American Pie: A Life On The Ocean Waves
...Summer storms are usually daytime events, but just occasionally a front will come through during the night, sending the boat into bucking bronco gyrations, defying our attempts to sleep. Anything that can rattle, will, and on one trip, we spent four days on a mooring in Watchill harbor in just such conditions. The motion was so violent that the local yacht club tender was unable to come out and get us off. After four days we felt as though we’d spent them in a cocktail shaker....
Life aboard a sail boat can be idyllic, but expect to be shaken as well as stirred, as John Merchant reveals.
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A life on the ocean waves? Well, not exactly, but in May each year my wife and I forsake our pampered lifestyle in Florida for summer aboard our sailboat on the Connecticut shore of Long Island Sound. It’s a reality check if you like. Our sailboat, Yorkshire Lass, is 30 feet long with a beam (width) of 11 feet, so it is quite roomy. But some accommodations are required to spend four months comfortably in that amount of space, compared with the 2,500 square feet we’re used to at home.
According to the builder, the boat can sleep six, but those six people either have to be relatives you like a lot, or very, very close friends. Below decks we have a saloon with a dining table, and a galley (kitchen) with a refrigerator, a double sink, and a propane stove that has an oven and two burners. There is also a head (toilet) that incorporates a shower, but since the shower occupies the same space, using it requires one to dry everything down afterwards.
A small hanging locker and four drawers has to accommodate any clothes we have on board. If you’re in a restaurant or a store somewhere near the water, the rumpled people you see are the boaters. In reality, when we’re in our home berth at the yacht club we belong to, our car and the club are extensions of our boat. We can shower and eat in the club, and any clothes or other accoutrements we can’t accommodate on the boat are stored in the car.
This arrangement is fine when the weather is dry, but walking back and forth in the rain soon palls, even dressed in our foul weather gear (raincoat and wellies). Probably one of the greatest challenges of living on a boat is keeping dry, since there is no space to hang wet garments, and pretty soon the whole inside of the boat starts to get damp. It’s a wonderful feeling when the sun returns and we can open up the hatches to dry out. If the rainy days persist, the local shopping malls become our daytime refuge.
Storing and cooking food requires some forethought, the first being a revision of our customary diet and shopping schedule. At home, we tend to shop for the week, with perhaps some small, supplementary purchases in the meantime to satisfy an un-anticipated yearning. When aboard, we shop more frequently for the smaller amounts of supplies that our refrigerator will hold. We augment this with a chest cooled by a large block of ice. Another chest holds our white wine, beer and soft drinks, also with an ice block.
An oven and just two burners requires some ingenuity in putting a meal together. We like a lot of vegetables, so a steamer comes in handy because we can cook all the vegetables on one burner. If a sauce or gravy is involved, it must be cooked ahead of time and kept warm on top of the steamer. Though we try to avoid frying food when at home, this is the most convenient method for meat or fish when on board.
The progress that has been made in commercially prepared dishes, sold in supermarkets, is a boon, and has extended our diet considerably. I’m not referring to the, so called, TV dinners, but to lightly frozen packages of raw vegetables, with shrimp, chicken or sliced beef and appropriate sauces that require cooking, not just heating. Our favorites are wok or stir-fry dishes. We can also purchase Thai or Indian curry sauces that need only to have vegetables and or meat added. The addition of some “boil-in-a-bag” rice makes a nice meal.
Probably the greatest boon to our life aboard is packaged milk that can be kept for weeks un-refrigerated until you open it. I don’t know what they do to preserve it, but other than a slightly “cooked” flavor, it tastes just fine. The only source we know is the Italian company Parmalat SpA, so it was with some apprehension that we read they had corporate problems. Much to our relief they seem to have solved them.
Evenings on Yorkshire Lass also differ from our home routine. We have no TV, so after dinner it’s either a walk on the beach followed perhaps by a movie or TV series on the DVD player, or a good book, or perhaps just plain early to bed. Sun and fresh air really are quite soporific. Nights are generally quiet in the marina, and the gentle rocking of the boat, which after the first week we don’t even notice, sends our eyelids snapping closed almost as soon as we climb into the berth. But of course it isn’t always like that.
Summer storms are usually daytime events, but just occasionally a front will come through during the night, sending the boat into bucking bronco gyrations, defying our attempts to sleep. Anything that can rattle, will, and on one trip, we spent four days on a mooring in Watchill harbor in just such conditions. The motion was so violent that the local yacht club tender was unable to come out and get us off. After four days we felt as though we’d spent them in a cocktail shaker.
Our summers on Yorkshire Lass are close to idyllic, but there comes a time in early to mid- September when we say “enough,” and start to think about returning home. A shower just steps away from our bedroom, air conditioning, a full-size refrigerator, and a kitchen that has a garbage disposal, microwave, and oodles of space is just too appealing. But by April next year we’ll have that far away look in our eyes once more.
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