Clothespin Reminders

This is about as low tech as it gets on two accounts. Clothespins and my brain. They say that the secret to a happy marriage is a bad memory. I’ve been happily married 42 years now. I’ve had a bad memory as far back as I can remember, so I now use clothespins to remind myself of things on the boat.

I use one to remind myself that the breaker to the windlass is on. On my boat, the switch and little red reminder light are hard to see unless you happen to be looking under the nav table where the breaker is located. You have to rely on your memory, so in this picture you see what I do. I have a Windlass clothespin that is on the engine kill knob to remind me to turn off the breaker when I turn off the engine. If you want to know why it is so important to turn off this breaker read my story entitled “Windlass to Boatless” under the sailing wisdom tab on this website.

Sometimes I turn the refrigerator way up when we are motoring. I use a clothespin for this too. When I see the clothespin it reminds me of what I’m supposed to do when we anchor. It’s a reminder to turn the fridge back to the normal setting.

Once our propane solenoid indicating light quit working. We resorted to using a clothespin for this until I got it replaced. The clothespin went on the railing of the stove.

I use a “red” clothespin to remind the helmsman which side to keep the red markers on when going down a channel. We clip it to the wheel.

If there is something else that I don’t want to forget about I have a clothespin that says “HEY” (you dummy). Now if I can just remember what it’s there for? This can explain why I have this flat spot on my forehead.