Wednesday 10 August— A Guest Blog from “Housekeeping”



Your guest blogger



The view from the galley window

With many more white horses out there on the rainy sea than we wanted to ride, today seemed like a good opportunity to catch up on housekeeping, and the skipper suggested that some words on this might be of interest to our reader, so here goes:



Half the goods and twice the price

  When we are making passage, the boat is “rigged for sea”, and everything is stowed, tied back, lashed, battened, and wrapped. Cruising at 16 knots even in slight/moderate seas is a noisy, bumpy state, and even making a hot drink is out of the question.

 Instead, flasks need to be filled in advance, and any drinks needed on passage are served a half-cup at a time. (The exception over the past few weeks, gently moseying around on flat water at 6 knots has been a delight).



At the "wasserette"



   At sea, curtains are pulled back, the wheelhouse seat is raised to “planing height”, the navigator’s chair is unstowed and fitted, and the emergency liferaft made ready in the cockpit, with the bicycles stowed below in “the cellar”.

  In port, we “rig for apartment”, and the boat becomes more of a regular dwelling, with all the jobs and demands of a normal household, but not always with all the usual facilities.

Breakfast

 Floors and carpets need sweeping and cleaning, bed linen needs airing, laundry needs attention, and most importantly, the crew needs feeding 3 or 4 times a day, with several tea-breaks  between meals.

Sometimes, as in Guernsey or more recently Aeolus, there is a large well-stocked supermarket nearby, making life simpler, but more often, fresh and suitable provisions can be harder to find, calling for a bit of compromise and creativity.

A table for two in the Bistro



   “Middle Watch” has a tiny fridge with a tinier freezing space, so fresh vegetables must be kept in the cockpit rope-locker to allow fridge space for essentials such as wine, beer and a few ice-cubes.  The gas cooker has two rings and a small, slow and unpredictable oven. 

 Hot water comes from the kettle or the immersion heater (if the shore power supply trip-outs will allow), and kitchen ventilation is supplied by an overhead hatch (when it’s not raining)

Dishing up

  Breakfast is normally taken in “the lounge”, with other meals being served in “the bistro” or “the terrace”, depending on the weather.

Always fresh at the markets

  Mostly, we dine on board, with only the occasional meal out, and at a squeeze, we have accommodated sit-down dinners for six on board.



  After 6 or 8 weeks of the very compact “Middle Watch” galley, I often experience temporary agoraphobia when I get back to my kitchen at home….but it soon passes….