I Need manly and probably moral advice

[SkiprJohn]

Sorry for the rant but in my point of view there really is no excuse for being a wastrel regardless of your economic status and what equipment you have aboard.

Those who walk by your sink have no way of knowing how long your shower might be or how you save water in other situations they just know that you are wasting water and energy and are conscious of that fact. For those who are oblivious then you are setting a bad example.

A solution would be to take your boat off utilities at the marina and use your head and shower and shave onboard then you can use your own resources instead of wasting the marina's. That way you'd not have the problem stated in your original post and I think it was already suggested that you shave aboard.

[sabray]

Oops sorry. I was trying to cruise on 500 a month. I just use the pre warmed cream and razor for a quick shave just facial and then haul ass to the anchorage. Didn't think you would notice.
Habit has me turning off the water. Next time I'll bring a container and leave the cream in that.

[Blue Crab]

I'm surprised you bigger boat folks use the marina restrooms at all.

Why would you?

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by TacomaSailor

I am the OP and I am pretty sure I was indulging in some ironic self deprecating humor. But - as my wife of 39 years keeps telling me - my sense of humor is often:
- warped
- inappropriate
- understood only by me
- not funny

It seems that trying to make fun of myself over such an obviously silly concern as "who turns off my spigot" on this forum is:
- inappropriate
- understood only by me (and a few others here)
- not funny

My apologies to the forum - I will be careful to take my poor choices in humor elsewhere

Tacoma Sailor, When I first saw this post I was far more interested in the interaction of liveaboards sharing the bath house than conserving water. I was planning to post earlier and I had no idea that it would run over 60 reponses before I came back.

Most liveaboards have taken on the life on the boat with an increased independence and often find themselves far from others with self-reliant isolation, but ironically, they also end up sharing these faciitlies in marinas and often with people they never see.

I don't have the shaving issues (I do shave in the shower with shampoo & body soap), but I have been carrying on a long battle with someone I've never met. There is a bathing item used for scrubbing your skin that is made of a large knotted ball of nylon mesh on a short rope. I assume these are lathered and rubbed about. When I enter the shower at the marina I most frequent, there is usually one of these hanging from the shower head or faucet knob. I see it as a huge surface area for culturing bacteria and I remove it with a paper towel and place it on the window sill across the room. I also see shampoo bottles and shaving gear left about, but this big poof of body scrubing mesh always makes it's way back to the shower fixtures.

The policy of the marina is to have no personal items left in the bath house and when the staff cleans, they throw items out, but this thing comes back in a variety of pastel colors. I guess I'll start thowing it in the trash can myself and close the lid so it can't crawl back out!

Anyway, it has always seemed to be a conflict during the forty plus years that I have frequented marinas. There are often differences in what people expect to be their rights in these shared spaces. Some leave the place clean and some leave a trail of their personal stuff. I probably wouldn't mind a temporary can of shaving cream in one of several sinks, but I seem to be obsessed by these pink puffs of body scrubbing things left hanging about. ...they just give me the "willies"!

[TacomaSailor]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

I'm surprised you bigger boat folks use the marina restrooms at all.

Why would you?

Bigger boats accumulate more junk!

The dedicated forward shower is the storage area for:

- all my bicycling clothes (4 shorts - six jerseys, wind breaker...etc)
- hiking shoes and packs for wife and I
- computer parts I am not currently using

and more importantly - My wife insists that I squeegee the shower stall dry when I use it - then wipe it down with a towel. She does not like dampness in the boat. And she inspects after I shower.

Now that you ask - maybe I will move the bicycle stuff to the bicycle locker, the hiking stuff to the car and go back to showering on the boat - it would be easier than taking some of the hits I've gotten here!

[Horror Hotel]

The other day some one suggested that galaxy girl use the marina facilities instead of doing a head refit. Now that's funny. Likes she's gonna spend $500k to walk the dock to the bathroom. They obviously hadn't read her threads. I have never even heard of warm shaving cream and use salt water when needed.

[TacomaSailor]

CaptForce,
"Anyway, it has always seemed to be a conflict during the forty plus years that I have frequented marinas. There are often differences in what people expect to be their rights in these shared spaces. Some leave the place clean and some leave a trail of their personal stuff. I probably wouldn't mind a temporary can of shaving cream in one of several sinks, but I seem to be obsessed by these pink puffs of body scrubbing things left hanging about. ...they just give me the "willies"!"

Maybe we need to start a new thread here but here is my list of "creepy" items that really bother me when I find them in the shower or along the sink counter:

- large wads of used wet (with?) paper towels on the sink counter
- large wads of TP on the floor (is this just a "Mexican" thing in SoCal?)
- wadded up underwear under the shower bench seat
- old bits of soap bar in the shower soap holder
- shaved whisker remnants in the sink
- larger wads of paper towel in the shower
- large hair balls in the sink (my wife's contribution)
- toothbrushes in the shower (someone likes to use them there for what?)

and my all time favorite - which I have enjoyed twice in the last year!

- dog turds (at least I hope they were from a dog) in the shower stall

Regarding the last one - not long after I found the 2nd doggie surprise - marina management posted a sign on the shower room doors that said Dogs are to be shampooed outside - not in the shower room.

Now to give the dozen or so other liveaboards in my marina credit - most of the problems I list above only occur on busy weekends

[Mike Vogdes]

A good shipmate will leave the head clean and tidy after it's used be it onboard or shore side.

[Viking Sailor]

When I started reading this thread I was sure that I would have a few good comments to add to it. However, after read all of the posts to this point, I find myself at a loss for words. So, since it is the first day of 2014, I will just wish one and all the traditional;

Happy New Year, Peace on Earth, Good Will to ALL.

