Living In Limited Space

Marathon, FL
No LL

Many people wonder how we manage to live in so little space. After all, we do almost all our living in a space 10x18 feet (180 square feet, 17 square meters). Actually, the living is the easy part and we don't feel cramped at all. The really hard part is maintaining and repairing within the same space.

For example, our dinghy sprung a leak. Water leaked in through a crack in the fiberglass. I've tried again and again to fix it with various temporary repair methods, but the leak continued to grow worse. For months, we have had to bail the dinghy every time we get in to it and while en route. Repairing it is difficult because either (a) we are in port and we use the dinghy every day to go to shore or (b) we are en route and the dinghy is in its chocks upside down under the mast. Therefore, the inside of the dinghy is always either wet or inaccessible.

The only previous time we got to do work in the interior of the dinghy was when we spent three days at Blackbeard Sailing Club in New Bern. There, we were able to put the dinghy on the dock to do repairs.

Yesterday I ran out of patience. We did something that we never attempted before. Libby and I managed to lift the dinghy up to the forward deck and set it down right-side-up. That gave me the access I needed. Yesterday afternoon I applied fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin to the places where there were cracks. This morning, I repainted the interior of the dinghy. (See the picture) By tomorrow, it should be ready to splash once again.



Inconvenience in lifting is not the whole problem. We also have to find space in our limited room to stow tools, repair materials and never used emergency gear. In my starboard lazarette compartment, for example, I store an emergency starting battery, storm sails, bulky type 1 life vests that we never wear, and my paint locker storing assorted paints, chemicals, cleaners, and brushes. That, combined with the tool boxes and compartments inside the cabin that we dedicate to tools and parts, amounts to about 1/3 of our total storage capacity. We use more volume to store tools and maintenance supplies than we have for food.

The most difficult of all jobs is to do interior spring cleaning and or interior painting. To do that, we have to remove everything from inside the boat. Where do we put it while cleaning? Up on deck of course. While doing that, our boat looks like a floating junkyard. Heaven help us if a thunderstorm came along while we were in the middle of that process.

Try to imagine vacuum cleaning your car from the inside while you have yourself and one passenger in the car with the vacuum cleaner.

By the way, lest you think that I am bragging about my superior skills in doing difficult jobs; let me reveal my screw up. When the painting job was all done, I took off my disposable gloves, picked up the materials, disposed of the trash and went back in to the cabin for a cup of coffee. When I sat down for the coffee, I saw gray paint on the floor of the cabin. How did that happen? I discovered one of the disposable gloves stuck to the bottom of my shoe. Sigh. I had to scramble to back track and clean up all the paint spot footprints where I walked before the paint dried.