How to halt the flight of wet bath towels
Issue 62 : Sept/Oct 2008
As experience has taught many of us, a head is not the best environment for a wet towel. Because we live aboard, our family of five is in the habit of hanging bath towels on the lifelines to dry before returning them to the head. Using several clothespins and a few tricks (such as pinning the forward halves together under the lifelines) has prevented the loss of towels overboard for many years.
A few months ago, however, our luck ran out. Whether due to unusual tidal and wind conditions or inattentiveness, one of our sons lost three towels overboard in as many weeks. Something had to change. Because we bucket-wash laundry, we are familiar with the best ways to keep clothes on lifelines — using any tie, zip, buckle, or snap available, in addition to clothespins.
So when my husband, Dave, suggested we use the same method with the towels, I decided to try it. I sewed a 3-inch piece of string in the middle of both short ends of our bath towels so that — when they are draped over the lifelines — each end can be clove-hitched. We still use clothespins, but several times when I have gone to remove towels from the line, I’ve discovered that all the clothespins were gone and the towel was held on solely by the clove-hitched strings.
This is just another improvement to life aboard that took us years to realize we needed and only minutes to implement . . . even though it was a few weeks too late.
Connie McBride left Kent Island, Maryland, in June 2002 with her husband and three sons. Aboard their 34-foot Creekmore, Eurisko, they cruised the U.S. East Coast and are now sailing onward to yet-to-be-determined destinations.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
