Have a Bubbly New Year!

Many sailors tend to stick to one or two dishwashing liquids because both brands will “suds” well in salt water.  The brands are also supposedly kinder to the environment.   On Imagine we’ve used both the yellow and the blue brands, but prefer blue, because, well, it is one of my favorite colors.

Not only do we use it for washing dishes, but also for making foaming hand soap.  A good squirt of detergent in a recycled foaming hand soap bottle and topped off with water makes an easy inexpensive substitute.  On laundry day grease stains on clothes get a small dab on the offending spot.  It does certainly break down the grease.

If you haven’t already guessed, I accidently discovered that the blue goo is champion at making bubbles.  On Imagine we store a good portion of our household products. It’s cheaper to bring them along than to purchase items on an island nation.

Each year we carefully stow two three-quart refill bottles of dish soap.   Believe me when I say that heavy plastic bottles full of liquid can chafe and rub in rolling seas.

Two years ago the bilge received an instant scrub when a gallon bottle of greased lightening chaffed through and leaked into the bilge.  Bubble wrap and rubber floor matting thereafter became our friend.  Problem solved… or not. 

Imagine left Marathon in late November and headed to the Bahamas with all items secure and battened down.  Bungee cords wrapped snake-like around provisions stored in large plastic containers layered in a once empty quarter-berth.   Foam beverage can insulators separated dishes that might slide and bang in the cabinets. 

All cabinet doors were secured to ensure one didn’t open underway and spill the contents.   I only needed one experience with cans exploding from a their storage area and rolling around the cabin sole as the boat rocked violently back and forth on a beam reach in seven foot seas.  Picking the cans up resulted in bruises and a bump on the head as the seas bounced me back and forth below decks.  

That brings us back to the bubbles.  Who would have dreamed that a bottle of dish soap encased in bubble wrap, and cushioned with a storm sail, could actually crack when an equally wrapped quart bottle of honey squashed a bottom corner of the soap bottle?

At the time Imagine was plowing into five to seven foot seas. Waves easily lifted the boat. Imagine would do its nautical version of a cannon ball dive, spraying water over the decks and into the cockpit.

After all this time sailing, why am I not surprised that weather predictions and wind patterns seldom coincide with a perfect sailing window.

For 225 miles, with the wind on the nose, Imagine bucked forward and aft.  Nearing the end of our 31-hour odyssey, Ed pops up from below holding a blue goo covered finger.  “Do you think this is dish soap?” he asked.   “Sure does captain,” I reply. 

The trail of blue ooze grew wider and longer as the motion of the boat pushed it out from the aft storage area of the V-berth.   While I vaguely remembered the location of the bottle, I also remembered that all of our spare toilet paper (an important boat commodity) was hidden away in the bottom of the locker.  I pictured heavily soaked blue rolls.

Discovery would wait.  First Imagine docked at Nassau Yacht Haven under a yellow quarantine flag.  All on board were required to remain on the boat until both customs and immigration officials arrived to grant Imagine and crew access to the Bahamas.  After checking in at the marina office, I decided to take the “bubbles” by the horns.

Propping up the queen-sized V-berth mattress, I lifted the cover board and began to slowly unpack sugar, crackers, chocolate bars, snacks, oatmeal, flags, canned goods, paper products and the all-important toilet paper.  Yes! The blue goo had not contaminated any of our supplies.  As I lift the bottle from its’ nest I notice an indented tear at the bottom of the bottle.  

Most of the blue goo collected under a rubber grate at the bottom of the locker.   The sail bag for the storm trysail and the sail inside had soaked up some of the mess.  A miniature dustpan and brush allowed for a quicker clean up and I was able to save a good quart of goo.

My first bubble mistake was rinsing detergent soaked sponges in the sink.  Bubbles filled the sink and the sponges would not rinse.  I dumped a dishpan of soapy water down the head and watched as bubbles filled the toilet bowl.  That was my second bubble mistake.  Bubbles rose out of the bowl and floated into the shower each time I pumped the toilet.

In the harbor, bubbles that went down the drain popped up under the boat and floated away as I continued to sop up the mess.  Oil spill rags came to the rescue and absorbed the remaining blue residue.

I took the sail into the shower and began spraying the sail and sail bag.  Holding a sail is akin to grabbing onto an icy surface.  Aw I wrestled the sail, the shower stall filled with bubbles that build up faster than they could escape through the shower grate. 

At that point I shrugged and began to laugh. I hadn’t seen so many bubbles since the time someone (whom I won’t mention here) decided to use regular dish soap in a dishwasher.   Parts of the kitchen were waist high in bubbles on that memorable day.

The blue soap maker boasts that is the number one brand used to clean spilled oil from the feathers and fur of sea dwelling creatures that get caught in another kind of goo that is black and is too often spilled from rigs and ships.  It is also champion at bubble making. 

Just in case you feel like kicking up your heel and creating some bubbles of your own, bubbles.org, says that the blue goo makes great giant bubbles found in bubble makers at children’s museums.  The recipe follows: use ½ cup blue goo, ½ gallon of warm water and one tablespoon of Karo syrup.  Stir gently.  Remove the foam as the foam can break down bubbles.   Find your favorite bubble-making wand and go to town.

And for those of you who are more practical, and not into bubbles, the goo makes a great alternative to using salt to melt ice on sidewalks.  Mix 1 teaspoon of blue goo, 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol, one ½ gallon warm water and pour over walks and steps.  This remedy is supposed to keep the ice from refreezing.

From Imagine and crew, we wish all a bubbly New Year filled with the all the best it has to offer.