Crew with a mental block

[Hasbeen]

I hate running engines unless absolutely necessary. I could go for weeks without starting one, unless I needed to drive the sewing machine for sail repairs. Thus I chose a gas fridge. A 20Lb bottle of gas would drive it for over a month, so with 3 bottles, one for cooking, I could go over 2 months between wanting to find somewhere I could get gas. These are often far apart in the islands.

Gas fridges need to sit upright to work, so I installed mine near the stove for easy gas access, & gimballed to keep it level. By accident I had installed a lovely gimballed table/work bench by the stove. It was so useful I built a heat resistant fiddled top for it.

I had been cruising many years before I met my lady. She joined me on the boat, & quickly became an extremely competent sailor. However there was one minor chore she never mastered, making coffee.

Now I had chosen a top opening fridge, as the most efficient, & with its gimballed top was the best place to make coffee, but you had to remember to get the milk out first. In 6 years, & many thousands of miles, I doubt she got this right more than a couple of dozen times. She had some kind of mental block about that fridge top.

I had to be so careful not to laugh, or even smile, when she was handing me a couple of mugs of coffee to hold, as she got the milk out. Even today, 30+ years later, I would be unwise to mention it.