We’re still home. We hope to be able to return to Lady in early April; fingers crossed. Until then, I plan to post once a month.
This month is a flashback to this past July when we were in the Bahamas and I had the idea that it might amuse you to see how I do laundry on Indigo Lady. At this point you’re either going to keep reading and then watch the video, or close your browser and wait for my next post. I won’t be offended if you opt for the latter.
Doing laundry on the boat requires some planning. It takes more of my time and attention, and it requires the right timing and weather conditions. Unlike doing laundry at home, I cannot just load the washing machine, go do something else for an hour, switch to the dryer and leave the dried load there until I need the dryer again. Washing the laundry onboard requires my full attention for 60-90 minutes per load, or at least setting timers so I don’t forget what I’m doing. Then there’s the fact that our “dryer” is the sun. The whole process needs to happen during daylight hours on a single day so everything is dry before the sun goes down.
These are my basic criteria.
- We need to have enough fresh water in our tanks or I need to do laundry when we’re running the water maker. Each load uses about 20 gallons (maybe someday I’ll actually measure this). Our tanks hold 160 gallons.
- I need a sunny morning and afternoon, preferably with a breeze but not a big wind. Less than 10 kts of wind is preferable, though sometimes I don’t have much of a choice. The more wind, the more clothespins I need to use and the more I worry that something will blow overboard (it’s happened).
- I like to start around 9 or 10 am, especially if I have to do more than one load. Even if rain isn’t forecast, there can still be showers in the late afternoon/early evening due to local heating/cooling cycles, so I want the laundry dry and back inside by then.
This video demonstrates the actual process of doing laundry with our setup. I squeezed it into 2.5 minutes thanks to iMovie’s speed feature. If I left out anything you’re wondering about, ask in the comments.
Enjoy the show!
Life on Lady 