Can we talk? About some of the mundane...

[Don C L]

Ok, last trip out I was thinking that there must be folks who have figured out some really great ways, on a smaller sailboat, with lots of out-of-the-box thinking, to handle:
1. Garbage. I need a neat, small, manual compactor. I may have to invent one. Maybe just a big foot and a bucket. And on a smaller boat, there must be a good place to put the daily trash bag but I haven't found it yet. I remove all the extraneous wrapping and packaging before leaving but there is STILL an obscene amount of trash associated with very little food value by my calculations.
2. Laundry. What's your system? Especially when it comes to hanging up the laundry.. there must be a better set-up than the lifelines. I had one that was great in concept but way too flimsy in practice. All the flags flying on my boat are the kids' towels, t-shirts and underwear.
3. Dishwashing. I have gone through two or three or twelve permutations of buckets and plastic sinks, I think I MAY have it down now. And I know these things are not a huge deal but I am still curious what others have worked out and spectacular discoveries they have made.
So those folks with larger boats are probably saying "Huh?" right about now, I am thinking of those who are out on boats in the pocket cruiser to say low volume 32' range.. especially with kids along...who are getting dirty during the day hiking, and then snorkeling in the afternoon, and then they want to stay up to go fishing!
Man, I need a vacation from my vacation.

So what great tips ya got?

[grahamb]

Have mostly sailed on yachts with proper sinks etc....but for garbage reduction we remove all cardboard containers before departing.....and any plastic we cut into small enough pieces to fit down the neck of....say...a 2 litre fruit juice container.....jammed down with a broom handle......holds lots...and dispose of ashore....

[janice142]

For water conservation and laundry, I just wrote an article about that last month. Like you I must not waste water. Here's the piece: Washing Clothes Without a Machine (salt water vs. ammonia) article on janice142

Grahamb is correct a far as cramming stuff into a container. I use the plastic laundry detergent bottles. You will be surprised how much stuff you can get into one. Using the handle from my hammer is my method -- and takes less storage space.

IF you have power, we used to have eyebolts installed in the shower of our 40'er. With lines and clothes pins or hangers everything dried fairly quickly. This was with both an exhaust fan and a regular one bungee corded to the head.

I have a lot of eyebolts around -- basically where they won't take a chunk out of someone's head, and hang everything from them. For me, doing laundry daily means there is not a lot to dry at one time.

Options: I use hangers (prevents wrinkles)


A bar to drape clothes or towels over:


Anja, a Spray replica had an extendable bar with lots of lines in their head for drying clothes:


If you're interested, Spray is a rather fascinating boat. The folks aboard her are right nice too.
Article here: (Joshua Slocum's) Spray replica Anja article on janice142

Good luck, and have fun!

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Ok, last trip out I was thinking that there must be folks who have figured out some really great ways, on a smaller sailboat, with lots of out-of-the-box thinking, to handle:
1. Garbage. I need a neat, small, manual compactor. I may have to invent one. Maybe just a big foot and a bucket. And on a smaller boat, there must be a good place to put the daily trash bag but I haven't found it yet. I remove all the extraneous wrapping and packaging before leaving but there is STILL an obscene amount of trash associated with very little food value by my calculations.

Don, yours is not a giant boat, and there are 3 or 4 of you aboard. So, as to garbage. If you buy store bought milk, that container can do for most of your plastic trash. You have to cut it up, but you can use a wooden spoon handle to compact it, and it will be odor free, mostly, with the lid screwed on. Pickle jars work okay, too, smaller capacity.
2. Laundry. What's your system? Especially when it comes to hanging up the laundry.. there must be a better set-up than the lifelines. I had one that was great in concept but way too flimsy in practice. All the flags flying on my boat are the kids' towels, t-shirts and underwear.

We knew a singlehander who used his genoa halyard to fly the laundry. We use the spinnaker sheets, from port shroud to genoa furler to stbd shroud, and then back to the inner forestay, but you can elaborate. Getting it up high helps it dry faster.
3. Dishwashing. I have gone through two or three or twelve permutations of buckets and plastic sinks, I think I MAY have it down now. And I know these things are not a huge deal but I am still curious what others have worked out and spectacular discoveries they have made.

