If you’re still not convinced of the primitive existence aboard Sampaguita, here’s another video to swallow. When I arrived in Mexico, I decided I was uncomfortable with the water level in the sink. Sampaguita was so loaded up (read as overloaded) that the waterline was into the sink. Add any heel to port and it just increased. I was concerned about corrosion of the sink, and more importantly, corrosion of the thru-hull. With the stainless steel sink and the bronze thru-hull not playing nice together, someone’s going to lose. That someone was going to include me, regardless.

So I closed the thru-hull and soaked up some of the water and put a plug into the drain. Ya know, like the one you put in your tub at home. The sink then became a convenient holding basin which you can see in various other videos.

This means I have been doing the dishes in the cockpit since early November, 2023. Access to salt water has been easy and the saving of fresh water increased. Sampaguita doesn’t have a salt water pump for the sink, so the added fresh water savings has been a plus. A salt water pump would have meant another hole in the boat and since she has no other creature comforts that ALL cruisers seem to have, there was no point in making a big deal about it. And I closed it off anyway in the end, right? It would have been a big to-do about nothing. There have been a few of those.

With Sampaguita‘s low freeboard of 18 inches on a static waterline, (so with the rolling, varying between 6 and 30 inches,) you just reach over and scoop up salt water. Not a challenge at all. No need to use a bucket with a line. No dangerous reaching. Just wait for the roll to the side your on and take as much as you can! It’s a little like a pressure wash too. And no sharks have bitten off my hand. Yet.

So, this video is essentially a joke about that, and my foolish aquatic existence. I hope you have a good laugh, even if it’s a nervous one.