Life on board
Day 7
Life on board. If you are unaware of the living conditions on board our floating flat I’ll do my best to offer you a glimpse into life out here. We are guests in these seas, so we adjust and live like one. Let's start with the heads.
The heads. Not the bathroom, but the heads. There are two on board. The pumping and dumping routine we are required to adjust to becomes a nice minute arm workout. You might try and time up using the heads when the generator is running or when no one is around but the reality is, there is little to no privacy on board and you’ll start getting high-fived for combating your constipation. Oh, and don’t forget your Crocs in there, it's a slip and slide with mysterious liquid, especially at a forty degree angle.
Let's move onto the galley. Not the kitchen, but the galley. The galley can be cramped and overheat faster than you have time to chop the onions. There are four fans in each corner blowing hot air at you. Feels like a food truck, always busy, can only fit two people in at a time and you never know what’s gonna come out. The canned chicken fresh out of the oven hits differently out here. All jokes aside, we have been eating pretty well. This 40 ton boat crossing the North Pacific is filled with an endless supply of chocolate (until Chris gets his hands on it), a limited supply of fresh produce, more canned meat than I ever anticipated, and flying fish dried up on deck that are more likely to slap you in the face than end up on your plate @Evan and @Matus. An eclectic range of flavours.
Cooking for 16 people definitely has its challenges, like trying to boil potatoes with no water (my bad) or mistakenly using dishwasher soap to coat the spuds (shout out to you Dad). But there’s always laughs to be shared and food to be eaten, despite how it comes out.
Now onto personal hygiene. There is no shame in wearing the same outfit for a week straight, having permanent salty and sweaty hair (dreads growing for some), and crawling into your bunk feeling like a glue stick. What makes it manageable is everyone is in the same boat ;) It’s almost more alarming when someone walks past you smelling clean (post deodorant touch up) than when a whiff of BO permeates the ghettos. But we are all fastidious (previous word of the day) with our baby wipes and finally understand and appreciate the purpose of baby powder.
To sum it up, life is incomparable to anything I’ve ever experienced. I’m learning to deal with discomfort in an unknown territory with fifteen strangers. If this isn’t an adventure of a lifetime, I don’t know what is.
Maddie
