OK, I've really got to laugh about this one. We've been busy doing everything BUT keeping the boat tidy. Since we're "confined" to the bay right now as we're still not complete in our rig and sails and deck hardware ...and can only motor around, we've become pretty complacent about keeping things put away. No ocean swells, no heeling while underway, etc. Further, since hubby is working (again) on the salt water wash down system...our deck is looking a bit "foot-printy" all over the place and we've not washed it down for a couple days--no reason to haul buckets when the system will be back up and running shortly...
I knew that our friends (a couple with 6 year old daughter) would be visiting us "soon" while they were on their way from Northern California to their boat on Baja...and I was looking forward to word of their arrival.
I'd planned on using their visit as an excuse to get everything tidy, wash down the deck, dry off the brightwork, etc. I figured we'd have a day's notice and then I'd take time from other busy things to clean.
Ah, the best laid plans...just don't work out...
So, Saturday, David and I spent the day grubbing around the boatyard where we have, still, several
carloads of stuff to bring to the boat, throw away, sell, etc, before August 1st when our boatshed rental is done. We had loaded up another carload of stuff to bring to the boat (ah, for reference sake....that's about 8 dingy loads) and were on our way to ToysRUs at about 5:30 pm to get pool noodles (to cushion some things...) when we get a call from the visitors saying "we're an hour from San Diego, what are you'all doing?" so, after a few mental "oh, my God! they're here! and when did we last clean the litter box..." thoughts...we arranged to have them meet us at the marina where were tied up on a mooring.
We diverted from our errands, drove to the marina, rowed out to the boat, turned on the genset, plugged in the shop-vac, started up the cooker to make dinner, pulled down all the laundry that was hanging around the boat on (inside) lines drying, emptied the spare bed of all the piles of boat supplies that we'd stored there, clean, clean, cleaned, and put way the piles! of boat stuff we've been hauling from the boat shed. Oh, and stashed in the bilge the 40 two liter bottles that we'd just re-filled at the dock a couple days prior but which were sitting, still, on the charthouse floor.
I've never cleaned, put away, or stashed so much stuff so quickly in my life! Ah, but finally it was looking ok, dinner was done, the place was presentable and the visitors hadn't called to say "we're here" yet and we decided to have hubby run to the store to grab a bag of ice, some beer, and then figured the visitors would be here by the time he'd returned.
Sure enough, they called about 20 minutes later, and within 45 minutes David had linked up with them and rowed them out to the boat just as the sun was setting.
We had a great time together with our visitors and the next morning they were off to Mexico and we were back to our regular routine. Hubby and I promised ourselves that we'd never let things get so messy again!
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