What I miss most

I know that our grand adventure might seem glamorous and exciting, and don’t get me wrong, there are so many amazing aspects that I’m grateful for every day. However, it is not all bright and shiny, and I felt it only fair to describe the biggest bane to my current lifestyle. (I know Conor would choose a different one.) Aside from greatly missing my family and friends, can you guess what I next miss most?

I’ll tell you – my big, efficient American washing machine. 

I know I’m not alone, as doing laundry is a challenge for any sailor. Unless you’re lucky and well-equipped with your own machine onboard, you have to find other means of getting laundry done. 

Now, in the summertime when all you’re mostly wearing are bathing suits and very light clothes, it’s not that hard. You can do a quick rinse or hand scrub in the sink and hang things out to dry. However, when towels and bed linens start to pile up, they can create significant, bulky mounds. It becomes time to find facilities.

There are a handful of reasons one would choose to pay marina fees to dock. They include needing electricity, water, food, fuel, shelter, Wi-Fi, or – you guessed it – laundry facilities. In our experience so far, laundry opportunities tend to fall in one of three categories, I think with about equal occurrence:

1) There are no laundry facilities. 

Having experienced this enough, you learn to take advantage of an opportunity when it does come along, whether you are really ready for it or not.

2) Only a laundry service is available. 

Technically speaking, this is quite nice as you simply hand over all your laundry to someone and they wash and dry it all for you. (Some will even iron if you want.) You might either be able to get it back end of day or the next day. So, you often need to be in place long enough. The biggest downside to these services is that they are an expensive way to get laundry done. You either pay by weight or number of loads.

3) Self-serve machines are available.

This seems the best option, of course, and I do get excited when these are available. However, it is never as easy and simple as washing clothes at home. It takes WAY longer and WAY more muscles and what seems like WAY more money. Typically, there is only one washing machine, maybe two, available. So, you have to get in line and/or share. They are usually small machines, so multiple loads are required. They are typically a distance from where your boat is docked, so you’re hauling heavy loads back and forth. There are also multiple trips made often because you’re waiting or trying to figure out how they work. In most cases, you have to go to the marina reception office (when they are open) to pay them in order to get the proper coins to put into the machines. So far, we’ve been charged anywhere from $10-20 per wash or dry. That just seems crazy to me, but what choice does one have? So, I usually don’t pay to dry and just haul back wet loads to hang on the boat’s life lines. If we run out of room or time, have bulky sheets, or have poor weather conditions, I’ll use a dryer if one is available. Hanging things out to dry can also extend the end time. If we get rain or a heavy dew in the morning, guess what? You’ve got wet laundry again. I will give Sabática’s former owners some great credit – they installed this super handy retractable set of hanging lines in the guest hull. Very handy! 

So, could we install our own washing machine on Sabática? Technically, it’s possible and we do have a spot it could fit. Would it require some work on the boat? Yes. To give it a fair shake, though, we’ve added it to the list of things to investigate during the off season this winter. 😉

Didn’t I mention in a previous post how Conor had actually sourced a mini portable washing machine? Yes. While he was alone in Venice he discovered that Amazon could deliver there, so he took full advantage of that. (Amazon does not deliver to Croatia or Montenegro, unfortunately.) Among other things, Conor ordered an Adler Europe (AD 8051) portable mini machine. These do exist as they are handy for campers, RVs, etc. I finally tried it out when we were in Izola, Slovenia. It can hold about 5 shirts/shorts, but again, for our light summer clothes, that is totally fine. I was quite impressed with my first load. You put clothes in, you fill it with water (if I use our outdoor shower hose at the stern, I can even add hot water), add some liquid soap, then turn the agitator on. It moves around for about 10 minutes, then you drain the water out through a connected hose. After uprighting the hose, you fill the washer up again with fresh water and do another agitation cycle. Drain. Then you wring everything out, put in the spinner basket, then fill it up with half the contents of clothes. You can then do a spin cycle. Finally, you hang things up to dry. Again, super handy and I was impressed with my first 1.5 loads. In my second load, the motor quit working mid spin. Ah well, it was cool while it lasted! We actually tried it again when Cuala and Olivier were here and it worked! For one load. So, it seems to get tired after one load per day. 😉

Anyway, thanks for letting me share. 🙂 No matter how it gets done, clean laundry is such a happy thing! #boatlife