Woke up to rain…. the perfect reason to stay in bed, drink coffee, read a book and waste away the day.
But it was a work day for one of us, and it felt like there was an unspoken expectation for the other person (me) to also do something other than lay around in bed reading. So I reluctantly got up after about an hour or two.
I asked Patrick if I could get him anything, while secretly praying he would say that nothing was needed; but he asked for socks because his feet were cold sitting in the galley working. I was happy to do that – I could manage to throw him a rolled up pair of socks.
But all of the socks and other bits in one particular cupboard, below the front windows in the forepeak, were really wet. As it had been raining for a few hours, I thought it was a leak. We have battled leaks ever since we got the boat, so I wasn't surprised. Except these things were really wet and we hadn't had that much rain.
I took a pair of socks to Patrick, as requested, and let him know that everything was wet. He said …. lick your fingers. He really did say that. And I really did lick my fingers. Salt…. How strange.
Patrick explained that before we set off we had had a lot of dry sunny days. So any tiny cracks that we hadn't got round to filling or varnish over (hmmmmmm, felt like an accusation) had expanded and got bigger as the wood shrunk. We then we had two days of travel when sea water came over the deck and up against the front windows. These were when we travelled from Ramsgate to Queenborough with 4 hours of waves and water. And the other rough water day involved Pauline (see earlier blog for reference), so he wasn’t surprised that water had somehow leaked through. He also explained that the water would have made the wood swell, so any cracks would probably be closed up now. However, that did not mean I didn’t need to varnish as soon as the weather cleared up (ugghhhh).
As it was coming up for a week that the socks had been marinating in the cupboard, they were beginning to smell and desperately needed washing. So my slow relaxing day now involved another trip to the laundrette as there was just too many socks and other bits to hand wash and we don’t have the space to hang that much to dry. I also had some questions about why Patrick actually had so many pairs of socks on the boat as he only EVER wears flipflops….
So, as not appear like some crazy sock lady, I stripped our bed and added all our bed linen into laundry bags and called for an Uber to drive me to the laundrette - the rain was relentless.
Once back on the boat with clean dry socks and bed linen, I spent the rest of the day doing boat chores, slowly. With Autumn on it way, a full day of rain and the last lingering smell of wet socks, I was quickly reminded of how important damp control is on the boat. And the usefulness of vacuum bags. So I packed all of our extra towels and linen into vacuum bags and stored them away in plastic crates. I fill the bags after I have put them, empty, in the crates and then vacuum them once packed. This way everything fits well in the crate and it also means I can drag the crate out when I need something rather than drag the bag out. I have split the bags on a few occasions, probably because they catch on the doors or a piece of wood.
I also did some research on dehumidifiers. We had one on the boat before, but it was so large and difficult to store when not being used so we didn’t bring it with us. But it had worked so well and we were getting to the point when we needed one. The boat steams up quickly now that it is getting colder, especially after showers and cooking and the inside of the windows are often wet in the mornings.
We are setting off tomorrow for Sonning and friends will join us on the boat, so we will look to see if there are any dehumidifier shops near there or on the way.
