Overcoming the Laundry Challenge

laundry blowing in the breeze  

There are definitely some things I miss about living on land. Being able to do a quick load of laundry any time you feel like it, using both a washing machine and a dryer, is one of them. Some boats do have a washer/dryer aboard, but Nine of Cups is not one of them.

Usually doing laundry is a chore, but not all that difficult. Carting laundry to the laundromat in a marina isn't all that bad. Waiting for the clothes to cycle through wash and dry can be boring, but in the end, you have clean, dry clothes and minimal inconvenience. No worries. Even lugging laundry a couple of blocks down the road to a nearby laundromat isn't so bad. Otherwise, I can certainly wash most everything by hand which I've done in the past rather frequently. There are no laundry facilities at Crown Marina, however. In fact, there are no laundromats even remotely close which means we have to tote our big, heavy duffels full of dirty, smelly laundry on the train or the bus and then walk several blocks to get to the nearest one. This is not a pleasant alternative.

Doing laundry by hand would be fine except the marina has strict rules about hanging laundry out on clotheslines strung on your boat. It doesn't look nice, especially from the windows of prestigious condos that want a million dollar view. Seeing our bloomers blowing and drying in the breeze, for some reason, causes consternation.

We've become devious. We wash our daily t-shirts and underwear when we go to the shower and hang them on the lifelines facing away from land each evening. It's so warm, windy and dry here, they're good to go by morning. This alleviates the need for finding and lugging laundry to a laundromat frequently. Sheets, towels and jeans are an issue, but the dirty pile accumulates much more slowly when our daily wear isn't part of the mix. As long as we keep up with it, it's not really a major chore. At some point, we'll probably hire a car for a day or two or bum a ride from another cruiser heading to the laundromat for the big stuff. In the meantime, being devious is working out just fine and we've got plenty of clean underwear.