Team Giddyup: toys

Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts

Plastic Reduction

Team Giddyup 5/06/2013

We usually use the ad money generated from this site for something extravagant and/or unnecessary – fancy dinner, drinks out, booze for the boat. This time we decided to use the money for something that we would not normally budget but that would be good for our local environment.

It doesn’t take long for a sailor to become up close and personal with the impact of plastic. Plastic in the water, plastic on the beaches. It sucks, right? Hard to get away from plastic totally but we all do what we feel we can.

One thing that most people have reduced is their use of plastic bags. Fabric grocery bags are easy and practical on the boat, problem solved.

What is a new addition to our vessel, thanks to the google ad money, are purpose built mesh fruit/veggie bags. *love them* Here they are pictures above full of veg from Fakarava. Each bag is big enough to hold 4 cucumbers or a couple of bundles of leeks and is easily bleach/washable when it gets dirty.

Thank you!

toys

Govino Glasses

Team Giddyup 3/25/2013

OK, I am completely jealous.

Friends of ours just opened their set of Govino plastic glasses and I covet them. Not hard acrylic they have a rubbery feel, slightly squishable but not squishable enough to lose liquid and they have a thumb indentation so they are easier to hold.

Yes, I said thumb indent! How cool is that? They are hands down the coolest boat "glassware" I've ever seen.

Warning visitors: The next set of fly in guests may be required to grab some for us.

(No, we are not sponsored by Govino, but I wish we were!)

toys

5 Cruising Toys

Team Giddyup 10/07/2011

Carol and I were always gear hounds and our love of toys and gadgets did not die when we started cruising.

I’m starting a series of posts on my current favorite cruising toys*. In this post I focus on the eating/drinking/cleaning side of things.

2 liter Nalgene bottles – We have 3 that fit in our fridge under the tiny freezer unit. One is water only (so it doesn’t retain any taste) and the other two are often filled with ice tea and gatorade.
Super soaker buckets – What don’t we use these for? Soaking things in fresh water, dishes, collecting water from a waterfall, cleaning scuba gear, killing fish (yes, we put them in the bucket and then bonk their wee skulls) and then when we are done they clean up completely and stow away neatly.
Plates with tall sides (Sea to Summit X-Plates) – We have two plates with collapsible sides that we use while underway or while eating outside. They have enough of a side to keep things likes chips or trailmix or crackers from sliding off. The plate can be used as a cutting board as well so we can cut the lunch in the plates and avoid another thing to wash.
Camelbak bottles with neoprene sleeves – I have the pirate themed “Hydrate or Die” version (thanks Mom & Dad!). The downside is that you have to clean the mouthpieces so they don’t get too grungy. The upside is you don’t spill on yourself while drinking underway AND with the sleeves you can hook the bottles on your lifelines or bimini and the neoprene helps keep things cold.
Spatula with built in stand – I don’t know why I love this so much but I do. It’s sanitary. It stops us from having to clean saucy messes off the counter. I love it.
Bonus item: Inspired by Zero to Cruising I will admit that we have a Magic Bullet aboard that we love as well. We grind our coffee beans each morning with it, make smoothies, use cold pineapple and blend in rum and coconut cream, blend olives with chilis to make fish sauce, you name it.

*I call them toys because they are fun, cool pieces of kit that we enjoy, but none of them are necessary and many could be fabricated yourself for a lot less money. I use the word cruising because most of the toys are related to life aboard or travel rather than sailing.

Plastic Reduction

Govino Glasses

5 Cruising Toys

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