Laundry

If you're cruising or maybe just off the dock for weeks on end, laundry becomes an issue.  TC & Kelly aboard s/v Wind Strider share with us their method for producing clean clothes while away from shore:

In my-not-so-humble opinion, laundromats suck.  Marina laundries even more.  Few and far between, they are a quality craps shoot.  Tending to be hot and steamy, they may or may not have fully functioning machines.  Even if the washers function, there are other probable problems like not getting all the soap out.  Then, what was left behind by the previous user?  For instance, boat waxing rags leaving all kinds of muck in the machine?  Dryers...well, they take forever.  Everything is also expensive.  Further, the facilities tend to be crowded...one is lucky if the crowd is friendly.

No sir, I don't like it and would rather spend time on the boat vice a marina laundry.

So, a search for an alternative was deduced, experimented with and the results are presented.

The basics:  Wash and dry.  There may be a few intermediate steps in the process; sort, load into water with cleaning agent, agitate, wring out cleaning water, load into rinse water, agitate, wring.  Most of these are normally done by automatic washing machines.  Hands on are only required for the sorting, initial loading and transfer to the dryer.  Lucky these are modern times and we are not living in grandma's era huh?  I promise I don't envy grandma and I am too lazy to do all she did.

First, an admittedly smart assed assumption:  Everyone is familiar with solar clothes dryers.  This is the clothes drying method used since ancient days where clothing is placed such that circulating air and the shining sun can dry them.  Modern versions generally include a stretched, horizontal line and the use of clothes pins to secure the clothing to the line.  Sail boaters know lifelines and sheets work well for this purpose.

How to do the wash?  I had stumbled across the Wonderwash a few years ago and thought to purchase one.  Reviews were good, but it is a one-use-product, only used to do laundry.  I don't like one-use-products aboard, especially fairly large (size of a small microwave) one-use-products.  There is just not enough space. 

So, alternatives were looked for.  The internet and youtube can provide a lot of information, some is quite entertaining and I came across this 'cheap and easy DIY washing machine'.  Now this could be done easily as both the bucket and holey bucket were already aboard!  The on board bucket, besides being a just a bucket, seconded as the bottom half for a 'Bucket Head' vacuum cleaner.  With a lid, the holey bucket, suspended into the water next to the boat, is a live seafood container also known as a 'crab condo'.

Instead of the drilled plunger for an agitator though, a Breathing Mobile Washer was purchased w/o a handle.  It is small enough to store very easily (inside a bucket).  The boat hook already aboard has a compatible screw-in portion and could double as a handle.

So, bucket and agitator:  Check.  How to get rid of the water (wring) efficiently?

It is important to effectively get rid of the wash cycle water prior to rinsing.  The more soapy water removed, the less rinse water required.  While the sit squish method in the video worked, my 220 pounds did not 'wring' the clothing well enough and they came out wet.  The spin method just took too long and was labor intensive.  Hand wringing is a viable option.  But unless the clothes-damaging, around-the-lifeline-stanchion method was used, the bare hand method is just not effective enough.

Then a buddy suggested a wringer, an actual hand crank, roller wringer like grandma used to use.  They are still available!  Several were looked at and the DynaJet BL-38 was selected because of its simplicity.  A couple Magma T10-380 grill mounts easily replaced the stock mounts to enable rail mounting.  Mounting and adjusting the wringing pressure will be dependant upon the model purchased and your personal preferences.

Bucket, agitator and wringer:  Check.  Cleaning agent....

Strider only holds 30 gallons total fresh water.  Tough to do laundry with so little.  The first thought was to use salt water for the wash (detergent) portion then rinse with fresh.  Via cruiser forums, this was a bad idea.  More fresh water would be used to rinse the salt out than if fresh was used in the first place.  It is critical to get the salt out!  Salt will attract water (hence rice in the salt shaker) and the clothing, or bed sheets, will always feel damp.  Other forums discussed how much soap to use etc.

Then a reference was found to use ammonia instead of detergent.  An ancient cleaning solution, the Romans actually collected urine to convert to ammonia for use in their laundries.  Now, before anyone says 'yuck' or 'smells bad' or 'are you nuts' or 'piss' - ask yourselves how did the Romans get their togas so white?  And they did not walk around smelling like urine (BO maybe, but not urine).