Salt water plus detergent rinse first! Some people wipe first with paper towels. That depends on how you feel about using them.
So those folks with larger boats are probably saying "Huh?" right about now, I am thinking of those who are out on boats in the pocket cruiser to say low volume 32' range.. especially with kids along...who are getting dirty during the day hiking, and then snorkeling in the afternoon, and then they want to stay up to go fishing!
Man, I need a vacation from my vacation.

So what great tips ya got?

If y'all are snorkeling every day, all you need is a toweling off at the end of the last snorkel, maybe washing hair every 3 days or so, beforehand. If you think about it, it is the purveyors of cleaning and hair care products that direct us to practices that remove our own natural hair oils..... and encourage so much washing that one might require emollients to replace lost moisturizers. Take the laundry home to wash it, and use towels as freely as needed.

Cheers, mate.

Ann

[hpeer]

Not big ideas.

We don’t buy milk. We found the powdered milk found in Hispanic markets is nearly as good as fresh. Nido by Nestle and some other brand as well.

For many things the packaging stays at the store. I walk outside, remove the packing, and stuff it in the stores garbage bin. I’m not always a popular guy. But I also think it sends a (meger) message to reduce packing.

Sometimes we transfer food items from bulky packaging into Snap-n-Loc containers or into heavy gallon zip lock bags, we may even double the bag so that the zips are on opposite ends. That way trash stays on the dock, empty zip lock bags can be reused and take up near zero space.

As to lots, pans, dishes... wash as you cook, wash immediately there after. Even our small boat has a decent deep small two basin sink. Now there are just the two of us so we wash in one and store common plates and bowls in the other as they drip dry. We never let dirty dishes accumulate.

We too have a rod in the head for drying

But we are an old married couple. With kids? Yikes! Perhaps you should just throw them overboard clothed more often, then let them run around naked on the boat? Surrender to overwhelming forces?

[Nicholson58]

Try one of these.
https://www.amazon.com/Household-Ess...51164012&psc=1

[GrowleyMonster]

I had a HYOOOOGE plastic problem once and I took my trusty bernz o matic propane torch to it. It sort of shrivels as it heats up and before it gets all melty and burney. Gets very compact and dense. Tried a piece of pipe lashed to the boom and an old fashioned galvanized steel shrimp basket (they have been plastic for the last 40 years or so) hanging from the end, for a burn basket. Only problem is other boats see you and think you are in distress. Food waste of course feeds the fishies. Far enough at sea, I don't feel bad about tossing paper or cardboard over. I draw the line at plastic, and steel cans too. Beer cans I have a technique for crushing them really compact. You can get a crusher, or do it my way. Grab the can with top in one hand, bottom in the other hand. Pinch the middle slightly, and give it a quarter twist as you push the ends together. You will be surprised to find that you can easily crush a beer can almost as good as a can crusher. Be sure and rinse cans first, especially soda cans, so they don't become a nesting ground for flies.



Depending on the area and the season, it may or may not be practical to wash clothes shrimp boat style, dragging them behind the boat. But tshirts and drawers you might want to treat more delicately and civilly. Take a Homer bucket, put clothes in, some fresh water and laundry soap, and a couple of big shackles or some chain or a couple of rocks you picked up somewhere. Put the lid on. Yes, they have lids at Home Depot, too. Deep six the handle or save it for stuff cause it is a handy kind of wire. Lay the bucket in the cockpit sole and let it roll around for a few hours. Dump. Drain. Wring. Rinse with more fresh water using a toilet plunger (an unused one just for the purpose) or your foot as an agitator. Drain and wring and hang up on the lifelines with clothespins which are dead handy on a boat anyway. I have also filled the cockpit with clothes and seawater and Joy (it lathers and cleans in seawater) and just grape stomped them into a reasonable facsimile of clean. Great for exfoliating the feet, too. You can really get lost in it. Imagine yourself in the lead in the Boston Marathon, or climbing Mount Fuji early in a beautiful early May morning. Whatevah.



