Practicalities on board

My mom said she would be interested to know what I am glad to have, and what I wish I brought with me.

I wish I brought my yoga mat.  It seemed too big and silly to bring, but I am unable to find a suitable substitute.  I am making due with a bamboo mat over  a towel or a rubber carpet gripper. Even if if find one,  I don’t know if it will be that awesome no slip eco tread stuff like my ‘Jade’ mat (even if it isn’t perfect).

I wish for all the world that I had a great handvac.  One that plugs into US plugs and runs on 110 volts.  And had lots of accessories for getting into the cracks and crevices.  The boat gets dirty, even at sea, where there is no dirt.  

I wish we had more Kraft dinner for the kids.  I am glad to see them try new foods, but nothing seems to beat KD when they are really homesick.

I am glad I had the foresight to stock up on bathing suits from Value Village.  I have 7-8 and often wish I had more.  I live in them and they are my ‘wardrobe’.   I am also glad that I have lots of shoes.  Code may never understand, but there is a use for each pair, and I would consider 5 pairs (two pairs of thong sandles – which can be dressed up or down, a pair of J41 Mary Janes, a pair of Keens, and running shoes) to be the absolute minimum.  I haven’t really needed more, although there is always room (and a purpose) for more.

I am glad that I brought my basic usual cosmetics.  Just smelling like a nice Aveda product or Trader Joes Lavender Body Oil lifts my spirit.

I am happy that I outfitted the galley with ‘real’ (Corelle) dishes and that I have a real ceramic mug.  Plastic would have felt like we were camping or just making due.

I don’t need my hairdryer.  I brought our tennis racquets because they are relatively small and there is always a place to play, or so I thought.  I may be happy to have them later.

I am glad I learned to do needlepoint and I work on it a lot.  I am almost finished with my Blue Coral piece.  We estimated that there are about 22,500 stitches in that one piece.  I am worried that I should have used the basketweave (I think that is the one) rather than continental, but it is what it is).

I wonder weather we really needed to bring our scuba tanks.  It seemed like an obvious thing to bring, but so far, snorkeling has been more than sufficient. 

We threw out the microwave.  It was pre-installed on the boat, but we never used it.  Now the valuable space is an appliance garage and general storage.   It was great fun to throw the useless thing overboard 75 miles out at sea.  It didn’t work anyway.

I grateful that I brought my kitchenaid hand blender.  When we have ice (purchased at a marina) we fire up the generator and have frozen slushies.  I probably wrote about this before, but it is just heaven on a hot day, and we really feel like we are getting away with something miraculous.  I brought my hand mixer, on the otherhand, which is just taking up space.  I thought it might come in handy for baking.  In theory, I would be baking, but propane is such a premium that I hesitate to fire up the oven.  Besides, baked goods are far better from the ubiquitous patisseries and I cant figure out how to say ‘baking soda’ in Italian.

I wish we had maple syrup.  I should have packed more.  I packed too much jam.  Was I fearful Europeans may not have any? Peanut butter can be found here.  And I wish Code never bought a case of those Vienna sausages.  No one likes them, but he refuses to throw them out (or eat them).  They scare me.

I am glad that I purchased my spear gun for fishing (hmmmm, I just had a good idea for fish chum).   It has been my best purchase so far. 

I am shopping far less than I thought.  The speargun, my purse, and some things for the boys (a T-shirt each and some plastic army jets).  Before we left, Code bought me a white Helly Hansen foul-weather jacket.  It is awesome… it is windproof, waterproof, and immensely practical, not to mention that it is cool-looking and very hip among the boaty crowd. 

I wish I brought more of my cookbooks.  I have my little recipe notebook, which has some of favorites.  I also remember why I wrote down the Toll House cookie recipe in it.  It seemed so dopey to see it in there when I was in the states and I couldn’t figure out what possessed me to write it down, since every bag of Nestle chocolate chips always has the recipe on the bag. Now, it makes sense.  I first purchased that recipe book for my university semester abroad so I could bring my favorite recipes.  What a smart cookie I was!

Also, thanks mom for ‘lending me’ your Europe 101 book from your trip to Italy in the mid-80’s.  I don’t know if you know that you lent it to me.  Fortunately history does not change much (except they do make a reference to a weird new disease that has affected 140 gay men in San Francisco) and that book has been a wealth of knowledge for your daughter who apparently slept through most of high school history.  I promise, I will return it.

I really regret not bringing more books for the kids.  I thought they would read ‘on-line’ or we would find books here.   Big mistake.