So ammonia has a strong smell.  Use it in a well ventilated area like the stern of the boat.  Further, it is an organic, completely natural, disinfecting cleaner and not a bleaching agent - it will not change the color of the clothes.  Last, and best of all, it evaporates.  That's right, evaporates.  Translation:  No Rinsing is Required.

How much:  3/4 cup clear ammonia to 2.5 gallons of water is a good baseline and was found to work very well.  Make sure to get clear ammonia and not sudsy ammonia.  Sudsy ammonia has a small amount of detergent...which will require rinsing.

Bucket, agitator, wringer, cleaning agent:  Check, check, check and check.

The rest is just technique.  2.5 gallons of water and 3/4 cup ammonia in a 5 gallon bucket is not a lot of water/space so small loads are required or the clothes will not get an adequate agitation.  Since the wash water/ammonia solution will be used over and over, sort the clothing into small loads from lightly soiled to most heavily soiled and this is the order of washing:  Lightly soiled to more heavily soiled.

Details:  A small amount of clothing was loaded and agitated for about 2 minutes.  A lid was put on the bucket to prevent ammonia evaporation and load left to soak.  After about 30 minutes, the load was again agitated for about 2 minutes.  The wash cycle was now complete!  The trick now was to conserve as much of the wash water as possible.  Items were removed one at a time and some water was hand wrung back into the bucket.  Then the item was put through the wringer.  Smaller items were folded a couple times to increase the wringing pressure.  Larger items, like towels and bed linens had to be folded to make them narrow enough to fit into the wringer aperture.  Each wrung item was then set aside for hanging.  After the entire load was wrung, the next load was placed in the bucket and agitated for 2 minutes.  While the new wash load was soaking for 30 minutes, the wrung load was hung to dry.

100% water recovery is not possible and if there are too many loads, the water level or load amount will have to be adjusted.  If the loads are really dirty, a fresh batch of water/ammonia may be required.  Your option of course.

All in all, each load required about 40 minutes from loading to hung for drying.  30 minutes was soaking time, essentially down time available for something else like relaxing or another boat chore.

In the end, the left over cleaning solution was often pretty dirty.  Most times, the dirty water was just poured over the side (organic, natural remember) via the cockpit drains to help keep them clean.  Relatively clean solution was used to clean the sinks, countertops, around the toilet etc.

The results were impressive.  My wife, a skeptic with a nose able to detect a mouse fart, was thoroughly amazed and loved the results.  Fresh, clean, crisp bed linens!  The boat buddies with us decided to try it and are now purchasing their own equipment.

Cost:

1 Home Depot buckets              ~$3.00 (free since it was already aboard)

1 Home Depot bucket lid          ~$1.00 (free since it was already aboard)

1 Whisper w/o handle               ~$14.00

1 DynaJet Wringer                    ~$140.00

2 Magma Grill Mounts             ~$50.00 ea

Ammonia                                  cheap

The only cost I don't like was for the grill mounts.  They work great...just hate the cost. 

The formula is simple:  2.5 gallons fresh water + 3/4 cup ammonia + agitator + wringer + clothes line + sunshine = fresh, clean, crisp clothing.

Sewing Project: Shower Caddy

Livia and Carol cruising aboard s/v Estrellita 5.10b have a little project that any tropical cruiser is going to love...

So, perhaps a bit of TMI, but we are cockpit shower-ers. In close quarters with other boats we wear swimsuits or wait for dark, and when not in close quarters with other boats, as we like to say “What you see with binoculars is your own damn fault”.

After years of dealing with shampoo and soap bottles jammed into the small opening where our cockpit shower exits the cockpit combing, with our new sewing machine I made a caddy for our stern pulpit using Sunbrella, a UV resistant mesh product like Phifertex and some 2” velcro. I measured the distance between bars, added the circumference of the bars (twice) and velcro width (four times) and seam allotment (twice) and that was the length of the sunbrella fabric to cut. For the width I measured between our dinghy engine hoist and dinghy engine bracket (plus seam allotment – twice). After that I was really free handing the mesh and the pockets look a little lumpy close up. Good enough for us!

