunatec scrubbers. They don't smell, food doesn't cling to them and they're safe to use on non-stick pans. When I need to mop up spills, I use a microfiber cloth. Carolyn from the Boat Galley recommended them, so you know they have to be good. Kelley from Sailing Chance agrees and mentions them in her post on must have galley products.

For some reason, Scott hasn't seen the light and insists on using sponges. I hide them from him, but somehow he finds them and puts them back by the sink. {Sigh}


Hello Neighbors, Goodbye Leaks




That's the view of our neighbor's boat from one of the portlights in our aft cabin. There's not a huge amount of privacy when you live in a marina. Fortunately, most cruisers are exceptionally nice and fun people and our boat neighbors are no exception.

One of the things on our project list is stopping our portlights from leaking. That's a new seal you're looking at around the window frame. It took us two hours to take the old one out, remove the old sealant and install the new one.

Two hours is crazy. You can bake multiple batches of chocolate chip cookies in that amount of time. Considering the fact that we have five more portlights, let's hope we get more efficient at this process.


Five A Day



Sometimes you have to take a break from more serious boat projects and do something simple, like hanging up a hammock for fruit. We have very limited space on our boat so this is a great solution to free up storage for other important things, like beer. I figure it's a great reminder to eat our five a day, especially as I have to duck under the hammock whenever I sit down.


Feeling Foolish

This is our propane cooker. For some reason we thought it was a Force 10 model.



It's original to the boat, which makes it 30 years old. While 30 years is young in human terms, it's pretty old for a cooker. We knew we needed to refurbish it, so I sent off emails to various marine suppliers inquiring about what burner replacements were available. As you can see, we really need to replace our burners. One of them has completely rusted out.



I got back a very politely worded email letting me know that it's not a Force 10, but rather a Plastimo Atlantic. How embarrassing. But at least now I know what model of cooker we have, which narrowed down the search for replacement parts. Unfortunately, it looks like you can't get replacement parts anymore which means we may need to buy a new cooker.

Those of you who have boats know what that means - saying goodbye to a big chunk of change. Or maybe we could just embrace some sort of raw diet and stop cooking our food.

 
What's been happening in your life lately?

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36 comments:

  1. OK, Scott needs help. Sponges are nasty! The portlight looks awesome!! Sorry about the stove - it's always something with these boats! Maybe you should just eat raw apples....or travel to a beach every night and cook over a fire.

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    1. He does need help. Some sort of support group to help him break his unhealthy attachment to sponges.

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  2. In terms of that cooker, replacing with an expensive model depends on how much you cook. I'm not sure how you would bake cookies without an oven, but those little butane stovetops are very nice and very inexpensive. Also, we used a nice little camping oven/stove top from Costco for years on Moonrise. I even made cookies in it. Not pretending it's the same as a big stove/oven combo, but it's WAY cheaper if you are on a budget and have to do things like repower. Gulp.

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    1. Fortunately, we got one burner to work. I think we'll live with that for the season and then look at replacing it when we come back from the Bahamas.

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  3. You don't want fruit sucking up all the beer space, right?
    That's old for any stove. Bummer you might need a new one.
    And remember what happens anytime you bake cookies...

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    1. Maybe it would be for the best if I couldn't bake cookies :-)

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  4. I hand wash dishes and I do hate sponges. They get gross quickly.

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    1. If only someone could invent an odor free sponge :-)

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  5. Love the fruit hammock! Not so much the sponge wars.....

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  6. We have a sponge issue aboard as well. I throw them away when they start to get grungy and, before I know it, David has found them and put them back -- drives me nuts! I tried to find a good compromise and bought a bunch of washable sponges that I love, but he still has to have his nasty regular old sponges. Yuck!

    Stephanie @ SV CAMBRIA

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    1. How is it that they can find the stuff you throw away or hide?

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  7. I buy cheap, throwaway sponges and go through loads. Us men are stuck in our ways! I've got lots of house jobs to do - not sure I'd be up to looking after a boat.

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    1. Having been a homeowner and a boat owner, I'm not quite sure what's worse when it comes to projects.

