Disconnecting from Civilisation
Whilst on the BIOT boat a few days back, we were merrily extolling the virtues of being away from civilisation and enjoying it, not feeling the urge to read the daily newspaper. Huh, those poor BIOT people, in the middle of the Indian Ocean on the Diago Garcia base, with all the trappings of high-speed internet and fresh daily newspapers flown in. It was at about this point that the British Navy policewoman we’d been conversing with thought it a good idea to update us on all the important goings-on the world since we left Gan five weeks prior. She delivered the shock news…”Michael Jackson is dead!”. We did a pretty convincing job of looking like absolute idiots as we were totally dumbfounded and initially thought it was a BIOT leg-pull. I verified the news from a few other independent sources and procured a month old second hand Times (from 27 June!) which pretty much brought us up to speed.
We are fairly sure you are all aware of this news but it does beg the question; did none of you feel it necessary to inform us of this headline!? Just in case there is any further earth shattering news before we get back (Take That reforming, Dubai real estate market stabilising etc) the email is now up and running so PLEASE drop us a mail…
We commenced (and ended) our mourning period by digging out three MJ albums from the bottom of the IPod and played them nonstop until they wore us out. (Well, until Helen starting complaining).
24 July 2009
Today is Erin’s 11th birthday. The birthday girl requested pancakes for breakfast and opened her presents while they were being prepared – a spa kit to make your own essential oils and soaps and some cosmetics. Today she is going to have a DIY spa treatment day. We have dead sea mud packs for an all-over body glow, to be followed by a facial mud pack, a hot oil hair treatment and head massage, a manicure and a pedicure. And all at a fraction of top resort prices! Bryan is keen to get the head massage and hot oil hair treatment too, so I reckon it will be a busy day.
Part of this adventure has been learning how to live close to nature and dispense with some of life’s given luxuries and deal with challenges of shortages of some of the necessities too. Though it is a long time since I have lived in the UK, I still remember the long hot summers that always resulted in drought warnings, bans on the use of hose pipes etc. In Dubai, water is used and abused quite readily. Dubai has one of the highest per capita consumptions of water in the world (without the web I can’t google the statistical specifics of this so you will have to take my word for it). Regardless of where I have lived though, the fact that I can turn on the tap and get good clean and safe water has always been a given.
During this trip our drinking water has consisted of rainwater that we catch- the water is held in two large water tanks that are built into the boat- forward and aft. In total, we can carry about 400 litres. A number of the cruising boats we have encountered have water makers – these are effectively high-pressure pumps that push seawater through very fine membranes, removing the saline and pumping the remainder out as drinking quality water. By all accounts, these watermakers, use a fair amount of energy (electricity) and takes gallons of seawater to produce a reasonably small quantity of water. With more energy generating options onboard this may be a consideration for the future, but for now, our only source of replenishing water is through catching rainwater.
I still remember the rain butt at the back of my Gran’s house many years back and in an ideal world catching rain on board would be a simple matter of having some drains and a big bucket to catch it all in. We borrowed the idea of trying to turn our bimini (sun cover at the back of the boat) into a rain catcher and I stitched in a hose teat with the intent of simply adding a water hose and draining water straight into the tanks. This has not proved to be at all successful. Some weeks back we latched onto using plastic hand-operated water pumps. When it rains, we bung the deck any runoffs, causing the water to gather along the side decks and run back to the side of the cockpit. We sit on either side of the boat and pump like crazy sending water via the hoses into plastic buckets. These, in turn, are emptied into the water holding tanks, passing first through a filter to remove any deck residue (we do wash the decks down first!).
It has rained here roughly every ten days. The consequence of low water is not just the drinking water issue but bear in mind this is also our washing water. Erin and I have the potential to be quite large consumers of washing water – not you understand because we claim to wash any more than the boys, but our long hair is pretty difficult to wash on a cupful. We tend to compromise by using saltwater to start the wash cycle and then doing a final rinse in freshwater. Yesterday’s low water (with no promise of rain) resulted in us having to undertake a full saltwater wash cycle (not something I have been looking forward to). The tip we were given was to put some fabric conditioner (softener) in the saltwater causing it to soften and making it a passable alternative. Ummm?? I tried it – but was not convinced! All I can say is that I was positively ecstatic when late yesterday the heavens opened and we started our rain catching. The rains were taunting us a bit – it would rain for a bucket and a half, then stop for twenty minutes then start again. Bear in mind Bryan and I are sitting in the rain while we catch it so it makes for a more pleasant experience if it is all in one major downpour. The result was a good one though, with several rain squalls last night and this morning we have now completely filled the empty back tank and mostly filled the front. I can freshwater hair wash again!!!
25 July 2009
Most of the ‘yachties’ here have made the cruising lifestyle a long-term occupation, rather than an extended jaunt as it is for us. As a consequence, not only are we learning from our own experiences of what works and what doesn’t, we get to see first-hand what various practical examples these long-term sailors use that make cruising much easier. I have started a list of ‘things to bring next time’. This is a fairly eclectic mix at present of different foods that we wish we had bought with us, to changes and modifications we would like on the boat, to technical gizmos and gadgets that would help us out next time around. Don’t get me wrong – it may be some time before we have an opportunity again but I think we have moved from the ‘if’ to the ‘when’.
Food wise, we have certainly over catered on some items and under catered on others. We have an embarrassing quantity of tinned fish onboard – especially tinned sardines. Sardines only really work for me on hot buttered toast with sliced tomatoes and lashings of salt. We have no toaster, the bread I make is woefully inadequate for toast, we have no fresh tomatoes and we have only the tiniest bit of salt left – you get the picture. I tried sardines and couscous. It didn’t work at all. Things we need more of though are flour (we still have enough for bread but not for any additional cakes etc), tinned vegetables (we didn’t know we would like them!) and spicy noodles (Erin has added this as she has a real taste for Curry flavoured instant noodles!). We could use more eggs, butter and had only three onions left until we had a new batch donated by another boat.
Gadgets and gizmos. It is a wonder our oven has not been thrown overboard. The bottom tray is only useful for burning things and the top doesn’t get hot enough. The biggest problem here is gas – the refills of our primus gas bottles in Gan were not done properly so we got barely any use from them. We had talked ourselves out of a bread maker (energy consumption too high) but traditional bread making is pretty time consuming (yes I know I have hours to spare each day, but would rather spend it swimming amongst the coral than waiting for the bread to rise twice!) I am going to try pressure cooked bread and have a great recipe for making stovetop fudge drop cookies- so there are compromises that can be made. What I would really like next time is an SSB (Single Side Band) radio- this can be used for sending and receiving email and allows you to have radio contact with other SSB users on shared frequencies (pretty much regardless of where they are). We have also both agreed that we need to look at some alternative energy sources – generators (wind or fuel) and maybe solar. Extra energy would enable us to power some of the gadgets I mention.
Running through these things makes me realise we haven’t done too badly. We certainly are in no danger of starving. We still have “treats” such as Pringles, fizzy drinks, some sugar lollies, and Bryan has a secret stash of chocolate (Bounty bars, Toblerone etc – Erin just read this and said with surprise in her eyes and voice, “is there Toblerone? Is there?!!”) and if I am really nice to him then he will share a bite or two. It is gratifying to know we didn’t completely cock up the food purchasing and that the kids have become pretty adventurous in what they will try. We have had some successes too – homemade tortilla bread yesterday with refried beans and halloumi – great quesadillas! I think the list will have a few more additions on it yet- and I am sure when we reach ‘civilisation’ again there will be things we are desperate to try again.
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