Inside the caddy fit 4 reusable squeeze bottles I picked up at REI.

Sometimes it is the little boat improvements that are the most exciting. Our cockpit transformation is 2/3 of the way done: cockpit cushions (check), shower caddy (check) and now we need new mesh pockets near the dodger to replace our shredded ones.

Warm Boots

The time of year is coming when this idea will be very welcome indeed. Warm dry sea boots? What a luxury! As usual, Drew at Sail Delmarva shows us how to have them for a very minimal investment:

A few days ago I was following a thread on a sailing forum regarding how to best dry a pair of high-dollar leather and Goretex seaboots. Suggestions from experts ranged all over, but missed that most obvious answer; a boot drier. Perhaps this won't resonate with warm climate folk, but it should; I've seen enough mold and mildew in Florida to make it the state plant... if it were a plant.

I built this one15 years ago in an evening, for the specific purpose of drying wet snow gear, but it has certainly been used far more for rain soaked gear.

Even the most sodden boots, shoes, or gloves are dry, warm, and fresh in a few hours. Odor is eliminated, as there is no chance for anything to grow. Wet gear has a proper place, and space is conserved since less gear is needed. The materials came entirely from the might-need bin, but I suppose it could be built for $30 if everything were purchased. It could be made longer, for a larger family, with very little change in cost.

The fan provides just enough flow. A bit of flashing creates an internal baffle, directing all of the air flow over the bulb before it goes to the pipe outlets. A 60W bulb seems to provide just enough warmth, but a larger bulb or lamp-base heater could adapt the design to larger sizes. Hardware cloth keeps small fingers and trash out. Pipes could be made longer for sea boots. The unused pipes are plugged by dropping a large bolt in the hole, focusing the heat on a reduced number of holes. The weight is sufficient to keep it from tipping over.

• 110v computer fan
• ceramic socket with 60W bulb 
• box and switch
• a salvaged cord
• 3/4" lumber and some screws
• 3/4" PVC pipe stubs
• a bit of flashing and some hardware cloth
• paint

What would I change? I should have built it for 8 pipes (4 boots + 4 gloves) to better serve 2 people. I should have made the pipes just a little longer (no so much that it could tip over) and drilled a cross-wise hole near the end (so that they cannot be blocked if the boot is sitting on the end). But Jessica is off to college, so it's really just me playing outside, and it works quite well as it is.

I've been tempted to build something similar into the boat--it's really sweet to have warm, dry shoes in the winter--and perhaps I will if I start cruising more in the off season, now that school schedules don't matter.  Perhaps something that diverts warm, dry air from the mini-dehumidifier.

Small Clothes Drying

Paul on s/v Solace has an easy answer for drying small clothing items - made from items you probably already have on board:

Some years ago, we were in the Pacific islands and my wife bought at a market, a round plastic hanger with multiple clothes pegs hanging off it. She used this to hang her underwear and socks from, both outside and inside the boat. Well, eventually the plastic thing broke and she lamented the loss of her "never, never holder". She says, "underwear should never be seen hanging off life lines or even a clothes line".

So I set about one evening to duplicate what she had before. I used two garden irrigation "T's and some reinforced hose to make the basic shape. I drilled through the plastic hose and placed short sections of about 3mm line through; held from slipping through, with just an overhand knot on top. Next I drilled the pegs and did a similar knot to hold the pegs. Finally I made a bridle in the middle cross piece and placed a cheap small carabiner at the center of the bridle by which to hang the contraption.

About 1 hour to make and less than $10

Borax: Stopping Mildew and Rot on the Cheap... and How the EPA Can Make Everything Complicated

Today we get a little chemistry from Drew over at Sail Delmarva:

Websters' version

Borax: 1. a white crystalline compound that consists of a hydrated sodium borate Na2B4O7·10H2O, that occurs as a mineral or is prepared from other minerals, and that is used especially as a flux, cleansing agent, and water softener, as a preservative, and as a fireproofing agent.