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  8. Sponges are ucky. I love my Lunatec scrubbers, I have lots. I cut the sponges we do have, into thirds, or fourths, that way I can throw them away more often, and not feel bad about it. I would love a new stove too, (and fridge), but we have to pull the mast to get old ones out, new ones in, and that's NOT happening. I love your fruit hammock, makes eating them more convenient.

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    Replies
    1. That's a great idea about cutting up sponges. I think we'll have to start doing that.

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  9. You can put wet (not sopping wet) sponges in the microwave for 60 seconds and they won't smell one bit. Kills all the nasty.

    We can't even go to our boat right now. Well we could if we didn't mind not having electricity in the cold. Flooding and more flooding and very high tides. The power has been out for at least 12 hours everyday during high tide. We can't use the restrooms or the showers. So, we'll waiting for the the water to recede. At least Northern California is not long in a drought.

    Have a fabulous day. ☺

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    1. Oh no - sorry to hear about the flooding :-( Someone else was mentioning microwaving sponges. I'll have to look into that. It will work while we're connected to shore power, but not once we're out cruising.

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  10. I hope you don't need to buy a whole new stove... Maybe there will be a free one at the exchange in the marina. :-) Two hours to remove and replace a seal for a hatch is actually not that bad. We spent many, many, many hours in the tropical sun dealing with hatch related leaks and seals. Yikes! I love your new fruit hammock! I prefer sponges as well, I have to admit. I just put loads of dish soap on it to keep it from smelling... Our week has been a bit hectic moving house and pets. :-)

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    1. We're going to hold off on buying a new stove just now. The problem with our boat is that we have a really small cut-out for it and there are very few models that will fit.

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  11. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning/a18731/how-to-clean-a-sponge/

    Just thought you might find this interesting as it looks like you have a microwave. :)

    - Lisa

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  12. Sorry I'm from a pro-sponge house. All the best.

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    1. Scott was delighted to see your comment and someone else who is pro-sponge :-)

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  13. Your life is SO cool, Ellen! I love the glimpse of palm trees in that "Here's my lack of privacy" shot. Sigh.

    As for sponges, I'm on your side. Ick. Germ-breeding stink miesters.

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    1. Well, I don't know how cool it is, especially given the state of our boat lately with all of our projects going on :-)

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  14. If you'll switch from using Dawn to the cheaper Pubkix liquid soap you'll get rid of that nasty smell. Dawn is great for cleaning oil and diesel but horrible on the sponge! I switched and now my sponges never smell bad.

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  15. I love hearing about the real side of boat life! Thanks for sharing your journey. I get your view on sponges, but we do have these particular sponge-like scrubbers that my husband likes - I don't live on a boat so I can throw them in the dishwasher with the dishes now and then. I'm more of a fan of those kinds of cloths you mentioned, paper towels in a pinch, and a good scrubber (that can be cleaned out or washed easily).

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    1. Thanks Tyrean - glad you're enjoying the glimpses into the not so glamorous part of boating :-)

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  16. BTW - although I've never lived aboard, I used to work at marina during the summers scrubbing boats off for a yacht sales company.

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    1. Oh wow - that's really cool! You'll have seen all sorts of boats.

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  17. We have a mixture of cloths and sponges in this house - I get through a lot of bleach! At least you and Scott seem pretty adept at DIY, my hubby wouldn't attempt half (or probably 99%)of the jobs you talk about. Ok to be fair he might have managed the hooks to hold up the hammock! Shame about the cooker. Hope they still make them to fit the gap. When we got our new cooker they practically had to shoehorn it into the space - cookers seem to get bigger all the time lol

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    1. Finding a cooker that will fit is a real problem. There are some relatively affordable European models that would work well, but then there's shipping over to the States. There's a super expensive one we can buy here, but it's well, super expensive :-(

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  18. We need to get lots of hammocks for storage on our 30 footer! We have an alcohol stove that us original. We need to mess with it & figure it out. I'm not sure if I like the idea of an alcohol stove or not. I definitely don't like sponges, but my husband does .. must be a guy thing!

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    1. I know people use alcohol stoves, but I don't know much about them. I'm sure you'll figure it out and make it work for you guys.

      Delete

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