Paul

[Coops]

Capt Force. Why not take the nylon mesh thingy, tie a stick to it and use it as a toilet cleaner. Leave the evidence that it has been used as such and I bet they do not leave it again.

Coops.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Tacoma,

Originally Posted by Viking Sailor

When I started reading this thread I was sure that I would have a few good comments to add to it. However, after read all of the posts to this point, I find myself at a loss for words. So, since it is the first day of 2014, I will just wish one and all the traditional;

Happy New Year, Peace on Earth, Good Will to ALL.

Paul

I too wish you a Happy 2014. You've got a great area in which to sail. The best of luck to you.

[Starbuck]

Tacoma, I, for one, perceived your nuanced humor right off, so you can take comfort in the idea that at least someone got it.

As payment for your self-deprecating humor, you have been charged with the following crimes:

• "hogging" a sink in a multiple-sink bathroom while you shower
• wasting water in a desert
• daring to want to shave with warm water
• lying about posting in a humorous vein
• possibly being an internet troll
• not being a real man because you shave your face
• (possibly, we're not quite sure, but we're watching you!) contributing to global warming

Cruising Boats, Cruising People, Cruising Answers
Way to go, Cruiser's Forum. This is the warmest, most inviting place on the Internet. (That was sarcasm, for those of you who seem to have difficulty perceiving such).

No doubt there will ensue sentiments of "Oh, we were merely kidding around. It wasn't mean-spirited; it was all in fun. Can't you take a joke," etc.

Notice they all shut down when you revealed you were no ignorant to be beaten about the head and easily shamed, but had considerable practical knowledge of the issue, and then began communicating with you in a noticeably conciliatory manner. So it always goes.

Now that you have endured the knee-jerk responses of the environmentalists, and have been charged, judged guilty and sentenced to the public humiliation of having your personal property confiscated and thrown into the toilet as a a proper sneering disgust for using 2 quarts of (gasp! hot!) water, and publicly humiliated by being the subject of a parodied image of you running around the parking lot naked to suggest that you are ridiculous, we might now be able to get on to offering some useful feedback.

I'll assume that what you mean by "manual 2-blade safety razor" is an actual double-edged safety razor, and not a two-blade disposable-cartridge system. I can see there are other traditional wet shavers responding in this thread, such as Ann T Cate, but here are my bona fides. I've been traditional wet-shaving for two years. My current set-up:

• 1950s-era Gillette Super-Speed Red Tip twist-to-open (TTO) double-edged safety razor
• ca. 1960 Schick Hydro-magic Golden 500 injector safety razor
• boar hair shaving brush for face-lathering; badger brush for mug-lathering
• hard-puck shaving soaps & shaving soap sticks

If your brush is soft, instead of stiff, I think it must be made of badger hair. I've never heard of a sable brush.

I fear your shave prep. will continue to be short-circuited by well-meaning intruders, even if you tape a note on the mirror over your sink. Your best bet, as has already been offered, is to bring a container to set in the sink to pre-heat your equipment. Then, you can run hot water into the container, leave your brush to soften and your cream to warm, and adjust the temperature to suit you when you return to shave.

Don't let the environmental police tell you how many ounces the container must be limited to. You are a man, and can make that decision for yourself.
(For those of you who have already demonstrated a dim sense for humor, and are feeling vaguely insulted, imagine a funny emoticon, animated if you fancy, inserted here).

There is one substantial change in your personal routine I might suggest. You are using canned shave cream now, but trying to pre-heat the cream inside the can is inefficient. Since you are already using a brush, you might find that using either a shave cream in a tube or small screw-lid jar, or a puck of shave soap in a ceramic mug completes your wet-shaving experience. After all, the brush is made to work up a lather, not merely apply the lather to your face. There are literally hundreds to choose from, in a wide range of scents/fomulas.

You can easily pre-heat a tube/small jar of cream, or a mug with a soap puck, in the container of hot water that your brush is softening in, and it will be all ready for you when you walk up to the sink. As a matter of fact, the container will help keep your lather warm as you shave if you leave the mug & brush sitting in it.

I have found this community immensely helpful:
Badger & Blade Discussion Forums

Good luck, and smooth shaving,
Jeff

[SimonV]

Marinas toilet blocks seem to be fine during week days but come the weekend when the non livaboards come down, well that another crap shoot. Doors that are normaly kept locked seem to be perminantly propped open and by midday turn into a bio hazard zone. Do people treat their home toilets and showers in the same manner as when at the marinas. Maybe the weekend worriors are a different species, having an a$$ hole half way up their backs, and what about the tp torn and strewn all over the floor with god knows what else. I feel sorry for the cleaners who should be just cleaning the ablutions block, not planning a Hazmat exercise.

[JPA Cate]

If each of us leaves at least as clean as we found it, if not cleaner, there's less mess!

For a while last year I worked out in a gym, which had 2 pools, 3 spas, and 2 saunas. Eventually, I discovered who left the ladies' showers in the worst hash were teenage and young females, who seemed to think they were not responsible to clean up after themselves.

This occurred in Livermore, Ca., in the US.

What a shame!

Ann

[bletso]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

I'm surprised you bigger boat folks use the marina restrooms at all.

Why would you?

That's an easy one. They don't want to have to get underway to go to the pump out facility and take on water. They don't carry enough water hot or cold to take those 20-30 minute showers.

I have found that there really are pigs around in shared facilities. One has to wonder how they were brought up. They definitely seem to have a lack of respect for the common good, but are very self absorbed and no one else exists.