EPA's Version

Borax: pesticide products containing boric acid and its sodium salts (borax) are registered in the U.S. for use as insecticides, fungicides and herbicides. As insecticides, some act as stomach poisons in ants, cockroaches, silverfish and termites, while others abrade the exoskeletons of insects. As herbicides, some cause desiccation or interrupt photosynthesis in plants, while others suppress algae in swimming pools and sewage systems. As fungicides, several are wood preservatives which control decay-producing fungi in lumber and timber products.

http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/factsheets/0024fact.pdf

While generally considered safe, if I claim a cleaning formulation containing borax keeps mildew away, I have to register it with the EPA before marketing. But I can sell you a box of borax without registration. Go figure. Is it really about toxicity? I don't really think so. It is about twice as toxic as washing soda (LD50 borax and boric acid are about 2500 mg/kg BM. Although borax is suspected in certain reproductive problems in laboratory animal testing, it is not associated with cancer and does not bio-accumulate.).

It seems that anything that works must be poison, or at least regulated. That is governments purpose.

______________________

As part of a future Practical Sailor article I began exploring fumigating agents and anti-mildew products. I truth, most projects I take on are because I've had some troubles related to the subject in question and thus have some understanding and some additional motivation. Every boat has at least one damp spot prone to mildew, and in my case, I have a basement prone to wet carpets every few years. Not flooding, but mildew potencial.

I began exploring the formulations of some successful products. Concrobium is one, dredfully over priced at the local hardware, particularly considering you can look up the underlying pattents (EP 1104450 B1) and learn that each quart bottle ($18.00) contains nothing but:

• 1 tbs baking soda
• 2 tbs washing soda
• 2 tbs TSP

Simple and effective. The chemistry makes perfect sense; it is applied without rinsing and thus leaves behind a thin alkiline coating that repells bacterial and fungal growth (fungi require acid conditions) and provides no food for growth (soaps contain fatty acids and make great fungi food). More is not better because it is used without rinsing, the limitied concentration is important.

That got me thinking, so I began trying other variations including my favorite, also in 1 quart:

• 1 tbs baking sopa
• 1 tbs borax
• 1 tbs TSP

If there is grease or some stuborn soil, washing first with Simple Green or laundry detergent followed by a rinse makes sense. But get the soap out.

I've been testing all three on some mildewed carpet sections, cleaning by scrubbing lightly and then extracting with a vacuum. Which is best? After 6 months they are both perfect, although the borax version killed the smell a bit faster.

______________________

Other Applications

Preventing Wood Rot

Borax is VERY effective in preventing wood rot. I've used it myself mixed with ethylene glycol (Goolge it) to preserve a common pine totem pole in damp soil and remain impressed; it's staying as though it were pressure treated, 6 years and counting. West Systems Epoxy has posted on this subject. The National Park Service posted this on preserving totem poles in the PNW with borate/glycol.

Bugs

Obviously, they can't stand boric acid. One of the most common extermination products, particularly around kitchens and bedrooms (works on matresses). It's not going to work on the flying pests, though, the only ones I have trouble with. Darn.

Wooden Decks

Seems like a good cleaning choise. Should help keep the algae away. Limit the TSP if you wish to be bay-friendly. Try it on your home deck for a little boost to the pressure treatment.

Combine it with some bleach as needed.

Sails

A less alkiline variation is well known and should keep the mildew away. Reduce the dose:

• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp borax

 ________________________

Oh, the power of good marketing. I swear I'm not just trying to be trying to be cheap. Furthermore, I'm a chemical engineer and have no phobia regarding synthetic chemicals. I'm not pushing this because of some hidden green agenda or because it is less toxic. The strength of these formulations is basic:

• No organic mildew food
• Mildly alkiline film
• Borate as mildewstat

I'm also reviewing some nice complex synthetic formulations that promise to be more water resistant. We'll see.

You have got to be kidding

Does your boat have solid tubing all the way from the bow to the stern? Then perhaps this post is not for you.  But if instead you have actual lifelines, then you need to hear what Mike & Rebecca on s/v Zero to Cruising have to say:

Yesterday, Rebecca and I were walking the beach and as we navigated along the sometimes slippery rocks, we kept our eyes open for any bits of treasure that may have washed up on shore. The other day we found a good fishing Yo Yo (hand real) while yesterday, I spied a bright pink clothes pin (clothes peg). I mean no offense to anyone who might have purchased such an item but at 4 for $14.99, I think these seriously belong in the “more money than brains” category.

