Spick and Span
Our friend Barb recently asked if she could use one of our photos in a piece that she was writing about cleaning on a boat. The photo that she selected is of an exceptionally clean head with a very pretty cat hiding behind it. I want to come clean (yes, that was an intentional pun) and say that although our boat is not a pig sty, we do not keep it quite as clean as some others that we know of. Prior to taking photos, I tend to pick up any clutter which might end up in the background of the shot and in the case of the photo of the head, I cleaned the toilet and surrounding area before I snapped the pic.
I remember reading our friend Drew’s post about cleaning/maintenance jobs that he would not be doing that season. I like to think that we’re somewhere between that and cleaning OCD. That is not to suggest that Drew is a slob but rather he, like us, prefers to sail more than he does scrub things with a toothbrush. All that said, we are perfectly aware that when we take on the job of looking after the new Leopard charter boat, we’ll have to up our game considerably on the cleaning front. We’ll need to keep the boat spick and span for our guests.
I notice you did not mention Photoshop in this post. Probably that’s a good thing. Most of the OCD cleaning folks I have known also charter. The go together like tea and cookies or rum and Lemon Lime Bitters. So, you can be assured that we will never charter La Luna because I didn’t inherit my folks clean gene, and I refuse to give up the aft stateroom. Enjoy your summer!
If I could truly clean the boat by sitting at the computer and playing with Photoshop, our boat would look like new! 🙂
In that picture, which of you is Spic and which is Span?
🙂
Mike
Rebecca is definitely Spic. You can tell by the way she is flying.
Bwhahahaha
Mike,
Can you fill me in on the Leopard charter you guys will be looking after? Was there a post on this that I missed?
I liked the Grenada post, it must be comforting to feel like you are home in a sense.
Tracy
Hi Tracy
This post lays out the basics:
http://www.zerotocruising.com/the-next-chapter/
I hope it’s obvious I don’t live in a pigs stye and the post was, in part, a tongue-in-cheek poke at folks that polish rather than sail.
I’ve been working on an article for PS on mildew and mildew preventatives. Though I’ve got many months to go, I have reached a few simple conclusions. If I were keeping a charter boat I would do what I needed to make her shine.
* Exterior. The only mildew preventatives that work where exposed to weather are keeping the items clean and dry. I’ve tried top-end products; if the item is clean and dry, no mildew; if it is dirty and chronically wet, mildew. The sue of preventatives don’t seem to matter.
* Interior. Keep it dry. The only places I’ve ever seen mildew, on the boat of lab trials, are wet. Window leaks.
* Simple treatments. I’ve tried the high-tech stuff but this old school stuff works best, simple formulations you should even be able to whip-up in the 3rd world:
http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/2013/04/borax-stopping-mildew-and-rot-on-cheap.html
These simple formulas combined with a vacuum are amazingly effective; I’ve been testing them both at home (basement floods) and on-board (mildewed some carpet do to leaving 2 windows cracked part of the winter). WAY better than the quaternary amine stuff and SO cheap. Just remember that more is NOT better; you are not rinsing and are leaving a calibrated residue.
I like understanding cleaning, so that I can be more lazy about it.
I knew the intent of your post, and I agree with you. I hope that was also obvious. We do see more polishing in our future though. That’s OK… there are worse jobs. 🙂
A. Is work in paradise still work? Hmm… depends I supose, but certainly less so.
B. Early in my career I cleaned crude oil tanks and worse. Yup, there’s worse jobs.
There are ALWAYS worse jobs! Last night we watched the movie Food Inc. where we were introduced to a few of them!!!