Saved By the DIAPERS

What are the odds of finding punctured plastic containers in different lockers within days of each other?

All vessels have limited storage space and we feel that our s/v Exit Strategy has more than ample areas to stow items, as we have not exhausted all the available lockers and dry nooks below the floor boards.   We try to stash things in places that make it convenient to use the item. For example: our laundry products are tucked into the port side cockpit locker near the buckets and cooler that the First & Last Mate uses to occasionally hand launder items.  The Captain also keeps his BBQ utensils in that locker because it is near the grill.

So guess what happens when a pointy BBQ fork runs into a large bottle of Tide AND the Captain subsequently picks the fountaining  jug up and wonders, “What the ----?”  You are absolutely right- a puddle of liquid detergent immediately settles in the bottom of the locker!  The First Mate started to sop up the soap with items from the dirty laundry bag in an effort to not waste the soap.  BIG MISTAKE.  It took multiple rinses to get the residue out of everything.  So, OK, after hours of sloshing that got squared away with no casualties except for the First Mate getting very pruney fingers and toes.

THEN, a few days later while preparing dinner, the First Mate opened a bilge area where canned goods are stored and discovered an oily substance in and around it.  But no oil was stowed in that particular compartment, so the Captain commenced to search for the source.  (“No ----ing way this is happening!”)  He soon found a punctured gallon of 10W-30 in the locker below the sink in his bathroom that is next to the canned goods spot. Much oil had seeped into the grooves under the floor of the shower.  More oil was found in the nearby bilge areas upon lifting all the floor boards, although nothing is stored in them.  The Captain issued the perfect order- “Get the diapers!” (ES has had a stash of disposal diapers on board that were left over from a sailing trip with the grand babies.)   Diapers were shoved under the shower floor.  They were squeezed into grooves.  More were tamped into oily puddles. Then the areas were washed down with vinegar a few times, and once again ES was squeaky clean. 

As luck would have it, the First Mate had cleaned the bilge areas a week before making this clean up less of a mess.  And she is still waiting patiently for the Captain to relocate the other gallons of 10W-30 to another compartment that is self contained and convenient to the engine.