Clothes Washer

The correct name for this is “The Breathing Mobile Washer”. You may have seen one of these around the docks. My friend Becky De told me about this. It is an improvement over the plumbers toilet plunger. It is designed to really move the water around and agitate as well as a real washing machine. It really works well, for doing just a few pieces of clothing at a time. You can watch the testimonials on YouTube.

It’s made to use in a 5 gallon bucket that is half full of water. So you’re talking 5 gallons to do 2 washes and rinses before having to change the water. If you are paying $.35 a gallon in the Bahamas for water, this really isn’t much better than paying $3.50 for a regular washing machine.

However, if you have free water, or can catch water, you’re way ahead. See my posts about “scupper blockers” and about “the best bucket” for catching rain water. Before a big rain, I will clean out the dinghy and use it to catch rain too. In a good rain, the dinghy will have about 4 inches of clean water in it, plus, I’ve probably been able to catch several, maybe 10 buckets of water once the decks have been thoroughly rinsed off. I use the dinghy for a “final rinse”. I do the wash up in the cockpit, and after the first rinse and wring, I toss the item into the dink to be wrung out after the rain stops. I change my wash water several times.

Here’s a clue though, don’t make a silly mistake like I did. I knew we were going to have rainy weather for a day or two and I got right on it, and caught plenty of water. I did the wash on the first day, rung out the clothes, and hung them on the life lines to dry. When it started to rain again, I strung lines throughout the interior of the boat and hung the clothes there. It continued to rain for three days! On the third day the clothes were still as damp as the first day, and the boat looked like a Chinese laundry until the sun finally came out the 4th day. It was kinda funny having all our clothes strung all over the place, but next time, I think I’d look for a shorter weather window to do the wash.

This breaks down too for easy storage and cleaning.

I found it on Amazon. You can also find these at camping stores, and from John and Libby at svhotwire.com