The Laundry Afloat series traces the timeline of laundry routines on SV Aphrodite. Like other story arcs, I will provide continuity at the end of each of the seven posts. If you prefer to skip ahead and read only about how we refit our catamaran for a washing machine, there is a shortcut link below. Presenting the blog posts in sequence allows me to provide the bigger picture of how and why our processes and gear have evolved in the 10 years we’ve been sailing.

SV Aphrodite’s Laundry Story in Summation

We are a family of six. Our kids are now 19, 17 and we have 14-year old twins. But when we first moved aboard, my kids were young enough that I was carrying cloth diapers as a safety net to prevent nighttime accidents. Someone once told me it would be “no problem”, we’d just be wringing out bathing suits in our sink. But our experience has been quite different.

How Our Laundry Story Has Changed…

• 2015: Transitioning from Land

  We spend a month living in a tent in Ottawa – in a kind of limbo land between our house and our catamaran – and I begin to question: “How will we manage laundry afloat?”

• 2015–2018: Three Years of Hand Washing

  We decide to hand-wash our laundry. We are not sure where to put a washing machine and we think it will be simpler without one.

• 2018–2021: Splendide Washer/Dryer

  The addition of a Splendide washer/dryer is met with excitement, and we retrofit our boat to accommodate it. Then, it catastrophically fails. The inner drum becomes a fire pit.

• 2021–2023: Miele W1 washing machine

  After the quality issues with the Splendide, we buy a Miele. In 2023, Dr. Markus Miele personally intervenes to resolve a service issue that we encountered in New Zealand. The machine continues to work perfectly.

👉 Go to the First blog post in the Laundry Afloat Timeline Series

To skip ahead to the post where we refit our St. Francis 50 for a washing machine, start here.