It's not an exaggeration to say that laundry facilities can influence cruising plans. If your default laundry method consists of a five gallon bucket, a plunger and hard-earned RO water (or captured rainfall) then the chance to do laundry ashore with copious water is occasionally worth a detour. Usually abundant water comes from a tap and goes into a machine. But on Boddam Island the water is hand drawn from a well and emptied into giant tubs where there's plenty of plunger room.
Not quite a machine with hot and cold water and a nearby drier—but still a pleasing upgrade from our normal amenities. And with the fees we pay to be here—it's seems silly not to take advantage.
Fresh water floats on a layer on top of saltwater in the wells that were dug on the island. Yesterday the laundry well was brimming—but after a few boats did washing the water level dropped and today hauling the bucket up seemed a lot harder.
Luckily after one wash and two rinses it looked like we were done. I hung our dripping sheets over a handy clothesline while Evan rung them out. Then the clothesline broke and our clean laundry fell onto the muddy ground.
Washing the sheets the second time felt like more work than the first time: Especially after Evan dropped the rope and bucket down into the well and he had to take the dinghy back to the boat to fetch the boat hook to retrieve them.
Then the first few re-washed items I carefully arranged on a sturdier clothesline blew off, landing back in the mud.
Back they went into the wash tub.
And up came more water from the well.
Eventually we took our clean but sodden laundry home, to dry in our rigging. Now it's snapping in the tradewinds, where there is no mud.
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