Dont forget stout fishhooks and line. Fish love to follow boats. Humans in boats love to eat fish. What a happy coincidence! Make up a line with a heavy commercial tuna hook and some 100 lb test mono. Attach a bleach jug and a short piece of 60lb mono, and attach that to the boat. The idea is if a fish hits and would otherwise break the line or the hook, instead he breaks the light stuff, and gets tired dragging the bleach jug all over the place and an hour or so later, you fish the fish out of the water. Beware... tuna are seriously bloody fish and a fresh one in the cockpit will bloody your mainsail foot as it beats itself to death. Oh, and don't be dawdling in the cockpit with a 60 lb tuna there with you. He will hurt you. Dolphin are common catches. No, not mammal dolphin. The fish that some marketing clowns got folks calling "mahi mahi" rather than simply explain to all the dumbasses that a dolphin is a fish. Anyhow they are dead easy to catch, and bite a hook eagerly. Reasonably tasty, too. On calm nights you might get a swordfish, especially if you rubber band a cyalume stick to the line a couple feet above the hook. Swordfish love mackerel which are also easy to catch on a small hook, and they love squid almost as much, which you catch with a squid jig. Don't try to boat a big one. It will seriously clobber you with it's bill. A 50lb "rat" is just the thing, though. You want serious weight on the line, and slow speed for swords. BTW you can also harpoon them in the daytime if you want to harness your inner Queequeg.



Dental floss makes great whipping twine and also good stout sewing thread if you don't have the real thing.


Wash up in seawater, with Joy, and just give yourself a rinse with a couple cups of fresh water, if you need to save water due to no watermaker. I like to fill the cockpit with seawater when the weather is nice, and take a bath. Nice. Be sure your cockpit sole will carry the load, before you try this 200 miles from land.


You don't have to actually wash your plate or skillet or cup every meal. If you go "ewwww" just thinking about that, wash your dishes in seawater. With <drum roll> Joy.



If your transom and your pushpit rail allow, take a crap right off the stern rather than go in the head or go in a bucket. Saves a lot of less than pleasant work over the course of a passage. Don't forget your harness. Just sayin.

[SSgtPitt]

Good post Growley.

[Mike OReilly]

We're a bit bigger than your cut off Don, but in my defence our Rafiki is a pretty small 37-footer. We're two adults, full time (1/2 year).

Garbage: obviously limit what goes on board. We buy a lot of basic stores in bulk, so limit the packaging. Everything that can get removed on land, is. Organic waste goes over the side. And then we compact everything else. We just sent our garbage ashore. Came to one plastic grocery bag after 22 days.

Laundry: bucket and plunger. Salt wash, fresh rinse. Hung on lifelines or halyards. Seems easy.

General water usage: we average 2 gallons per day. Shower is cockpit variety. We try and collect rain water for this.

Dishwashing: Salt water wash, fresh water spritz.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

If y'all are snorkeling every day, all you need is a toweling off at the end of the last snorkel, maybe washing hair every 3 days or so, beforehand. If you think about it, it is the purveyors of cleaning and hair care products that direct us to practices that remove our own natural hair oils..... and encourage so much washing that one might require emollients to replace lost moisturizers. Take the laundry home to wash it, and use towels as freely as needed.

Cheers, mate.

Ann

It's the 13 year old daughter who demands the clean hair!

[longjonsilver]

Originally Posted by janice142

For water conservation and laundry, I just wrote an article about that last month. Like you I must not waste water. Here's the piece: Washing Clothes Without a Machine (salt water vs. ammonia) article on janice142

Good luck, and have fun!

Thanks for the link to your website. You have a very enjoyable writing style and a way with people. This will provide me with hours of reading pleasure and many useful ideas.
blessings
jon

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by hpeer

But we are an old married couple. With kids? Yikes! Perhaps you should just throw them overboard clothed more often, then let them run around naked on the boat? Surrender to overwhelming forces?

hmmmm, you may have something there.

