I know many of you regular readers admire our glamorous, exciting, exotic lifestyle.
"Living like rock stars as you and Pam do," you ask, "how do you not let it go to your head? How do you stay rooted in reality?"
Good question. For me, I try to think back when I was one of the "little people" like you guys and the things I used to do. Things like chores. So once in a blue moon, I lower myself to doing chores. Of course, my chores are much more thrilling than yours.
Today, the first chore meant cleaning dog poop off the foredeck and scrubbing and hosing the deck down. I then checked the water tanks, found they were low, and decided to fill them.
The process for filling our water tank is straightforward. For my non-boating friends, that means simply to remove a deck plate, stick a hose in it, and turn on the water. It takes some time to fill a 400 gallon tank, so I decided to change the oil absorbent pads under the starboard engine down in the engine room.
It's not unusual for a big diesel boat engine to leak oil. Most of them seem to do so, which is why absorbent pads are sold. I pulled out the oily pads from under the starboard engine, tossed them in the trash, and slid in new. I checked the port engine, and as usual, it didn't need changing. It doesn't leak a drop of oil. This has me a bit concerned. I should have a mechanic check it to see why.
I decided to empty the garbage in the engine room, and as I stepped out the helm station door to toss the garbage bad onto the dock, I could see that our water tank was full.
This is a nice feature that Cheoy Lee designed into this boat. When the water tank is full, excess water shoots out the air vent. This also has an added benefit of removing wasps, spiders, and other undesirable insects. It also chases away any Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on the hull.
Next up was to wash the morning dishes. I didn't have to have this done until 4 PM when Pam got home from work, but I decided to buckle down and do them at 3:30.
I was going to put a second coat of paint on the windlass, but I didn't have another disposable brush of the proper size. I'll have to see about picking one up some day.
Of course, in between all these chores is checking Al Gore's internets. Email inquiries about Drift Away, Facebook, the hometown birdcage liner, CNN, and so on.
Yep. As you can see, this live aboard lifestyle isn't all glamour. Sometimes I'm a regular person, just like you.
"Living like rock stars as you and Pam do," you ask, "how do you not let it go to your head? How do you stay rooted in reality?"
Good question. For me, I try to think back when I was one of the "little people" like you guys and the things I used to do. Things like chores. So once in a blue moon, I lower myself to doing chores. Of course, my chores are much more thrilling than yours.
Today, the first chore meant cleaning dog poop off the foredeck and scrubbing and hosing the deck down. I then checked the water tanks, found they were low, and decided to fill them.
The process for filling our water tank is straightforward. For my non-boating friends, that means simply to remove a deck plate, stick a hose in it, and turn on the water. It takes some time to fill a 400 gallon tank, so I decided to change the oil absorbent pads under the starboard engine down in the engine room.
It's not unusual for a big diesel boat engine to leak oil. Most of them seem to do so, which is why absorbent pads are sold. I pulled out the oily pads from under the starboard engine, tossed them in the trash, and slid in new. I checked the port engine, and as usual, it didn't need changing. It doesn't leak a drop of oil. This has me a bit concerned. I should have a mechanic check it to see why.
I decided to empty the garbage in the engine room, and as I stepped out the helm station door to toss the garbage bad onto the dock, I could see that our water tank was full.
This is a nice feature that Cheoy Lee designed into this boat. When the water tank is full, excess water shoots out the air vent. This also has an added benefit of removing wasps, spiders, and other undesirable insects. It also chases away any Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on the hull.
Next up was to wash the morning dishes. I didn't have to have this done until 4 PM when Pam got home from work, but I decided to buckle down and do them at 3:30.
I was going to put a second coat of paint on the windlass, but I didn't have another disposable brush of the proper size. I'll have to see about picking one up some day.
Of course, in between all these chores is checking Al Gore's internets. Email inquiries about Drift Away, Facebook, the hometown birdcage liner, CNN, and so on.
Yep. As you can see, this live aboard lifestyle isn't all glamour. Sometimes I'm a regular person, just like you.
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