Tuesday, April 6, 2010

8 hours of cleaning

Living on a boat is like living outdoors all the time, as the windows and door are always open. The shiny wood walls and dark floor collect dust, salt, fingerprints, and whatever else lurks in the air. Keeping the boat clean is a never ending battle to begin with - something like taking water out of a leaky boat - and we have a morning routine where the kids help out with cleaning chores. One takes salon duty for the inside main living area and the other takes cockpit duty for the outside area. This way, floors get swept everyday, clothes get taken off the lines everyday, tables get wiped and clutter gets put away. But given that we were a bit lax this past week while my sister and her family were here, it was that much worse.

We spent eight hours cleaning our boat today, now that Passover is over and our guests are gone. One hour for every day of the holiday. Matzah crumbs everywhere. Had a great vacation from cleaning, but the build-up of crumbs was completely out-of-control (and out of character for me, if you must know). In addition, there were fingerprints and dirt and salt build up all over the walls, and jam gluing the rugs to the floor in the cockpit. Wipe, wipe, wipe. Spray, spray, spray. Sweep, sweep, sweep. Sweat, sweat, sweat.

One of our friends was celebrating a birthday today, but given the cleaning, I had to pass up playing host - which was very hard for me. I must say it was nice coming home tonight to a clean boat, though...

-Signing off from Chamela
19 degrees 34.995 minutes North, 105 degrees 07.924 minutes West
Barbara

P.S. Notwithstanding we've played a lot of matzah frisbee at sea, we still have a ton of matzah left over (for reason why, see Preparing for Passover post), currently stored in our engine room. Not sure the locals will actually appreciate free boxes of matzah, so am open to suggestions of what to do with it. And please don't recommend that we eat it.

2 comments:

  1. About the cleaning, isn't their someone in the vicinity who would like to earn some extra pesos to help you out?...especially after Pesach and visitors.
    About the matzahs, find a poor family or a food bank...I doubt that a kosher Food Bank exists there...so...Otherwise, save it for next Pesach!
    Love you all. Can't wait to hear all the stories from Moe, Jason and the kids' trip to you.

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  2. matzah frisbee - im sure the kids liked that one!
    sounds like a big job but well worth it - pretty much the same as here in a way. Im sure it was a very memorable passover had by everyone.
    loved the pics for a good visual.
    enjoy your crumbless boat!
    xoxox

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