Since spring happens once a year in most places, one would think that spring cleaning is a yearly event.
Though not on Dauntless. With a surely, lazy crew, when I have even thought about a through reorganization, the look I see in the mirror is downright mutinous.
Of course, besides being, Master, Captain, Skipper, I am also the crew.
So, it’s no surprise that upon returning to Dauntless after my 3-month hiatus, it was time to evict the hitchhikers and other life forms.
I’d managed to go four years with nothing worse than the occasional fly or mosquito on board.
Well now the intrepid explorer has been put in his place by a bunch of roaches and a mouse or maybe two.
Last week the whole upper part of the boat was cleaned and I threw away, I’m embarrassed to say about 8 trash bags, large ones, of crap that should have been thrown away eons ago.
Stuff like three copes of the bus schedule for the Waterford Bus. Won’t need that for a few years.
The skills we learned in the pre-internet years, have gone by the wayside. A coveted bus schedule, or even a phone book could always come in handy.
Maps though. Only when we got Dauntless did I reduce my map collection. How can I explain to someone who uses Google to get anywhere, how I use to have two or three maps of places and countries of interest? Balancing them on your knee, finding the quickest way, having to know when and where traffic was bad and hot to avoid the worst.
Even with this week’s boat cleaning, I had one small file of European maps. My most coveted ones, that I justified in not throwing away saying to myself that the next time I go to Europe, I’ll use them.
But it’s not to be. I put them on the dock and only later after the latest rain storm did I remember them. In a normal environment, I would have dried them out, but on a boat, nothing dries out that is not already dry. Into the dust bin they went.
Today, it was time to empty the engine room. Well not really empty, but to take out all the things that are not fastened down.
The picture below shows the things stored in the back of the engine room, on either side of the generator. It’s a lot of stuff. Most of which I’ll never need. But it gives me piece of mind to venture far away or at least far away from the closest Amazon delivery.
It’s spare parts for almost all of the systems on Dauntless. It’s plumbing, electrical (both 220v and 110v) and woodworking, parts, replacements and spares. It’s what allows this 29-year-old Kadey Krogen to make its own electricity, power, water. Just like a self-contained city, the only thing missing is snow removal; Oh, we’ll have that next year.
Dauntless at Sea 