[scallowayuk]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

I had a HYOOOOGE plastic problem once and I took my trusty bernz o matic propane torch to it. It sort of shrivels as it heats up and before it gets all melty and burney. Gets very compact and dense. Tried a piece of pipe lashed to the boom and an old fashioned galvanized steel shrimp basket (they have been plastic for the last 40 years or so) hanging from the end, for a burn basket. Only problem is other boats see you and think you are in distress. Food waste of course feeds the fishies. Far enough at sea, I don't feel bad about tossing paper or cardboard over. I draw the line at plastic, and steel cans too. Beer cans I have a technique for crushing them really compact. You can get a crusher, or do it my way. Grab the can with top in one hand, bottom in the other hand. Pinch the middle slightly, and give it a quarter twist as you push the ends together. You will be surprised to find that you can easily crush a beer can almost as good as a can crusher. Be sure and rinse cans first, especially soda cans, so they don't become a nesting ground for flies.



Depending on the area and the season, it may or may not be practical to wash clothes shrimp boat style, dragging them behind the boat. But tshirts and drawers you might want to treat more delicately and civilly. Take a Homer bucket, put clothes in, some fresh water and laundry soap, and a couple of big shackles or some chain or a couple of rocks you picked up somewhere. Put the lid on. Yes, they have lids at Home Depot, too. Deep six the handle or save it for stuff cause it is a handy kind of wire. Lay the bucket in the cockpit sole and let it roll around for a few hours. Dump. Drain. Wring. Rinse with more fresh water using a toilet plunger (an unused one just for the purpose) or your foot as an agitator. Drain and wring and hang up on the lifelines with clothespins which are dead handy on a boat anyway. I have also filled the cockpit with clothes and seawater and Joy (it lathers and cleans in seawater) and just grape stomped them into a reasonable facsimile of clean. Great for exfoliating the feet, too. You can really get lost in it. Imagine yourself in the lead in the Boston Marathon, or climbing Mount Fuji early in a beautiful early May morning. Whatevah.



Dont forget stout fishhooks and line. Fish love to follow boats. Humans in boats love to eat fish. What a happy coincidence! Make up a line with a heavy commercial tuna hook and some 100 lb test mono. Attach a bleach jug and a short piece of 60lb mono, and attach that to the boat. The idea is if a fish hits and would otherwise break the line or the hook, instead he breaks the light stuff, and gets tired dragging the bleach jug all over the place and an hour or so later, you fish the fish out of the water. Beware... tuna are seriously bloody fish and a fresh one in the cockpit will bloody your mainsail foot as it beats itself to death. Oh, and don't be dawdling in the cockpit with a 60 lb tuna there with you. He will hurt you. Dolphin are common catches. No, not mammal dolphin. The fish that some marketing clowns got folks calling "mahi mahi" rather than simply explain to all the dumbasses that a dolphin is a fish. Anyhow they are dead easy to catch, and bite a hook eagerly. Reasonably tasty, too. On calm nights you might get a swordfish, especially if you rubber band a cyalume stick to the line a couple feet above the hook. Swordfish love mackerel which are also easy to catch on a small hook, and they love squid almost as much, which you catch with a squid jig. Don't try to boat a big one. It will seriously clobber you with it's bill. A 50lb "rat" is just the thing, though. You want serious weight on the line, and slow speed for swords. BTW you can also harpoon them in the daytime if you want to harness your inner Queequeg.



Dental floss makes great whipping twine and also good stout sewing thread if you don't have the real thing.


Wash up in seawater, with Joy, and just give yourself a rinse with a couple cups of fresh water, if you need to save water due to no watermaker. I like to fill the cockpit with seawater when the weather is nice, and take a bath. Nice. Be sure your cockpit sole will carry the load, before you try this 200 miles from land.


You don't have to actually wash your plate or skillet or cup every meal. If you go "ewwww" just thinking about that, wash your dishes in seawater. With <drum roll> Joy.



If your transom and your pushpit rail allow, take a crap right off the stern rather than go in the head or go in a bucket. Saves a lot of less than pleasant work over the course of a passage. Don't forget your harness. Just sayin.

hi i thought dolphin were dorado. i caught one a few days from barbados nearly as big as me,

[mvmojo]

For a trash compactor, Google "manual trash compactor". You'll get lots of hits.

[zengirl]

I don't have a laundry problem but if I did I would get one of those clothes lines that has pole and has lines around it. I think they fold up and down like an umbrella. I would duct tape it to my transom or secure it any way I could. Or I would use my flag pole holder. Amazon Strata Outdoor Rotary Dryer $55