The pink pin is stupid expensive, not to mention the fact that
it only works on rails and not on lifelines.

  Clothes pins are one of those items that would-be cruisers sometimes agonize over, assuming they spend too much time on internet forums and not enough time sailing. Rest assured, marine chandleries will be all too happy to trade you your money for marinized versions. We, fortunately, never fell prey to this. We have used several dollar store varieties over the last few years and have come to find that the basic wooden version that your Mom used to use fit the bill just perfectly. They are cheap, they don’t fail due to UV exposure like their plastic cousins do and, they’re cheap. Did I mention that already? Of course, they aren’t quite as pretty as the 4 for 15 buck variety so, if that’s a concern of yours when displaying your underwear for your boat neighbors to inspect, you might want to try the big buck versions instead.

High Tech Towels

Scott on s/v Valkier recommends these hi-tech towels:

We were having space storage issues with our regular towels as well as them staying damp forever.  I did a lot of reading of reviews on a lot of brands of the new high tech towels and finally came down to the Discovery Trecking brand.  They were very expensive and the only reason we ended up getting them was a gift card we got.  We bought 5 of them and it is all we have used now for the last 6 months or more.   We purchased the largest size they had and it is huge. I probably would have tried the next size down if I had known how huge these are.  Remember I’m saying that as a 6’2″guy.  In retrospect I would now spend my own hard earned money for them.

The Good

• 5 of these take the same amount of storage space as one of our cotton towels did.
• Even as big as these towels are you can fold/roll one up small enough to stick in a pocket.
• These towels are also the silver treated anti-microbial kind that don’t grow mildew.
• We just wash and dry them with the rest of the cloths and they seem to take it just fine.
• Using them is a bit different than a normal towel.  They sort of stick to your skin as your trying to wipe yourself off and end up kind of just rolling over your skin.  You get used to it and I think it works as well if not better than normal.  It’s kinda freaky amazing how dry they will get you with just a single swipe.  If you give three or four really good rubs to your head it leaves your hair very dry also. assuming you have short hair like me I guess.

The Negative

• The negative is the cost. They are expensive comparatively. We bought our very nice thick cotton towels from a guy selling them in at a flea market for 2 dollars each. You can get cheap wall mart towels for 4 or 5 dollars. I just hope these last for years seeing we laid out about 130 dollars for all 5 of them.

Conclusion

So far we are very very happy with these towels. They dry us very well, they dry out very fast, they haven’t ever gotten a mucky odor and they take up very little space.  Here is a link to where we bought them on amazon.  Given the free shipping they ended up cheaper from there than anywhere else at the time we bought them.

Discovery Trecking Towels

WonderWash

How do you wash your clothes onboard?  Some use a 5-gallon bucket and a plunger to do the work.  Lotte on s/v Lunde shows us a more elegant solution to the problem:

A few years ago we got a bit of a gem costing nothing, but it is only today that I have consecrated it.  Most of all, to test whether I should make an extra effort to find storage for it, but also because the towel stack was empty and the sun shone.

WonderWash is a hand-powered washing machine - a wash ball with crank if you wish - you can wash up to approx. 2 kg clothes at a time.  Without using much water.  Or soap.   And no electricity.

It is super simple.  By pouring in hot water, and attaching the screw cap, a small excess pressure will be built up as the air that is in the container is heated by the water and thereby expands.  This pressure helps washing solution to penetrate into the fibers and there is only a need to rotate the crank handle for a few minutes before the clothes are ready to be rinsed.

It sounds promising and environmentally friendly - and I must say that after today's test I wish I could find room for the little laundry helper.  I put in a little too much soap so I had to use some extra water to rinse with, but apart from that I can easily see the point.  Not just for a boat, it would also suit perfectly if you do not wash so many clothes at a time and/or do much hand washing.

But despite the successful test, our WonderWash will have to return to its place in the shed because I simply cannot cram it into anywhere onboard.

If you want to see WonderWash in operation:

[Editor's note: Apologies for my poor editing of Google Translate's translation from the original Danish.]

Better living thru chemistry

While Jane was Back Home Again In Indiana, I decided to tackle a pretty disgusting task: cleaning out the shower pan in the aft head.

