(This post was drafted on December 18. Clearly it’s not December 18 any longer. Still worth posting)

There’s not any kind of an update on our Bahamas cruise, mostly because we have not moved in the last week. There’s been a massive combination of weather systems (perhaps you have dealt with it too? High winds, rain, thunderstorms, snow?) that had us facing sustained high winds for almost a week. We actually took a slip in the marina here for the worst of it, which if you know us at all is almost unheard of. The kids fly into Marsh Harbour (about 15 miles south of us) later this week; if we cannot get the boat down there due to impassable conditions, at least they can get to us via a taxi and ferry ride. Hopefully next week we’ll be somewhere else in the Bahamas other than Green Turtle Cay!)

We had a “give a mouse a cookie” boat project experience last week. Okay, they’re often all like that. But still. (If you’re not familiar with this children’s book series by Laura Numeroff, it’s worth a find. It’s a delightful, whimsically illustrated, delve into how rabbit holes of experiences lead to other ones.)

One of the odder things we grapple with on Mischief is just how different she is than Calypso. Especially the storage spaces. When I first provisioned the boat, I started stowing things in the main salon exactly the way I’ve done for decades on Calypso. Starboard settee is easiest access for most items, followed by the aft port side. The general idea is cans go starboard aft, pasta and beans starboard middle, teas and hot chocolate starboard forward . . . wait a second. 

First of all, there are only 2 openings on each side under the settee, not three. Second, the starboard side settee is far far narrower than on Calypso. Third? The starboard cushion disappears into the footwell, where I stash stow excess bedding. Getting at the forward end is not exactly simple.

But I didn’t have time to properly think about the storage, instead opting to generally categorize and essentially shove items into any place they’d fit. This meant that retrieving ingredients depended on my memory to supplement the hastily scribbled inventory list in my notebook rather than my deep-seated muscle memory. Over the past month, though, I’ve spent a lot of time contemplating storage and rating each locker as to ease of access; ideally, items we use frequently are in the easiest spots to get at. Once I had this all figured out, the next challenge would be to empty out all the lockers to re-stash according to the new, Mischief-centered plan.

Cue running the grounding strap for our SSB. 

HUH?

Remember how I said we’d been stuck at Green Turtle Cay for what feels like a milennia due to high winds? Part of our preparation for that weather was digging out the secondary anchor and rode, to set a second anchor to help hold us in place. The secondary rode was buried in the lazarette, requiring a complete emptying of THAT storage space to access. 

Since we had to empty the lazarette anyway, might as well run the copper grounding strap for the SSB radio, so we could use it to get weather reports via email. 

And the copper strap then needed to be run through the engine space, along the water tank, up into the locker under the sink, and into the port side settee storage spaces.

So at least half the provisions in the port side settee would have to come out.

Perfect timing to take care of the re-store project.

Give a mouse a cookie indeed.

Thank god we remembered to take out the secondary anchor rode!