People have been asking me what having a baby on the boat is like. Laundry. Lots of laundry.

My hands hurt from wringing out a dozen cloth diapers many times.

I would imagine that it’s a lot like having a new baby in a house. One person is tending to the baby when he’s awake. The other is doing laundry nearly daily as well as and cooking and cleaning and traveling 30-45 minutes to get groceries.

Except that all the laundry is in buckets on the deck and there’s a limited amount of water, and the watermaker is running twice as often as it used to. With that, the power budget is a bit more delicately balanced as many days we don’t get up to a full charge.

But it’s great. Nap time precludes any noisy activities, so much of the boat related to do list has been deferred. Nearly all of it, in fact.

We’ve fallen into a nice routine. I wake up when he does, between 5:00 and 5:30. We go into the salon where we play a bit while Margot grasps to sleep the best she can. Sometimes he takes a bottle. Sometimes I get him back to sleep.

When Margot wakes and Remy is fed we play cribbage and drink our coffee. I make breakfast and we start our day. In the evening, just before sunset we go onto the bow and watch it. Then Margot goes below and sets the mood of the bedroom before we bring Remy down. Fresh diaper and pajamas and usually a story as he’s put down to sleep.

We haven’t traveled very far. We will learn a lot on our next passage.