After living aboard all these years, I am embarrassed to admit that all I have ever done was to clean off the hair catcher. And slowly but surely the pan got dirtier and dirtier. Despite bleach dousings, a layer of hair, bacteria, and what Joe of s/v Tropic Star once termed "human chutney", all in a matrix of soap scum had built up in there

I attacked it first with a scraper, then with a variety of products designed to remove soap scum. Without much luck. Finally I settled in with wet/ dry sand paper - but even that didn't work well - the gummy deposit slowly rolled up in little balls.

While frustratedly sipping a beer, it came to me: work on the other end of the molecule! Soap scum is the insoluble calcium and magnesium salts of long chain organic acids. All of those water-based household products work on the tiny acid/salt end of the molecule, and further require a chemical reaction with it to work effectively. I wetted a rag with mineral spirits and simply wiped the scum off! The mineral spirits dissolved the scum by dissolving the long organic end of the scum. Really, it just wiped off.

With a clean surface, a coat of Brightsides urethane enamel spread cleanly without fisheyes, and really spiffed it up.

---

This post originally appeared on Windborne in Puget Sound.

No more Mr. Clean

Please welcome new contributors  Christie and Matt aboard s/v Kaleo. As their first contribution, they offer us tips on cleaning supplies made from commonly available ingredients:

Who doesn’t like a clean house? Whether it be out to sea or ashore, we’ve found a few simple recipes that help us keep Kaleo shining inside from stem to stern.

Yet you won’t find Mr. Clean or Windex lurking under our galley sink.

With just a few basic items that you most likely have on hand (water, vinegar, baking soda, tea tree oil), you can do almost all of your household cleaning, save money, and keep your home free of the toxins found in many store-bought cleaning products.
Here are a few recipes that will help you do most of your everyday cleaning:

General Surface Cleaner

• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon tea tree oil

Combine in a spray bottle, shake to blend, and use to clean general surfaces such as counter tops, sinks and the stove. Do not rinse.

Tea tree oil is antiseptic, germicidal, antifungal, and antibacterial agent making it a very effective surface cleaner.


Mold and Mildew Eliminator
Using the same recipe as above, wipe down surfaces in high-mold or high-humidity areas. Tea tree oil is a natural fungus fighter but if you encounter large amounts of mold, or black mold, however, call a mold-removal specialist.

Head (Toilet) Cleaner

• 50% water
• 50% white vinegar

Mix in a small spray bottle and use for head surfaces, the toilet bowl and wiping down the gel coat shower pan. If you’re concerned about the smell of vinegar, you can add a few drops of essential oil to your mix, but know that the odor of vinegar disappears as it evaporates.
In addition, about once per month we run a pint of undiluted white vinegar into the toilet, flush once and let it sit overnight to fight the salt water deposits that build up.

Glass Cleaner

• 1 cup rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar

Mix the ingredients into a spray bottle for an effective glass cleaner. It also works well on the chrome faucets in the galley and head and even on the stainless steel dorades and rails on deck.

Trash Can Deodorizer

• 1 teaspoon tea tree oil
• 1 cup baking soda
• Oil absorbent cloth
  

Mix the two ingredients thoroughly, ensuring all lumps are removed. Place a (fresh) piece of absorbent cloth on the bottom of the trash can and sprinkle this mixture over it. Change the pad and deodorizer every other week or so.


A few other natural deodorizers

• Boil 1 tablespoon of vinegar in 1 cup of water to eliminate unpleasant cooking odors
• Baking soda is excellent for absorbing odors in the fridge or icebox

Laundry Detergent

• 4 cups of water
• ⅓ bar of natural soap, grated
 (this is where the scent will come from in the detergent, so go with something you like)
• ½ cup washing soda (not baking soda)
• ½ cup of Borax (20 Mule Team)
• 5-gallon bucket for mixing
• 3 gallons of water
• (optional) A few drops of scented oil such as tea tree or lavender which will overpower the soap (especially if you choose unscented)

First, mix the grated soap in a saucepan with 4 cups of water, and heat on low until the soap is completely dissolved. Add hot water/soap mixture to 3 gallons of water in the 5-gallon bucket, stir in the washing soda and Borax, and continue stirring until thickened. Let the mix sit for 24 hours and it’s ready to go. Use 3/4 cup per full load. You can store this in gallon jugs aboard and fill a water bottle to take to the laundromat.

