We are not on the unlimited plan

Our utilities aboard are not only heavily monitored, they are finite. We have 66 gallons of water. We can replenish our tanks with our watermaker. That takes electricity. Electricity comes from our battery bank, which is replenished with solar panels primarily but also from our engine and from a portable gas generator. When we bring food aboard, for the most part, we carry it on our backs*. We have wifi sporadically and good wifi less often.

When we see unlimited sources of either electricity or water, or when someone offers to drive us to a store, we are hyperaware of the usefulness of that resource. So aware, that we have systems and plans for what we will do when we have access to an unlimited supply. Unlimited water and electricity primarily occur when we pull into a dock although sometimes we have unlimited water while fueling which means a mad dash on my part to use it in every way possible while Carol is fueling.

Water binge: We hose down the boat, wash the floor, rinse the sinks thoroughly in a way we don't when we are being water conscious. We pull out piles of gear like salty foul weather gear, lifejackets, ropes, docklines, throw them in our cockpit well and start hosing them down. We fill up every water bottle we own, our tea kettle, our 2L nalgene bottles, and sometimes extra collapsible jugs. We hose down our sails, our anchoring gear, our cockpit seat cushions. If we have water for a few days or know we are about to take on water, we take extra long showers (which feel luxurious to us) in which I might even use rinse out conditioner (rather than leave-in).

Electricity binge: We plug everything in that runs on batteries and charge them fully. This means 3 laptops, one ereader, one gaming device, two camera batteries, and our spotlight. We enjoy movie night with our laptop plugged in – maybe even a double feature. We vacuum every nook and cranny of the boatwith our wee AC vacuum . We may even go crazy and turn our fridge on high.

Groceries: If we are being driven to the grocery, we load the cart with everything we need and/or love having aboard but is too heavy to carry much of in backpacks: juice, sparkling water, motor oil, coolant, canned goods, booze, sacks of rice and flour. If we are on foot, we have a rule that we don't pass a grocery on the way home without bringing a few bags with us. If we remember to do this, bag by bag, we stay relatively topped up without having to do any epic groceries on foot.

Wifi: In addition to the normal internet banking errands, the social media errands, and the photos, videos and posts for this blog, we keep a list of things we want to do the next time we have internet. This list includes “things we want to wiki” – crazy, huh? This list is in…our book of lists. Seriously, we have a book of lists.

*I’ve never understood the question “how do you get exercise on a boat?”. I row, paddle, winch, crack, haul, lift and (soon) swim. I may not get as much of certain kinds of exercise as I like, but I am certainly not lacking for exercise generally. Now, whether we eat too well on board is another story…