June 1 , 2006 - WASHING ON WATER
by Michel & Jane DeRidder

"Anyone that tells you sailing on a small vessel is a good way to travel has obviously never gone that route or else is a bloody liar or stark raving mad."

This remark was overheard in a Marquesan river, as several of us from cruising boats of various nations beat our ship's laundry on flat rocks in the time-honoured manner, spreading it on bushes to dry. Look closely at travel posters showing a pareu-clad wahine doing her washing in a Polynesian river. It could easily be one of the international yachting community engaged in the river-rock-mosquito routine, venting her spleen on the captains' jeans.

Cruising has changed since we set out on our adventures on the high seas some forty-plus years ago. Once upon a time way back in the sixties and seventies there were very few washing machines on cruising yachts and certainly no watermakers that we ever encountered. There were few if any laundromats in many parts of the world that we visited. One of the early ones I remember vividly consisted of a couple of wringer washers which took me back to the Saturday morning chores of my British Columbia childhood.

Our Wonderwash pressure washing machine.

Early on we learned to deal with cruising laundry in many ways. We never went empty handed when asked ashore for a meal with Earth People. We took a bag of laundry with us - a real test of friendship. We used the hose-dock-bucket routine. The townspeople got free entertainment in their lunch breaks strolling down to watch those less fortunate than they. We kept a stock of bleach, ammonia, and nappy wash as well as our favourite cold water laundry soap. We still do so. In out-of-the-way places, water is often a precious commodity and must be used sparingly, whereas in inhabited areas where there may be plenty of water, one hesitates to festoon the yacht with washing. On windy days it's all too easy to lose drying clothing overboard, but if there's no wind at all, freshly laundered clothing may end up wrinkled. We let the wind do the ironing for us, a necessity, not just a convenience. We found it a help to wear little or nothing at all in tropical isolated anchorages.

	Using the washer.

We got all sorts of ideas by watching our fellow cruisers' various ways of attacking the laundry problem. Some used the old corrugated scrubbing board with excellent results. We got hold of one. Others made do with a scrubbing brush on deck. We still use ours. Once I saw a single-hander calmly smoking a pipe as he slowly, placidly tromped up and down in his laundry tub. On seeing someone using a toilet plunger, a 'plumber's helper', to agitate washing in a large plastic garbage can, we tried it and found it amazingly effective particularly after first submitting the washing to a long soak. We used that ploy for years. We soon discovered that a hand cranked wringer is handy, particularly where water must be used sparingly, for if you can wring out the soapy water thoroughly it takes far less water for rinsing. Also clothes that are well wrung out dry in far less time. Another effective and painless way is the Steinbeck Travels With Charlie method: you let the motion of the vehicle - in this case the vessel - do the work for you. Apparently it is particularly effective on a long bowsprit in a big sea as long as you lash the tub firmly so you don't lose the lot. In port we occasionally used to scout around until we found a courtyard where local women did their communal washing. It was immaculately done and cost very little. I used to enjoy depositing or fetching laundry, the whole scene was so friendly and relaxed. A girl taking time off to nurse her baby, another stripping off the dress she wore to scrub it along with the rest. Laughter and gossip.

Nowadays while many cruising yachts have on-board watermakers and washer/dryers, some of us make do as we have always done, depending on where we are and what is available. We bought one of those wee Wonderwash pressure washing machines some years back. It looks like a baby cement mixer. We've found it time consuming but amazingly effective as long as we do not overload it. (One double sheet or a couple of big towels is all it can handle) I start off with whites, progressing through to heavily soiled items, adding hot water (often heated rinse water) to maintain water level and pressure. I turn the handle slowly for sixty or so turns to get up the pressure, listening to the slop slop of clothes sloshing around, then I leave it be for a while before returning to rotate the handle for another sixty rounds. It's a type of enforced meditation. Rinsing is in a bucket, wringing is by hand, or in some cases by wringer. The latter takes longer and is wrinkle inducing, so is not often resorted to unless water is a problem. Having an easy means of rain water collection is a huge advantage for those of us without watermakers.

Hand crank wringer.

When there is a laundromat handy I choose to use their facilities. We've done our washing in scores of different Laundromats in various stages of sleaze, cleanliness and modernity in various far-flung islands, countries and continents. Though heaving washing ashore in duffle bags is a chore, it's well worth it. The Honda 90 motorcycle has come in handy innumerable times. We sometimes use friends' clothes lines. Otherwise we string clothes lines on the rigging and festoon the ship with what we call "Flags of Convenience" being certain to use plenty of clothes pegs at the horizontal to supplement the vertical pegs. For added security, some items of clothing we may thread onto a clothes line through leg or arm holes or belt loops. We treat ourselves to dryers now and then even though we realize it is harder on clothes than is sunshine.

Cruising laundry is often a drudgery. But on the other hand, laundry day can hold some unexpected adventures and perhaps provide the opportunity for the practice of unsuspected ingenuity. Though we dread the day when we must move off our cruising home, we do realize that there will be some advantages - doing laundry being one of them.