Bug Trap – Not really a cleaning product but one we use when those nasty fruit flies visit.

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2-3 drops of dish soap

Cut the top off a small plastic cup. Add apple cider vinegar and drops of dish soap. Place on your kitchen counter and within minutes the little buggers will be swimming. Apple cider vinegar attracts the bugs and the dish soap traps them on entry.
Happy (and healthy) cleaning!

Editor's note: Please don't confuse washing soda (sodium carbonate, NA₂CO₃) with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, NAHCO₃). Tho the names and formulae are similar, they are very different chemicals.  One is suitable for use as an eyewash (the bicarbonate) and the other could cause blindness if you get it in your eyes (the carbonate).

A challenge

This is a project, it is boat-related, and it qualifies as small, tho the effects are potentially huge. Here is a challenge issued by Livia aboard s/v Estrellita 5.10b:

Many of my non-boating friends are outdoors enthusiasts of some sort and most outdoors enthusiasts (I hope) make it a practice to pack out all of their own trash and a piece or two of someone else's. When hiking I would always grab other trash and pack it out (within reason), in part because I wanted to keep the forest clean, but also in part because I realize that it is surprisingly easy to litter on accident – things fall out of your pocket, or blow away, etc.

Similarly I think there are two kinds of boaters: the kind that has littered on accident by losing a few things overboard…and those who lie ;)

On a boat, on an extended cruise, I’ve had more difficulty adopting my practice of packing out some communal trash. Reason #1: There is soooo much plastic trash lying around that I feel overwhelmed. Reason #2: Because we tend to stay remote as long as possible, we have to carry our trash around for a long period of time and stowing it becomes an issue.

I recently read in a BC magazine that they estimate that half of the plastic trash on BC’s beaches is industrial but half is from, yes, you guessed it, “recreational marine users”. Ahem. That’s *us* kids.

What I have decided to do is to commit to something simple, that we can manage aboard, but that hopefully covers at least our own accidental littering (if and when it happens despite our best efforts), if not covering some of the accumulation as well.

The Plastic Challenge: In every anchorage, if we go ashore, I pick up a single plastic item and carry it back to the boat to join our trash.

Simple, huh? Not that difficult to adopt, huh? So…I double dog dare you.

The picture above is my “Copeland Island Trash”.

OK folks, the challenge is yours to accept - you know you'll feel better when you do.

Solar showers don't work so well when it is cloudy

Please welcome new contributors Devon and Rowan of s/v 'Ima Loa! Now, you have to admit that they have here an interesting alternative to the ubiquitous solar shower - one which works whether or not there is "solar".

Our shower is a 1 gallon Hudson Bugwiser sprayer. It actually holds a bit over 1.5 gallons but is marked at 1 gallon to allow room for pressurizing. It is stainless steel so it can go right on the stove for heating (with the cap/pump removed of course). It heats up quickly and provides a nice pressurized shower. If we fill it a bit past the 1 gallon mark we are both able to get a nice shower, though it needs some additional pumping to repressurize. The nozzle is adjustable which is nice, especially if you’ve overheated the water. Adjusting the nozzle to deliver a mist helps cool the water. We plan to try one of those stick-on terrarium thermometers to help us heat the water to a consistent temperature.

One note: the manufacturer has updated the product a bit and it now comes with plastic trim on the bottom. This is easily removed for use on the stove. In the stock photo above the funnel looking part is black plastic, on the sprayer currently available the plastic extends as a cap of the entire top. I don’t think it will get too hot on the stove but I removed it anyway (for purely aesthetic reasons). It was more stubborn than the bottom trim but heating it up in a hot water bath made it fairly easy to remove. We also bent the brass tubing of the wand with a tubing bender into an “almost” candycane shape to make it easier to aim the spray. The wand also has more plastic than shown in the picture above, we may order an all brass wand but the plastic one is working fine so maybe not.

Our "bugwiser" shower on the stove.

It really works great, much better than the solar showers I’ve used when camping. I plan to sew a black neoprene jacket for it to use for solar heating in the future.

Our purchase price was ~$45 on amazon.com.