Glen Justice
One of the great things about unwrapping the boat is that you learn a lot about your own stewardship, including what you do right and what you do wrong. There are also some lessons about realistic expectations. With apologies to Dickens, I can tell this story as a tale of two lockers (okay, it's actually three, but I went with the literary).
The first is a pair of lockers in the rear cockpit that I cleaned out yesterday. They were dirty and, thanks to poor drainage, some mold had surfaced, but that was simple enough to address. What struck me was the raw amount of stuff that I found, and how disorganized it was.
I counted 61 objects in those two lockers, among them five bottles of biocide, four bottles of fuel stabilizer, five funnels, two buckets, two hoses, a squeegee, a scrubber on a pole, a scrubber on a handle, two cans of T9, three cans of WD-40, my water filter, four sponges, two external fuel filters, a fish net, some canvas covers, two portable cleats and on and on.
This told me that I had too much stuff, but I knew that. What hit was that the disorganization was kicking my ass in multiple ways.
First, I could not find supplies when I needed them. For example, I kept buying biocide because I could not easily see the bottles I had, and could therefore never remember how much was left. Second, is that by allowing things to get buried in lockers and then mold, I was creating more work. I now have to get those canvas covers clean, which means hauling them home or to a laundry. Another factor was that some items were not stored properly. The cans of T9 and WD-40, for example, should have been inside the cabin. Outside, they rusted and contributed to the mess.
UNEXPECTED ORGANIZATION
Contrast that to the experience I had when I went looking for some new clothes this morning. I neglected to throw anything into my bag when I left the house, and with my current rags starting to smell like some unidentifiable meat dish, I reached for whatever was on the boat
What I found shocked me as much as yesterday's packed lockers. I had full sets of clothes for winter and summer, stored neatly in beathable mesh stuff bags that tripled the capacity of the locker by my bed. The clothes were clean, and easily found.
The shocker here was that I did this. I remember finding the stuff bags at an Office Depot – they are designed for people who travel for work, and want to get mre into a suitcase – and I recall choosing the clothes I would store on the boat. It was nice to benefit from that little bit of organization this morning.
GET REAL
Of course, we all know that organizatin is a good thing. But the reality is that there is only so organized this boat is going to get. Anonymous Source is a vessel that gets heavy duty use during the season, by a family of people with different needs.
There are toys and movies on board for both a 16 month old and a three year old. The galley is equipped for and by a woman who cooks as a hobby, and who cringes when I suggest that we bring on Subway sandwiches for lunch. It is not uncommon for her to make three courses – and a cake baked onboard – when we have guests.
And we have guests all the time. It is pretty standard for us to have three families and six children out for a day sail. The boat has more than a dozen children's life jackets aboard. There are times that the flybridge looks like Led Zeplin's dressing room after a cruise. Add to that the fact that the captain is a bit of a gadget guy, and you start to get the idea that organization is no easy task.
So, how do I keep all this stuff organized? The reality is that I can't. I think the key here is to strike a balance, organizing what I can, cleaning often enough to keep the real mung at bay, and recognizing that there are areas like coolers and external lockers that are working parts of the boat. And they're gonna get dirty.