A Place For Everything

I ran into an old friend. She, like I, used to crew professionally on large yachts. Not your garden variety bareboat yachts, but big beautiful, gorgeous yachts.  The kind with exotic owners and  international crew.  Yachts that traveled with an assortment of luxurious accouterments.  Things that must be kept up nicely, a place for everything and everything in it's place.  New toys   for the rich and famous might mean custom storage accommodations being custom made, and post haste, before the next sail.

Yachts I worked aboard were kept well organized 24 hours a day, with only temporary disruptions for maintenance and upgrades. Many required that a project be cleaned up before the workers were allowed to quit for the day, even though the next day, they had to restage for  their repairs, all over again.

This was because the yacht must be kept ready to go at all times, not only for the entertainment whims of the owner and/or his entourage, but for safety and security reasons. One might be in a foreign port where something is brewing, and it's best to move along and find calmer harbors.

So a true yacht, has a place for everything and everything in its place.  When I bought my tiny little sailboat, a mere 30' , it was like having private crew quarters, but I still kept everything ship shape.  This enabled me to have great fun, as I could sail on my own whims.  It only took me 5-10 minutes to leave the harbor, once a decision had been made and I took to making these decisions  quite often, since my ridiculous work schedule enabled me to have lengthy amounts of time off.  But you need time off, when you've spent 6 weeks or 6 months, working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, taking care of others and their yachts. 

When I finally had a week or two or three off, I kept myself busy keeping my own little yacht in pristine shape and enjoyed many wonderful sails aboard her. I lived aboard her for over 10 years and enjoyed just about every precious moment spent on the sea. I was young and healthy, it was a grand life.

So my friend and I were discussing how we missed the travel, the big yachts, and how different our lives were ashore now. (This conversation was taking place a few years ago, when I was living on land in an apartment.)


She lamented that her new husband (of 4+ years) thought her a bit mad, because at home she continued to have a place for everything, and everything in it's place.

I knew the feeling. When I first moved in my home ashore, I went to great pains to put everything away neatly. Then I kept as much of it put away as I could or organized into certain spots where specific things lived.

We laughed about it, and I said as of late, I had sort of let myself go, let things get into a disarray on the home front, because I had discovered the apartment didn't tack upwind, matter of fact, it didn't tack at all!

For the land lubber, tacking on a yacht is to go from heeling over on one side, to bringing the sail across the deck and suddenly heeling to the other side. It was at that point, that if you had not put the yachtie things away with care, cabinets or drawers might fly open and spew their contents, leading to much embarrassment. If aboard the owners boat, they would glare, and say, well THAT needs fixing!  Or act totally disgusted or confused, WHAT is wrong with my yacht?  We don't have things rolling around on the sole,  not now, not ever!

My friend and I both mutually understood the need to have a place for everything and everything in its place, even if we did live on shore. Though, my friend volunteered that now she didn't line things up ever so neatly inside the cabinets anymore, afraid that things would get jostled, as her home too, seemed to stay firmly grounded now, and one could actually relax and even entertain the notion of a junk drawer or a hideous closet behind closed doors.

Her living with her husband who had never lived aboard a yachts and there fore didn't understand the need to have all this tidiness and organization, who  often thought her nuts or even worse, anal retentive for wanting everything so tidy and me with my past roommate, who thought me a bit mad, wanting things nice and tidy, put away, ready to sail.  I guess we both just like driving others nuts...


Now I am in my motorhome.  A friend has "chartered" my motorhome for a trip soon, so I am back in yachtie mode. 


A place for everything, and everything (securely) in its place. 


Maybe transitioning from land to a motorhome was easier for me, because of my sailing days at sea. 

I have to go now, I have things to put away, and places for them to be...

---

DearMissMermaid.Com Subscribe to Dear Miss Mermaid for 3 cents per day* Make A Donation* *Proceeds Help With Medical Mess Hurricanes and Hangovers By Dear Miss Mermaid Amazon (Buy 2, Ships Free) or Gone Crazy Special  $9.99